AIRBRUSH TECH TIPS

Don , The best and easiest paint strainer that I've ever used is a 2 oz. syringe like you find at the veterinary supply. Take the plunger out and cut the needle end off back to where it starts the taper to the needle. Cover the end with a small piece of fine silk screen, taping it around the barrel of the syringe, and over the cut off end. Pour the paint in and insert the plunger, pushing it all the way down. It does a fast job of straining paint, especially fabric paint. Later, Tom Eddleman THANKS TOM please e-mail Tom and say thank you for helping out

While I'm working I use windex window cleaner to clean my airbrushes between color changes etc.. ( water based Paints ) Works great and is fairly inexpensive. The following I do every night : I pull the needle out and using a plastic bottle with york top I force windex down the length of the airbrush . Put the tip of the plastic bottle in back end of the brush where you just pulled the needle out and squirt the windex into the brush.( do so while holding airbrush over waste can with trigger depressed and pulled back. ) Do this until just clear fluid comes out . Insert needle , pull back out make sure there's no paint , none your done .With solvent based paints just replace windex with thinner or reducer and follow as above. This has worked for me for years and I very seldom take my airbrushes apart , once a month maybe .When I do take them apart I soak all the parts for a few minutes in airbrush cleaner than clean them .You might find the Airbrushes Brushes cleaning kit very helpful , I do. Don Johnson / Airhead

HEAT SETTING ART WORK ON T-SHIRTS --- If you don't have a heat press try this . Use an clothes iron set on the highest setting with an old paper ( one layer of the bag ) on top of your art work hold the iron on your art work for 20 to 30 seconds keeping the iron moving all the time .

Airbrushing Black T-Shirts Airbrushing black t-shirts is fun and profitable so don't turn this work down. 1) using a mixture of 50% water and extender spray the area where you will be airbrushing. 2 ) Using a iron and teflon sheets or heat press , heat set this area for 10 to 15 seconds . The idea here is to matt down all the fiber giving you a nice surface to airbrush on .3 )With aqua flow white lightly mist in area you just heat set .This will give you a light area to lay your design out and will give the airbrush colors you are using in the design a light background to bounce off . If you just airbrushed red onto a black shirt it would be pretty hard to see the red , put white on first than try it , works much better .4 ) I use #2 pencil to very lightly layout the design , if complex design I will draw on tracing paper than transfer the design over to the shirt . Do this by flipping the tracing paper over and retracing the design on the back with soft pencil . Position tracing paper design face up on shirt with piece of acate on top , tape design to shirt keep it from moving , now once again trace your design on the acate .Using the acate allows you to apply pressure while you trace the design ,without it pencil would go right through paper into the shirt . When you have gone over whole design remove acate and tracing paper and there on the shirt you should have your design . Keep your pencil lines very faint as they will be hard to cover with the airbrush paint . You should be good to go , paint it , top coat it and heat set . Have fun . Don Johnson / Airhead

Tony Fowler from Tony's Airbrush Club on Yahoo set this in to add to my tip above about black t shirts . "Airbrushing on a Black Shirt......... First of all prep the shirt as mentioned in the article above . After you have laid out your design in white , ( remember a black shirt you will be working in a reverse order ) leaving the darker areas for the shading or shadows , now you are ready to add color to your project . Here is the secret ...... while you are spraying color with one hand with the airbrush , use your other hand and hold a hair dryer blowing on LOW position directly onto the area you are adding color to .You will not believe how the colors come to life without adding two or three layers of paint to get the desired look that you are looking for . This avoids paint build up on the shirt , and will not get that "grainey" or "gritty" effect from having to layer paint to get the color you want . This technique does not take a lot of practice to achieve , just a little coordination using both hands at the same time , but well worth the trouble . Heat set the shirt and you are ready to go ! Good luck and KEEP ON SPRAYING !!!!!!!!! Tony Fowler . Please check Tony Club out on Yahoo Clubs very cool place with a bunch of great artists hanging out there .

Checking to see if your surface prep was done good enough , the right way on hard surfaces such as helmet's , plates etc. is easy . Apply your paint to a small section allow to dry , take a piece of masking tape apply it over your just painted area , pull it off , if paint comes off with the tape you better re-think how you prep that surface . Better you find out than your CUSTOMER !!! Taking the time to do it right the first time saves you time , money and is the cheapest form of advertising you can get .

When I need to clean the tip of my Paasche VL ,I use a round tooth pick. It is wood and doesn't scratch the brass tip .You can also use a Kabob schwer. It is bamboo.

If your going to paint on plastics......any plastics, here are the steps to get it to stick the best it will........
Remove all parts that you dont want painted wash with soap and water,,,,,
Rinse very well and dry clean with a good wax and grease remover skuff with red scotchbrite pad untill no shine shows anywhere clean with a good wax and grease remover spray with a good adheason promoter....
Bull dog is what i use, it comes in areosol and quarts spray with a good primer sand primer as per instructions....
I usually use grey scotchbrite pads until smooth spray base color spray artwork use a good clear coat.....
The only good rattle can clear i have found is rustoleum crystal clear......
hope this helps have fun
Chuck Newberry, Texas.

If you have a choice beteew Excel and Xacto blades, BUY THE EXCEL! They are sharper to start and last much longer than Xacto. The cost was the same for a 15 pack of either, and Excel is make in the USA, unlike Xacto!

Before spraying in a large area with a concrete floor take a hose and moisten the concrete. The extra moisture will act as a magnet to pull dust and dirt out of the air. It will also cool it down a little bit if it's hot. This isn't a good idea in humid areas as it can add to other problems while painting. But if you live in a dry dusty place then a little water on the floor will keep a lot of dust out of your work.

If you are painting portraits human or animals on canvas or illustration board(easy to move around) a easy way to see if you got right proportion on the paintjob is to hold it infront of a mirror,this shows any errors very clearly.

Use a highly reduced mixture of red and black to used for shading or shadows. This color works for just about anything.

Go to "The Bass Pro " web site, they have a product called "The Razor Sharp Knife Sharpening Kit" heres the deal you get 2 cardboarb wheels that go on a bench type motor, one side is an abrasive wheel and the other one is a polishing wheel. Now when your exacto blade or razor blade gets old , in one second you can have a sharper edge than the original edge, I can use one blade for months and you can always use the set to sharpen the kitchen knives so you can shave with them. Try it you'll love it!

First off I don't like to hose down my floor (hold on there its not what your thinking, my kidneys aren't that far gone yet lol). Anyway I did a google and found out that dust abatement liquids contain acrylic co polymers. What I have found works for me is to dilute water with Future floor polish (which contains no wax or silicones and is used by some model painters as a clear coat in fact) at about an 8:1 ratio. The other thing you need is an orchard sprayer from Wally Mart which you can pick up for about 8 bucks. This allows you to put a fine mist of the mixture on the floor and it drys pretty quick with the ventilation of the paint area helping and thus does not create a lot of humidity. 3M makes a product which I suspect is similar in content but I cant prove it that costs $35 a gallon, ouch! The other thing i do is ground my work, of course it only works for metal, using some primary wire with alligator clips on the ends. I have heard that there is an element used in swamp coolers to discourage mineral build up that can be used at the floor end of the wire but i haven't tried this yet. This mixture certainly seems to help in my shop. AL

I hope you found this article helpful.
Two more great resources to learn more about airbrushing, kustom painting are my airbrush, kustom painting magazines. Check them out via the links below. Until next time "It's just paint" have fun.

Airbrush Technique Magazine

Airbrush Artist Magazine

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