You'd get better results if you first mixed the art paint 1:1 with something like " Liquitex Air brush medium" , then used a proper reducer to thin as you like. It has a pigment binder in it. so it doesn't wash out the pigment I have no problem using it on canvas and polystyrene sheet and synthetic paper. the airbrush medium by liquitex is made for turning heavier acrylics into airbrush paint. the 1:1 ratio pre reducer is a little thick still for my liking. I get good enough results for practise without wasting more expensive paints.
I agree. Learned it late in the game, but Liquitex Airbrush Medium beats the snot out of any alcohol, Windex, or the like for Water based acrylics. Sucks that my main supplier, Testors, is out of business, just as I discovered how well it works with Acryl
Well........ Liquitex airbrush medium is just a type of acrylic polyurethane just like Createx 4030 MinWax polycrylic, or even plain ole Future floor wax. Sense Future floor wax is so thin you can use just that to thin thick art paints and craft paints. In a pinch I've used Future floor wax and acrylic paint as a primer/base coat and it works great.
@@BennyCFD It's not exactly the same. I don't know the exact differences but I have used all of the products you mentioned. I have all of them in my paint cabinet. Just spraying each of them plain out of an airbrush will show you that they all behave a little differently. Personally, I found(after much struggling over the last few years) that airbrush medium and homemade reducer(water, alcohol, acrylic flow release) works fantastically well to get any acrylic paint, tube, airbrush, or otherwise, to behave through an airbrush.
So I'm new to the whole airbrush thing, I'm cheap but I basically just use Walmart waterbased acrylic mixed with a water and fantastic multipurpose cleaner at a 3:1 ratio, now I'm not making badass art like this channel has, I'm just painting fishing lures and it seems to work decent. As long as I pre mix the paint before putting it in the cup, otherwise it kinda globs up, hopefully I'll get some createx or trident paints in the near future but until then this works for me :) P.s. This channel is really awesome, lots of good tips and great art. So glad I found it!!
Thank you so much for your comment and kind words, cheap paint will work and again if too thick mix it to a milky consistency …that said it won’t perform as well as specific airbrushing paints, you won’t know yourself if you end up going with Createx or Trident , all the best and thanks again for your comment 👍🏻
Hey Trevor does the Walmart paint stay on fabric or wash off ? I want to make two beach towels for my kids waiting on my airbrush equipment in the mail currently ! Havnt purchased paint yet
@@teamnation5452 honestly I couldn't tell you :( I haven't tested it on fabric at all, I'm just painting my 3d printed fishing lures lol, umm I'm sure if you did some googling there will be a forum discussion on it somewheres haha, next time you're in Walmart look at the brands of paint and Google from there :)
Floetrol works very well when used in acrylic pours on canvas. Depending on the project, I can mix all different acrylics to a “warm honey” consistency (sometimes a bit thinner or thicker) which gives consistent results. My basic ratio is 5:2:1 which consists of Floetrol: Acrylic Paint: Gloss Medium.
Great video. Thanks for taking the time to do a test. Like others noted here, using Fantastik with cheap acrylic paints works great. It's better than ammonia-free window cleaner and much better than diluting with just water. I can get fine lines with no blurring even though the molecules are bigger with acrylic paints vs airbrush paint. Sure, my Createx Illustration paints combined with Createx 4012 reducer works the best, but it's significantly more expensive. I airbrush backgrounds so it requires a lot of pigment to cover an entire area, so I'll use cheaper acrylic and Fantastik in that case.
answer is it depends on your airbrush nozzle/needle size and the pigment in the paint. I have had no issues spraying low end craft acrylics through a 0.5 nozzle, but you really start noticing a difference at like .35 or lower. Where the lower quality pigments will start to clog regardless of thinners.
If you want to use artist paints (Golden, Liquitex and Vallejo) and you're not using their thinnest variety (Golden High Flow, Vallejo Model Air) thin it with Airbrush Medium - it works far better than water and allows you to thin the paint down a great deal.
I use reducer as well, one other thing to add into the paint though is some polyurethane additive like Createx's 4030 or Mission Models polyurethane additive. It just adds more to the overall proper flow of the paint and helps with the breakup. Just something I found using acrylic artist paint from tubes.
I've been making' my own thinner for acrylics. seems to work, does it sound right to you? Thinner small batch mix: -175 ML Distilled Water -75 ML IPA (99%) -10 drops glycerin and mix the paint up until it's the consistency of skim or 1% milk. Starts off looking kind of clumpy compared to straight water but after a good long mix (1 min) it's beauty. thanks for the tips bud.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 The Glycerin helps as it minimizes tip dry. keeps the paint flowing well. You can notice a difference if you load the spray gun up with just the distilled water and alcohol, then add the drops of glycerin and try it. glycerin is marketed as a dry skin product from the drugstore. costs roughly 4 bucks or less too. but it's really an additive that is in lots of things
@@REDACT3D - Thanks for the info. I bought a whole litre of very pure glycerin very cheap (about $3) just a couple of months ago. Figured it would be useful for something!
Getting fancy with those overlays in the video :P THanks for this video. It's nice to have options with paint. If I'm practicing and just stuffing around using a cheap paint I'm not having to order via mail is really helpful.
It might be worth to consider the intended viewing distance as well. Is this something that people will view from a distance? If so, will they be able to spot the spots?
i have only used cheap acrylic paints with water and i will say you do get a better result if mix it thinner and spray at lower psi also paper doesn't like the water so i usually paint on a primed wood
Just about to get into airbrushing, great to know I can use normal acrylic art paint with water. Will be great and cheap to practice the ladder exercise. Great videos, so excited to start airbrushing now 👊🏼👍🏼👌🏼
I'm not far ahead of you in terms of experimentation as a relative newbie to all of this. Here's how I proceeded. I started with a few ready mixed airbrush acrylics, to be sure I enjoyed the new experience to the max, and to get a feel for things and improve technique. Then I bought thinner and a flow aid and tried mixing my own. It was hit and miss!! 🤣 (to say the least). But perseverence got me a good result and now it's much less expensive to mix my own paints. Of course I'd say it depends how much you plan to airbrush and for what. As someone who really does more infill than anything else, I find my own mixes are fine, but be prepared for a few failures along the way.
I airbrush only using acrylic craft paints all the time. The 2oz bottles of the all purpose or multi-use kinds work the best. I mix 5ml of paint with 7ml of normal blue type car window washer fluid. Mix it up really well and it should be about the right consistency. Add a bit more fluid if the paint is still a little too thick. It works great and you can get so many awesome colors for cheap compared to buying airbrush paints. It even works for painting rc car bodies if you prep the lexan correctly and back it with a good spray when you are done.
I've had great success with acrylic. I use mainly culture hustle paints, I also shoot cheap Amazon acrylic with great success. I mix with tap water only in 500ml bottles. Add a bearing or a bolt to help mixing
Thanks for your comment and glad you have found a way to make the paint work well for you , using a ball bearing to help mix is a great tip…I usually mix in Trident empty bottles which come with a marble, just used the ones in the video as it made it easier to showcase my paint mix 👍🏻
I do the same... found a bag of a few hundred marbles from about 20 years back when I played at school. Helps mix them for sure. I need smaller bottles though.
I have always used water as a thinner, and i see many of you RU-vidrs hating the water thinning.. but I really can't tell any difference between paint thinned with water compared to the readymade thinning agents..-even if you say it does. Actually what makes water a bad thinner?
Some very well known paint brands (golden acrylics etc.) will provide you specific thinner for their paints, or even airbrush specific thinners. You will have no issue with those, also the ratio is usually not the one you used. The big issue I have with airbrush specific brands is that 1) you don’t really know the pigments they use (a good art paint brand will specific exactly what they use for each single color) 2) the paints are not lightfast nor archival guaranteed 3) the volume of each bottle is ridiculous and made this way so that people think it’s a super high end product / fits the « miniature » aspect of what most people use airbrush for.
Always great tips and pro knowledge from a legend airbrusher. If this fella dosent know the answer to a question then the question isn’t worth asking. Thanks for another great video.
Interesting, thanks for posting! Along similar lines (messing with airbrush paints) can you make a transparent paint by mixing opaque airbrush paint with a clear polycrylic (like Minwax)?
I assume when you say wiper fluid you mean window glass cleaner (known here as windex) be careful using it especially if it’s ‘ammonia’ based as it could begin breaking down your seals and break up the paint. I use wiper fluid only to clean my Mylar templates and stainless steel work bench 👍🏻
When I first started airbrushing because i used to paint with brush and pallet knife i already had paints and thanks to this legend Carson in the early days i learnt how to mix the right ratio and it got me started but ill add i used Windex at times to thin down but then i found the brand chroma it had a clear reducer. I did do some good work but I have to say I always had constant tip dry. But here's the thing seriously i went to trident paints and wickerd and you can really tell the difference and its so much easyir to use hardly any tip dry at all so i recommend getting the trident paints you will be in heavin. Carson the chroma clear reducer is the best for normal acrylics. but Windex works unreal too but it as you know strips the airbrush. If you want to learn from a pro guys Carson's the man 100%
@@christiankirkwood3402 sorry bud but with the cheaper airbrushes it really does strip the bowl my first airbrush was a black ridge and shame I can't post a pic here because i can prove and show you first hand it does actually strip the coating off for real it even effected the needle tip dont get me wrong but I found no difference in how it worked but after 6months of using it everyday it did do it. There's no way id use Windex in my iwatta's Just in case. Windex is cool to use for some nice effects but with acrylics. I'll add bud that i said same as you about the Windex at first till after i seen it do it first hand and also true reducer works way better i got minimal tip dry as soon as i changed the trident range is so mad im definatly sold to them paints
I mostly use Liquitex acrylic ink or Golden high flow for airbrushing - I'd love to see a head-to-head with the Trident paints because it might be interesting to add them to my arsenal.
Golden high Glow is difficult to beat in terme of quality, i use it with brush and in markers, not with air brush, but these are exceptionals paint, schminck Aero professional IS very good to, and i try acrylink from holbein juste beacause golden don't make pyrolle red in high flow
@@dr_arcade acrylic inks/high flow colours are almost never made with toxic pigments because they have to be airbrushed. You’d only need a medium to extend the colours as they are extremely intense out of the bottle and spray very well. Usually dry in seconds after application.
I can see the need sometimes of using a mixture of some kind besides water. But a lot depends on your masking...at least for me. I seldom use friskett film that most art stores sell. I'm and old 80's Airbrush Illustrator. I primarily work on Illustration Board or 8mil frosted acetate. Not on cars or motorcycles. I use 3mil clear actetate to cut my masks. I can see my pencil sketch more clearly and only score the acetetate mask with an exacto blade. I simply crack the acetate, and the mask is created. The reason for this is simple. I spray my masks on the side that meets the board with re-positional spray mount. When I apply my glued mask to the art board, it will stick, and I do my airbrushing. When I'm done, I remove the mask and mark it and save it in case I need to go back. The reason water mixed with acetate paint I use is because the fixative will leave leftover spray mount on my illustration. If it was any kind of spirit based mixture, it would create problems. Since water and oil don't mix that well, I can use Bestine (Rubber Cement Thinner) to wash away the left over fixative spray mount from my board. If the paint were oil based, it would wipe away my airbrushing. Here's a link to some of my work: imgur.com/user/DannyDoggo/submitted
Floor wax, (the thin, clear liquid type) I won't mention any brand names in case it violates you tube protocols but it mixes well with paint and water and serves as a very good medium and flow enhancer!!!
Back in the 60's other than inks, watercolors, "Doc Martin's paints, in the USA tube acrylics were about the only thing. The main issues with tube acrylics is the size of the pigment. Using a Pasche VL #5 or bigger fluid nozzle you can spray it. Using an EFBE .15 mil fluid nozzle, it'll just clog. We used to manufacture airbrush acrylic paints here in Australia 25 years ago. We had to have the pigment bases for tube colors process to a finer size to work is anything under a .3 mil airbrush. I do know that Golden Color paints are sold here in Oz and they make an excellent fine pigment acrylic paint that can be brushed and also reduced to airbrush. One thought, if you are mixing a brand of binder, make sure it's in all your paints used in your artwork. I found some brands to no adhere as well to other brands... learn from my experience... adhesion problems can raise their ugly head using frisk film...
Shire you can just dilute it make it really thin. I did it with a cheap airbrush gun. I got tired of buying spray can paint. When I go to use the air pray paint in the can the air is gone with a full can of paint. I started buying RUST OLUM in quarts mixing that up and putting that paint in a small spray gun. Air brush guns are more finagy when using airbrush paint that's not meant to run through the gun. I have no $100 airbrush guns so I don't mind what paint I run through it as long as I get it really clean before putting it away I take it all apart and clean everything. I don't paint late at night because you'll might just skip process of cleaning up the air gun needles and all the parts.
Yes you can pretty much use any paint that can be thinned to a milky consistency, but great point re : paint I wouldn’t be putting rust oleum through my micron 😱
In my experience spraying is not the problem but when masking afterwards for additional graphics it doesn't stick. Adding some polyurethane to the mix helps though
Compared to an 'intended for airbrush' liquid (in bottle), the 'art acrylics' have a larger pigment particle size that no amount of reducer is going to help with...'tube acrylics' are not designed to be reduced that 'fluid'...and at the manufacturing level, the pigment particles aren't ground fine-enough. Both Createx and House of Kolor point out their pigment particle size as a 'sell-point' to this fact. They mention 'will flow through any nozzle size...but that's just a 'sideline' of what they are really doing, and that is ensuring a 'very modern, very smooth flow' regardless of tip size. Their processing is to address 'anti-spatter' and flow, but they simply sell it as 'micro pigmentation to improve nozzle flow'... Even if you reduced it beyond 'washout', you'd most-likely still see undesired characteristics from 'tube acrylics' because of this.
Like with airbrushing a car, strainers are very useful. The particles that are small enough will pass through. You may end up wasting more paint clogging the screen, but will get over having too big of particles in the paint.
Interesting channel. Nice telling et video. I would like to know where you purchased the small plastic jars you mix the paint in? Thank you very much. (I live in France)
Great little tutorial as always, I only use water with my mixes as i my art works better for me using that technique. But i will be buying some thinners from Bungs and having a go just out of curiosity.
Hello, I am a graffiti painter and I use the airbrush pistol on a daily basis, but I have problems with the pistol clogging because the colors are a bit stiff, which forced me to wash the pistol constantly, and my work is delayed and my time is wasted because of this problem. What do you advise me
Thanks for your comment and I’d recommended taking a look at this video which should help 👉🏻 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ee9vzSW7KD4.html
I like the golden high flow for its color but it kind of sucks too. I always get bubbles when I spray it as a base coat. I feel like i need a vaccum chamber for post spraying even with balancing medium its orange peels and bubbles or fish eyes and i just cant get it to spray flat. From the airbrush itself it's alright for medium detail and shading I guess
I have been using airbrushing on paper and wood and even metal, but what about using it on Ceramics? I mean the ceramic underglazes for painting on pottery? Can you try that. Do I have to use water or do I have to use commercial thinner?
Great video. Can you tell me what type paint would work best on a 3D printed item? Thx again . And what paint brands are designed for like motorcycle tanks, etc.. Jeff
I use cheap AppleBarrel paint on my 3d prints, works fine for me using PLA filament. CraftSmart also works, and FolkArt paint work. If you want durability, either clear coat the acrylic, or use an enamel paint. For the motor tank, if it's metal, prime it first. Then acrylic should work. I don't paint metal hardly ever, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
You need to do another test. I am using acrylics with water and don't have any of your issues. Firstly try to dilute a bit more. Secondly mix properly and thirdly most important use good density screen printing mesh to filter the paint, all imperfections of lines is just bad mixed ink parts that stuck in the airbrush!
I have a portable airbrush and ready to pour arylic pouring paint but I don’t know how to make my paint perfect for my airbrush it spills out of my airbrush everytime I try to thin it with the gloss pouring medium
good morning, I saw your video and I find it very interesting as well as all the other videos and I follow you very willingly, I wanted to ask you if I can use the "turpentine" with the airbrush to dilute the acrylic colors in the tube, since it is used for dilute them, thank you and keep it up. 😊👍
Hi Master! What if: 1) you use distilled water instead tap water PLUS 2) you use what the airbrush community call "retarder" or "flow improver" (that basically is a "surface breacker"... someone use 1 or 2 drops of disk washer liquid soap) can these "recipe" improve the "spotted line" you get with the simply tap water? (you know... all this is for tame down the overall cost 'coz the proper reducer/thinner cost a lot)
Yes you can use them ….but, I definitely recommend going with airbrush paint if you really want to get involved in airbrushing as it’s best optimized for the airbrush.
It washed out ok when I tested it …and if you couldn’t tell the paint I used wasn’t a fresh tube lol 😂 you could also use a strainer if you are concerned 👍🏻
Great video. Are others putting their paints through a strainer at all? When I use craft paint I have found it helps but I've still been getting very mixed results when trying to do fine lines. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy the good stuff I think. Thanks for those who posted the suggestion around using Fantastik
I don't strain it, but I mix it extremely well by using a syringe to pull and emit the liquid several times. Never had issues except once when I let the paint dry too much.
I have small bottles of acrilic paint but the result is bad. It paints but also spitting, if I may say. I know I'm a newbie but I've tried lowing the pressure, raising it, but does the same thing. Is it the bad quality of the airbrushs because they all do it. I have two same Mastercraft pen size and a 0.8mm Yosoo pistol. This last one I bought it at $64
i tried using thinner and it will not mix. literally as soon as you stop shaking it, it separates leaving the thinner on top. Idk why. reducer mixes fine with same paints.
separation with the booth of them mixed gives a crackle age finish look. it also looks cool though, also depends on the mil (thickness of paint) of finish paint you are painting
I am sorry, but am I seeing a different thing? You say, it doesn't break up as much as with the water but in the video it looks exactly the same. With the same break up and the same intermittent spots. This is kind of a strange video - saying the one thing but the images show a different thing
Ok..im starting to think i just need a better airbrush... ive gotta mix literally like 3 to 1 thinner to paint to get anywhere near enough flow through my brushes. Ive been using the tamiya thinner for acrylics...which basically seems to be alcohol.
