Double child portrait

This portrait is sprayed on canvas. It is a surface for airbrushing very different from paper or board since the canvas' surface is littered with tiny cavities that require special attention to be filled with paint. The surface was grounded with Schmincke Aero Grund, a white primer to ensure good adhesion of the paint. Many layers of this primer were sprayed prior to airbrushing the portrait. Portraits on canvas take much more time than airbrushing on paper, but they have an atmosphere that is difficult if not impossible to copy on smooth surfaces.

The paint used is Inspire H2O, mixed with Createx 4012 reducer. The airbrush used, is an Iwata Custom SB, which is a versatile tool. When used in the 'normal' position it is a regular siphon feed gun, but when tilted slightly gravity steps in to make it behave like gravity feed airbrush. Unlike airbrushes that have the paint cup above the main tube, nothing blocks the artist's view, allowing unobstructed sight on the artwork. Its needle / nozzle combination produces very subtle thin lines to be sprayed, which is a great benefit for portrait artists.

Children's faces consist of very subtle lines and areas. It requires much attention and concentration to airbrush them correctly - especially on a canvas surface. I intentionally beautified the portrait, because the children were in the episode of losing their baby teeth. Since portraits are (sort of) permanent recordings, I prefer to 'skip' the dental process and airbrush them with more beautiful teeth...

The photographs were shot with a Sony Xperia Z5 Compact smartphone that produces much better photographs than the Samsung S4 Mini I used before. A really great improvement. The difference in hues is the result of the time of day at which the pictures were taken. I don't have proper artificial daylight lighting and prefer working during the day in natural sunlight.

So far (May 29 2016 13:00), it is a work in progress; the oldest stage at the bottom, the most recent at the top. Click the images to see larger versions in Blogger's Lightbox.

Virtual rendering in 3D frame to assess what portrait will look like

Creepie prez - Yupo paper test

My first impression of the man was that he was creepy. There is a dispute whether he was a satanist, but there was never any doubt that he lead a tough and crappy life, particularly in his younger days. I thought his facial features would lend themselves well for a test of Createx' Yupo airbrush paper. It is a synthetic material, which I had never tried before. I used an A4 size sheet, which basically forced me to spray more delicate lines and areas (large paintings are no challenge). The paint used for the test was Inspire H2O and the airbrush an Iwata HP-BH.

Yupo paper requires very careful appliance of paint - low pressure (barely enough to push out the paint; I never look at the compressor's air pressure gauge) and a mix-ratio of paint : reducer = 1 : 7. The airbrush rarely is further away from the paper than a few millimeters while spraying during the entire test.

Erasing must be done with great caution, especially when using hard material erasers. Erasers made of soft material are more forgiving, allowing to erase controlled fades. Erasers of hard material at some point abruptly remove the paint entirely, leaving a blank spot in an airbrushed area. When used with cautious dexterity they can also be used to erase faded areas, but it remains a tricky enterprise.

As usual, oldest stage at the bottom, newest on top. Findings concerning spraying and erasing on Yupo synthetic paper you see at the end of this page below the images.

Feb 14 2016 12:30 - although one can
never be sure, I think it's finished now...

Feb 13 2016 19:30 - Couldn't leave it 'unfinished'
Did some more work on the portrait...

Feb 12 2016 20:15

Feb 12 2016 15:00

Feb 12 2016 13:00

Feb 12 2016 12:00

Feb 12 2016 - First experiences with Yupo paper
Not sure what to think about synthetic Yupo paper. Perhaps it has to grow on me. I don't think it is an improvement over 'traditional' surfaces; it's very slippery and requires caution in erasing. On the other hand colors sprayed seem more radiant and saturated (provide applied in many layers).

Feb 13 2016 addition - Erasing Yupo paper better understood
Erasing Yupo 2.0 Started to get the hang of it I guess. Yupo allows to bring the white back entirely when erasing correctly. Clay board and various types of paper allow artists to erase back to approximately 90% white, but Yupo goes all the way. Experiment with eraser of different types of hardness / softness. Once the effect of working with various erasers is understood, this type of surface can be very helpful in creating perfect highlights and removing unwanted areas of overspray. I can now imagine that some artists would really like this synthetic surface.

Erasing very thinly sprayed areas is the most tricky; a little too much pressure will remove all paint from the surface. The good news is that the white area, left by accidentally removed paint, is perfectly sprayable and corrections are easy to make. This property also lends itself quite well to soften hard edges caused by masking. I am starting to like Yupo more and more...

Yupo and Inspire H2O
From what I've read (haven't tested it yet) Yupo is not suited for all airbrush paints. But I find that the paper works quite well with Inspire H2O. I discovered that diluting the paint a bit less than I usually do - paint : reducer = 1 : 2 or 1: 3 - will slightly improve adherence to the surface, while not noticeably affecting its handling in the airbrush and worsening the clogging of paint. Artists accustomed to clayboard type of surfaces will need to adjust their spraying and erasing routines somewhat, but once they've done that I think they will appreciate it.

Feb 14 2016 - Yupo's non-absorbtion
I think I figured out why colors look saturated on Yupo and why corrections - spraying over accidentally erased areas - are easy to make. Colors are saturated because none of the pigments are absorbed by the surface; they are all layered on top of the paper and therefore all contribute entirely to the visual effect. Over-saturated areas that sometimes occur when using traditional paper or clayboard are simply not possible. Concerning the erasing: when a mistake in erasing is made, spraying over the area is starting all over again from scratch, not building on the remains that could not be removed. Conclusion: although airbrushing on Yupo required certain adjustments, I came to like it. To artists with above average dexterity and patience I recommend Yupo.

Brad Pitt airbrush portrait

I am testing a new approach to portrait airbrushing after watching an other magnificent Clint Eastwood portrait by Alberto Ponno. It incorporates meticulous detailing with very low air pressure and properly diluted paint. Contrary to the previous portrait I sprayed of Andre Hazes, this portrait of Brad Pitt is airbrushed on smooth Van Beek Retouch paper. It does not appreciate erasing very well and does not absorb a bunch of paint, but the smooth surface does allow to spray fine detail. Size of the image itself (i.e. the head) is 25 cm wide, 30 cm tall.

The airbrush I used is my trusty Iwata HP-BH and the paint is Inspire's brilliant H2O water based paint. The portrait is entirely freehand (which means no masking of any sort at all); no color pencils were used to apply accents, only a very limited amount of erasing was used.

Working method: spray the average tones, then apply dark accents and finally spray the highlights (although so far I haven't used the white). I try to airbrush around white areas as much as possible, to keep the necessary spraying with white to a minimum. I used Base White for highlights in the Andre Hazes portrait and was quite pleased with the result. Coverage is good, the paint allows to spray fine lines and it clogs only just a fraction faster than regular colors (cleaning the needle more often than is the case with other colors is required) - I take the needle out of the airbrush and clean it by rolling and sliding it between my fingers that I press together. Thoroughly cleaning the airbrush after spraying with white is done, is a must - the Inspire Base White has very strong adherence.

Sequence shows newest update at the top (text continues below the photos - extensive tips). By clicking one on the photos, the slide show mode is activated, in which the photos can be viewed by using the mouse scroll wheel. Roughly speaking, each update equals 3 drops of paint - so you can get an idea of the amount of paint used for the portrait in each stage. The camera I use, is a lousy cell phone cam of a Samsung S4 Mini, often used in artificial lighting (which makes the quality of the photos even worse...). This portrait being sprayed with Black Smoke (a dark shade of grey), suffers less from the lighting than full color portraits.

Update March 6 2021

Four years after spraying the airbrush portrait I reworked it digitally, using Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo. Skin and hair texture was added using custom created vector brushes and a colour overlay was made. I also cropped the portrait to get an improved focus on his face. Digital editing is very forgiving since the Affinity apps allow to edit in a non-destructive way and the History function allows to remove or edit any random step previously made. These options basically enhance the artist's freedom to work towards the image (s)he envisions without the painstaking effort required in analog art creation. I know that many think digital works are not 'real art', but I don't give a toss, like many others who have become acquainted with the freedom and accuracy that digital programs offer them. Especially the affordable Affinity programs, that won't plunge its buyers straight into poverty (unlike some programs of the competition).

March 6 2021 - added skin and hair vector texture
digitally in Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo

Jan 16 2016 13:30

Jan 15 2016 17:00 - skin texture and hairline

Second update Jan 13 2016 of Brad Pitt portrait. Detailing and correcting textures.
Inspire H2O paint is absolutely brilliant; it allows to spray very thin (saturated) lines
without clogging the airbrush, while it is reasonably easy to erase.
Even on very smooth / slippery paper it is a dream to spray.

Jan 13 2016 10:10

Jan 12 2016 13:00 hrs

Same stage as image below, shot in daylight

Jan 12 2016 01:11

Jan 11 2016

Jan 10 2016 - III

Jan 10 2016 - II

Jan 10 2016 - I

Note for those who try to improve their already good skills but want to reach the next level:
Commonly airbrushes are set up using some type of image projection device. The disadvantage of this method is that only some of the details are transferred (drawn) onto the surface; the rest the artist has to estimate by frequently looking at the reference image. Alberto Ponno has developed a unique method that allows him to have a continuously projected reference on the surface he works on. Alberto has mad skills that are unsurpassed in this dimension today and combined with the perfect reference his method provides, it results in stunning airbrush art. For lesser gods I described a cheap alternative method that works with (semi) transparent surfaces like paper, poly carbonate sheets and canvas. It allows the artist to focus on applying the paint to the surface without the perpetual worry of misplacing the spray and creating an incorrect shape which makes it necessary to correct mistakes afterward.

Paint mix-ratio and air pressure
Another tip some may find useful is, I keep a tiny piece of paper in my left hand (I airbrush with my right hand) that I use to stabilize the jet of paint before attacking the paper or canvas. I keep it very close to where I need to spray and once the stream is stable, I quickly jump over to the surface I paint on. I do this very often, stabilizing for extremely thin lines, as well as wider sprays for surfaces. This way I always know exactly what the effect will be. When diluting the Inspire H2O : reducer = 3 : 18 (drops) and air pressure is just high enough to drive the paint out of the airbrush, I can spray ultra thin lines for hours on end. It is useless to set air pressure using the pressure gauge on the compressor, but as a reference for beginners the hand barely moves over the dial when air is sprayed. I prefer to check air pressure by airbrushing air (no paint) against the back of my left hand. Room temperature and humidity that vary each day affect the required pressure, so using the pressure gauge is pretty much useless.

Tip to continuously spray ultra fine lines
Approximately every 5 minutes I take needle out of the airbrush and clean the tip between my fingers. Below you see an image of my 'warming up' - sprayed on cheap office copying paper - before airbrushing which is meant to get the 'feel' and dexterity to airbrush properly.

Getting the feel of the airbrush and
setting up the gun properly before
the real work on paintings begins.
(The ruler scale is in millimeters)

My experience with Inspire H2O paint
I have been airbrushing since 1980 and tried many brands of paint, but I can safely say both the solvent based and waterborne paints from Inspire are better than the rest, require no chemistry degree to use and are available for a very reasonable price. They adhere to all types of surfaces and as far as I'm able to judge, are very light resistant. All these properties make these paints the best deal in the market today. A truly huge compliment I have to make to the waterborne H2O paint, which does not noticeably behave different than their solvent based paint. Most waterborne paints are no match for their solvent based counterparts, but the only way to distinguish Inspire's products is by the scent of the solvent. The thing that I don't like about the paint are the bottle lids; while it is easy to dose the measure of paint required, when closing the twist top lid, a small amount of spills over or jets into the room (when closed swiftly, which is messy). But in all honesty, I haven't come across a solution that works flawlessly in the decades that I have been airbrushing - The Createx flip lid also spills paint and the pipettes of the Schmincke and Illu-Color type bottles dry out and crumble after some time.

Next project
Actually this portrait is a test to test the limits of the paint, the airbrush, my dexterity, patience and ability to concentrate. The next project will be more realistic (detailed) than this one, 100% freehand as well. I will use additional tools that I didn't have while airbrushing this portrait, which will be explained in that blog entry.

The Sopranos Freehand Airbrush

Lately I've been submerged in digital work, DTP, webdesign etc. and had no time to airbrush. Since two days ago I decided to make time for that and submit Inspire's waterborne H2O paint to a proper test. It is the best airbrush paint I've come across so far. No clogging whatsoever and hardly any tip dry, even after the paint had been in the open paint cup of my Iwata HP-BH for a long time (a day or so).

I had an old piece of drawing paper (49 x 32 cm) laying about and started to freehand airbrush a double portrait of The Sopranos. Inspire's H2O allows to spray very consistent thin lines. I used Black Smoke for this portrait, just filled the paint cup almost to the brim with water and added three drops of paint. No reducer or other media, stirred well and began to paint. Air pressure just high enough to push the paint out.

Below you see the sequence of this portrait. Below that the latest photograph of this work in progress. It is almost done, I just need to add some texture and then it will be finished.

Sequence so far

 

Most recent phase

 

Inspire H2O is easily removed after spraying, which makes sense since the paint does not clog or leave tip dry. First run water through the gun (also blow back), then cleaner in the same way and finally water again. The needle is squeaky clean. The paint is really a charm to work with. I can honestly recommend it to artists who spray fine detail.

Aug 25 2015 - Finished.

New kid on the block: waterborne Inspire H2O

When cleaning paint after the airbrush has (visibly) run out of paint, I always pour airbrush cleaner in the gun's paint cup, suck it up and blow it back several times with a pipette. It draws paint residue (paint particles and flakes) into the pipette that I blow from the pipette into the spray-out container so that paint particles and flakes will not clog the nozzle. I do this until no more particles and flakes are visible in the pipette. After that I blow cleaner through the airbrush and also draw back and lock the needle and put my finger on the tip of the nozzle to reverse the flow of the cleaner in the airbrush in order to release stuck paint residue from the airbrush. After that I blow cleaner and finally water through the airbrush.

Spray-out

When cleaning in such a way, it becomes obvious that most paints form particles and flakes that are left in the gun after the airbrush stopped spraying paint. Createx does it, Holbein Aeroflash, Illu-Color and Vallejo Premium all leave some type of residue inside the pipette and on the inner wall of the airbrush paint cup when cleaning according to the method explained above. However, this is not the case with the relatively new waterborne Inspire H2O. The pipette and paint cup remain almost entirely clean.... The first paint I used that has this excellent property.

I also noticed that while mixing the paint before spraying, for which I also use an other pipette to thoroughly mix the paint and reducer, Inspire H2O hardly left any residue in the pipette after the mixing was done. I think that is a sign that the pigmentation is very fine and the binder and solvent are doing a great job. Spraying with Inspire confirmed my suspicion; the paint performed miraculously well in my Iwata Micron SB. Below you see a test that gives an indication of how well this paint behaves.

The measuring scale is in centimeters

To spray the text shown above I used Inspire H2O in the following ratio: Paint : Reducer = 1 : 15 setting the air pressure just high enough to drive out the paint (somewhere around 7 psi or half a bar). But what is more amazing is that after leaving the airbrush untouched for 3 hours (with the paint still in the cup) it sprayed just as well as when I first sprayed it. And it gets better: same thing after 6 hours...., as if spraying with freshly mixed paint.

Inspire H2O 'Black Smoke' and Reducer I used for the test

Another positive property of the H2O paint is that it hardly leaves any tip dry. In this respect it is on par or better than solvent-based paints. And as you can see, the testing was done with black, which traditionally is a 'difficult' color (gross pigment, clogging and tip dry in most brands). Next week I am going to buy other colors of this type of paint and continue to experiment with it. No need to say I am quite impressed by this new paint for airbrush artists.