Learning to paint with acrylics

[38Super]

I'm brand new to airbrushing having bought my first airbrush Friday afternoon and using it for the first time today. I'm using an Iwata HP-C and spraying cheap Walmart craft acrylic paints thinned with water (my wife has about 175 small bottles of the stuff).

I spent a couple of hours today on basic dots and lines. The HP-C was purchased used and wasn't the cleanest in the world - fairly frustrating until I finally decided that I couldn't make it any worse and took it apart and cleaned it.

I have a few questions. Am I making things more difficult to learn by my choice of paints? Is ordinary tap water the best thing to use as a thinner (I've seen some threads suggesting automotive windshield washer fluid and/or alcohol)? How do I tell the proper pressure to run to the brush?

One more thing - as I said, I purchased the HP-C used. The previous owner didn't have whatever documentation that came with the airbrush. Can anyone tell me where I can get the paperwork that was shipped with these brushes? Can anyone scan a copy and email it to me?

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Cal
Windham, ME

[redanner]

For the paper work I would try online at Iwata site. As far as the paint you are using if works great! I would buy better acrylics if you do something for cash just so the piece will last as long as possible! The acrylics you are practicing with may cause dry-tip on the needle point! There are on number of things you can use to fix that! Denatured alcohol is one, Glycerin you can get over the counter in any pharmacy, Also vinegar which I have never tried! You can get actual retarder through a number of product names! If you use any of the above only use 1 or 2 drops or your paint will dry slow or not at all. I'm a diabetic and was storing acrylics with denatured alcohol in the paint in my empty sugar test strips containers which are air tight. I opened one and when I did it blew up everywhere from the pressure building up from the denatured alcohol evaporation! I had a mess to clean up! It was during the summer and probably had to much alcohol in the paint!

[colourshift]

I would never use alcohol to thin acrylic, or glycerine, vinegar? oh please. Water, which is what you've been using, is your best bet.

There isn't much sent with Iwata airbrushes, or spray guns. Just a little tech sheet and a test spray pattern showing a hairline swirl. Trust me, you're not missing much. If you have questions about the gun, etc...two no, three sources you can seek out...one here on the Forum, there's a section that the Iwata tech follows...you can ask a question here, and she'll get back to you as quickly as she can. Two: you can contact Iwata-Medea directly through their site. Three: contact Dave Monnig at coastairbrush.com - he's one of the most knowledgable guys out there in the industry.

To clean your airbrush, bear in mind that you don't know what kinda paint this other dude was using...I'd try paint thinner first (hopefully this brush is a fairly new one and has teflon packing, and not the old rubber o-rings). The thinner will take out and off any kinda paint, including acrylics.
An alternative, if you're sure it was just acrylics that ran through the gun...would be an ammonia based cleaning product. Windex, Fantastic, etc.

The safest of all of em, both for your airbrush and YOU would be Createx's airbrush restorer...you can soak your airbrush parts in there with no fear of it eating anything it's not supposed to...including your chrome.

I'm a long time Iwata user, and an airbrusher for about 15 years. Just to give you an idea that I do know what I'm talkin about.

As far as tip dry, we'll get into that when you get some more hours under your belt. There are easy solutions that are tried and true via professional artists.

Good luck.

[redanner]

Cal Lynne is right about thinning the paint with water but make sure it is distilled or purified water!

[colourshift]

Bottled water, tap water...doesn't make any difference at all. Not with anything I've ever rendered in a water based media. That would include watercolours, gouache, & acrylics (both airbrush and hairy brush).

Perhaps if one was trying to attain some sort of archival level of paint purity, that we wanted it to remain for the next 100 years...which ISN'T what this thread was about. Someone just wants to practice. Wants to know what the best thing to thin paint with, that's economical.

[redanner]

Bottled water, tap water...doesn't make any difference at all. Not with anything I've ever rendered in a water based media. That would include watercolours, gouache, & acrylics (both airbrush and hairy brush).

Perhaps if one was trying to attain some sort of archival level of paint purity, that we wanted it to remain for the next 100 years...which ISN'T what this thread was about. Someone just wants to practice. Wants to know what the best thing to thin paint with, that's economical.

Yes I know Lynne the only info that I have given him has come from various people in this forum! And yes I realized he is just practicing that is why I gave it to him. The only thing tap water can do is leave lime deposits in your airbrush after long periods of use. Maybe you have lime free from natural springs water but I don't and most other people don't! I think you and I should stop confusing this person and stop high jacking his thread! So all is said from!

[fontgeek]

I would avoid using any ammonia based products in your airbrush, ammonia corrodes brass, which is what your airbrush is made of. Stick with water, or airbrush cleaners that are as mild as you can get away with. The HP C uses rubber seals and packing, often times the detergents in household cleaners can make the seals or packing dry or brittle with prolonged use, and you don't know what kind of residue they will leave, or how that will react with the paint you use.
Never submerge your airbrush, the trigger area, the air valve, and handle area were never meant to be exposed to the paint, solvents or debris, when you submerge your brush, you can float all kinds of crap into areas that are a major pain to clean out, and contamination of those areas may cause you to have to purchase new ones if you can't clean out the existing ones.

Unless you have really bad water in your area, straight tap water should be fine for thinning your paint. Good quality paint can make a big difference in your learning experience with the airbrush, having to fight your paint while you are trying to learn the ropes with your airbrush is not something you should do if you have the choice. As Redanner said though, if it is working ok for you, then you will probably be ok. My reccomendation to my students is to learn using black paint, I use and reccomend Golden Airbrush Colors, Carbon Black, but there are other good brands out there too. I also like Comart for most of their colors, though the viscosity and colors seem to fluctuate a bit from batch to batch.

[colourshift]

Fongeek, the OLD HP-C's use rubber seals and packing...to the best of my knowledge - most Iwata's now have teflon packing. It's one of their "selling points".
And I agree and am aware of the effects of ammonia based products on chrome and brass. In other words, can't soak em in it, as you end up stripping the chrome, and affecting the brass.

Soaking your brush...well, I can see where a rookie would have an issue with that, not knowing what to clean and or tear down. Having three HP-C's, a couple of Eclipses, and a Micron... I can tell you that sometimes, soaking the business end of the airbrush is the only way to move paint you didn't know you had in there. I agree, again, that an ammonia based product isn't the way to go, which is why I mentioned Createx's Airbrush restorer. I only use a 50/50 mix of fantastic and water in a squirt bottle to flush the brush of AutoAir for in between colour changes.

One last point, and I'll be quiet...sometimes, with wear and tear, you'll get blow back into the trigger area - either from backflushing, or just general use with an o-ring that isn't tight enough. There, my friend, you have to clean the whole enchilada.

[fontgeek]

Remember that this person bought this airbrush used, so we don't know if it is a new or old version of the HP C. I have 18 or 19 of the old versions I use for most of my classes, and like others who have been at this a while, I try to keep my tools in good shape for as long as I can (I'm cheap that way. LOL).

I don't argue with the soaking the front end, but we need to remember that we are talking to a newbie, so when you say "soak your airbrush", I can see a lot of people taking this to mean soaking the whole airbrush/submerging.

If you do get paint into the trigger well, you can usually spray your solvent into the well while holding the brush upside down over a bowl or container, this lets the solvent and debris drip out of your brush rather than deeper into areas it shouldn't be exposed to to start with. You can use a brush to scrub those areas, and then give the area a good rinse, again, with the brush upside down.
If you do have a seal/packing/needle bearing leak, then it is time to tighten it up, or replace it, so this whole operation should be really rare.

For the few times you would actually need to submerge your airbrush, there are things that need to be done before it goes into the tub. But submerging your entire brush should be reserved for only the most extreme cases of contamination.
If you do have to submerge your brush, then you should remove the air valve, and trigger assembly wherever possible. This keeps your air valve from being exposed to the solvents or the debris that comes loose from the solvents. Getting the trigger assembly out of the brush also helps break the bonds of the paint, and gives you easier access to the areas for scrubbing. You could put the handle and rear assembly in a container of solvent to let them soak if they are contaminated with paint. What ever method you use, the brush and parts need to be rinsed clean from the paint and the solvents.

I am a firm believer in using as mild a solvent as possible, regardless of the type of paint or finish used in the brush. The milder the solvent, the easier it is on your brush and on you and your/our environment. I worry about using detergents and such on brushes because we don't really know the long term effects on the brush or on us when those same cleaners are atomized into the air we breath. Work your way from the mildest solvent to the harsher more dangerous types until you find the solvent that takes care of your needs for that particular cleaning job, and always finish your cleaning with a good rinsing using clean water, maybe chased by alcohol.

There was a thread on another forum where people started talking about the sue of Fantastic as a cleaner and or reducer for paint, but as the thread went on, people started showing their brushes and the problems that occured when using the Fantastic, because of that, I try to avoid using anything that I don't know what the long term effects on the brush and and paints will be.

All this stuff is probably way more than the thread starter wanted to know from their original question, but it is better to start good cleaning and spraying habits early.
Good luck, and welcome to the zoo!

[colourshift]

All good points fontgeek...and certainly more than what this guy initially asked. (poor sod)

I was one of those that had heard about using the fantastic mix from Cross-Eyed (personally), and yup...made the mistake of using it as an all around cleaner (soaking the cup area) - voila, missing chrome. Now I just use it sparingly to flush the brush, and rinse well with water afterwards (both delivered in a squirt bottle, seems to move the paint a bit quicker - that jet of water really helps).

But I really like using Createx's Restorer, or, if you can find it - EZ Air's Intense cleaner...(their oil brush cleaner is virtually the same, so says EZ air when I wrote to em complaining that I can't find the product) Both are non toxic, and haven't (in 5 years) hurt my airbrushes in any way. But even that stuff has trouble moving gunky AutoAir buildup.... Lol, maybe I should of just stuck with ComArt and Goldens.

[fontgeek]

EZ Airbrush Cleaner, Brush Cleaner, Invisable Gloves, etc., I love them and us them all the time, I also found Brush Flush and am trying that out too.

All this stuff is good for people to know, new and old. When I first picked up an airbrush (1973), I had an art teacher who knew the basics on how to paint, but that was about it, and the photoretouch world, and van painters wouldn't help you learn if your life depended on it. I wish we had the forums and such back then, it would have saved years of struggle and waste, and probably tons of airbrushes too. I will make a suggestion that doesn't get told much, and that is give the exterior of your brush a good wax job a couple of times a year. A good auto wax will keep it real easy to keep clean, and it will also help protect the finish (chrome, enamel, etc.) from bumps and abuse. I wouldn't wax the interior of the reservoir though, it is too easy to leave wax behind and contaminate your paint.

[colourshift]

Good point about waxing the outside, I hadn't even thought of that.

Something Saint told me... using 2500 grit to "polish" your needle (takes down any machining burrs) and using a high quality metal polish on your needle afterwards...supposedly improves paint atomization, and helps out a little but with tip dry.

[38Super]

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I made a trip to the local Michael's Craft store and bought a few bottles of Createx in both the opaque and transparent offerings. I still added a few drops of water as the consistency seemed a little on the heavy side if "milk" is the consistency I should be looking for.

Anyway - the difference between Createx and the Wally World generic acrylics I was trying to use is incredible. I would have been fighting with that junk forever thinking that I just couldn't get the hang of operating an airbrush trigger. I've been running about 30 PSI. Is that in the ballpark?

As for cleaning - I've been flushing with water and/or alcohol and blocking the tip with my finger on and off to get some back flow back into the cup. The alcohol is nothing special, the same 91% isopropyl I use for cleaning my telescope optics.

How do I tell if it's an "old style" rubber o-ring model?

Again, thanks for the help. I spent the last hour making dots and drawing lines between them and, as mind-numbing as that may sound - had fun doing it.

Cal

[colourshift]

Hey Cal...I'm so glad you're having fun with this. I know it's a lot at first...but jumping right in and learning as you go is the best way. We all made mistakes...no, we all STILL make mistakes...but as you get good with it, you learn how to fix em. (an instructor once told me "short of setting your piece on fire, we can fix it" and I can't tell you how many times I've heard his voice in my head when I was ready to throw in the towel)

As far as how to tell, I'm gonna ask Fontgeek to field that question. I'm fortunate not to have had to change out all the o-rings in my airbrushes...yet. So I'd be curious what he has to say about it.

With Createx, I know the t-shirt guys (Mickey Harris, Terry Hill, & Kent Lind) go as high as 60 psi to spray that goo through an airbrush. If you thin it down with water, as you've been doing...yup, you can go with a lower air pressure. (it's all about the viscosity of paint vs. psi, my friend - the thinner the paint, the lower the psi, - as a general rule)