May 9, 2015

After 6 months of not airbrushing

After not having airbrushed for over 6 months due to a lack of time, I picked up the gun to spray at the Airbrush Services Almere 12.5 year anniversary in Lelystad, The Netherlands. I prefer to spray portraits of Native Americans, because usually there is a lot of expression and texture in the images. My trusted Iwata HP-BH sprayed awful in spite of cleaning regularly. Later after I returned home I found out that the needle packing leaked, which allowed paint to reach the needle spring all the way in the back of the airbrush.



Iwata HP-BH



I continued spraying with the Micron SB that I hadn't used for a long time. A kind of re-discovery of that gun. It sprayed magnificently and allowed me to shoot the Vallejo Premium paint exactly where I wanted. I used a mixture of 1 drop of paint and 20 drops of reducer and very low air pressure (just enough to push out the paint). Vallejo Premium has an enormous covering and adherence on almost all surfaces (paper, board, metal, plastic, wood etc.) so spraying very thin (transparent) in many layers allows to correct with an eraser. If sprayed too thick it is a hell of a job to remove the paint from the surface, if not impossible.



Iwata Micron SB



A peculiarity of Vallejo Premium brown (color number: 62.018) is that after spraying a while, you start spraying a greenish hue instead of brown. I suspect the green pigment is heavier than other pigments in the mix which causes it to sink to the bottom of the paint cup after some time. Sucking up the paint in a pipette and returning it to the paint cup several times returns the paint to its intended, original color. It is a thing to keep in mind for artists who use this paint, that is of an excellent quality - comparable with Holbein Aeroflash for half the price per bottle. The paint also tends to disperse somewhat - crisp lines become less sharp after a while and evenly and smoothly sprayed areas become textured.



Vallejo Premium 62.018



Below you see a sequence of my work in progress. The images were photographed with the camera of a Samsung S4 Mini at different times in the day / night, which accounts for the difference in lighting. The portrait is sprayed on 50 x 35 cm airbrush paper. At the very bottom you see a photograph of my airbrush workplace. The portrait is attached to my lightbox.




Photo shot with better cam than that of a
Samsung S4 Mini phone in daylight -
color differences are amazing






Rushed to finish to try Inspire H2O in next portrait







Vallejo paint dispersed. Attempt to correct with different brand.






10 drops Vallejo Premium




So far I used 9 drops of Vallejo Premium





















The portrait on my homemade lightbox.