Airbrush dogs and oil seascapes
Ade
postings on this ng, but I've just finished my own, so
if you're bored, please look at...
http://www.bayview.freeserve.co.uk/
It's my airbrush dog comissions + wildlife paintings
and my Dad's oil paintings of local scenery
Thanks for reading this..
Ade Butterfield
a...@bayview.freeserve.co.uk
( I promise I'll only do this once more when I've
finished the Airbrush Artworks site ..)
Kelvin
whole lot of traffic that is actually relevant to airbrushing.
I absolutely love your paintings! They are incredibly beautiful. As someone
trying to get started in airbrushing, I'm curious about anything you could
share with this newsgroup about techniques used, equipment, paint, style...
anything your willing to share would be interesting (especially on using
canvas)! Seeing your work really get's my enthusiasm for airbrushing going.
Also the website is well designed and very quick loading. I really like the
way you have the thumbnails on the left frame and clicking on them brings up
a larger picture in the right frame. I've seen a lot of poorly designed
sites out there and it's refreshing to see one that so well executed.
Keep up the wonderful work!
Best Regards,
Kelvin
Ade wrote in message <3698e7e6...@news.freeserve.net>...
Ade
It's my first website, I've tried to make it as useable as I could.
I will be compiling some techniques pages in my next site 'Airbrush
Artworks' - which will be 100% airbrush stuff ( including advice on
home built compressors, hopefully )
It's hard to give advice on the actual painting process, because it
seems to change each time, depending on what is required.
Preparing the canvas is always simple enough though. I use
generic canvases, no special type, as long as it is ready primed.
I have painted straight on to the surface, but have found that it's
best to spray a coat or two of acrylic gesso, then sand it down
lightly with fine sandpaper. This gives a very smooth surface but
still shows the texture of the canvas to give that 'painting' look
that you don't get with boards. I've heard that household acrylic
primer paint is suitable too, but I've never tried it. You may need
to experiment with the thickness of the primer if you are spraying it
through an airbrush. Personally, I use a Badger Crescendo for this,
although the gesso still needs watering down slightly to get it
through. I have heard that if the primer is too watery, it may crack
later on.
Then, I used to spend hours transfering the image on to the canvas,
but these days I use a projector. I know it's a bit dubious
artisticlly, but time is money and all that. It's an 'Artograph
Tracer', I think the cheapest model on the market, but it can project
upto about 10ft quite clearly.
I always use Createx and Liquitex, not by preference, it's just that I
can't find any other Airbrush acrylic's locally. When painting dogs
and animals I usually start with a feature that will act as a
reference point fo the rest of the subject, eg if the eyes and nose
but if they aren't clearly visible, the ears, or markings. But if the
background is complicated, it may be easier to do that first ( eg the
West Highland Terrier pic ). I usually paint the tones in first in a
mid greyish-brown, then put the colours in, then highlights, then
darker colours. The spaniel pic is a good example, I painted the
whole dog in a mid-dark-grey first, then darkened some areas and
lightened other bits and added muddy colours for shaded white
areas in the fur. It's hardly ever as well structured as this though!
I don't mask at all, although I know I should really, but I'm just too
lazy!
I've found recently not to use pure black until last if at all. Try
to keep the painting from going too dark, cos it's a pain trying to
lighten it up again, and a dark grey can suggest atmosphere
between you and the subject.
For protection, I use Liquitex Varnish in 50% Satin - 50% High Gloss
mixture, which gives a slight shine and gives the colours depth,
again sprayed with the Crescendo. There may be better varnishes
available, but this works for me.
I use Iwata airbrushes almost exclusively, the HP-B, HP-C, Eclipse
and recently the Top feed Eclipse ( which is absolutely delish!
Since having the top feed version, I haven't used any other brush
for painting!! ) For me, the Iwata's are always easy to get used to.
That's just about all I know for canvas painting, the rest just comes
down to practice and experience. I've only been airbrushing since
95 though, and I bet there are people reading this who've known
all this and much more for years, but I needed all the help I could
get when I started too. Airbrush Action is always worth getting
for tips and inspiration ( http://www.airbrushaction.com ), but
if it's inspiration you're after, go look at Dru Blair's site
http://www.drublair.com . He had to start somewhere
too!!
Good Luck..
Ade Butterfield
http://www.bayview.freeserve.co.uk
On Mon, 11 Jan 1999 00:30:25 -0600, "Kelvin" <Da...@inet2000.com>
wrote:
Kelvin
designed. I like sites that stick to the "simpler is better" logic, such as
yours. I feel a poorly designed website can make or break the artwork
displayed on it.
It's funny you should mention home built compressors as I tried to build a
silent one using a refrigerator compressor, a small air tank for refilling
flat tires, a regulator, and a moisture trap. It worked for about a month,
but not very good. This was back in 1992. I didn't have a lot of money
then and had gotten an Aztek 3000S as a gift. I also tried making my own
silent compressor because I lived in (and still do live in) an apartment. I
did a couple experimental paintings, but nothing serious. I got side
tracked by photography for the next six years. Recently I pulled out the
old airbrush and started looking around at other airbrush websites and
talking to folks like yourself and am interested in giving it a go again,
especially now that I can afford to. I haven't painted anything yet as I'm
waiting for a silent compressor I recently ordered to come in. I'd be very
interested in what you have to offer in the way of home built compressors
before I buy mine, especially if it could save me a good deal of money.
I wouldn't consider using a projector "dubious" at all. You know you can
draw. You know you can paint. You have nothing to prove, and if it saves
time then great! I can draw, but I really don't like to. It's not my cup
of tea. What I really want to do is paint, and if using a projector get's
me to to that stage faster, and possibly saves you money in the process,
then more power to you!
You talked about Iwata airbrushes, and I'm curious what you'd recommend as a
first Iwata airbrush for someone like me who is just starting out. The
Aztek I have is OK, but I'd really like to learn by using a real airbrush,
which would also lay down the ground work experience for future airbrushes.
I too understand about the airbrush paint availability problem. Where I
live in Canada it's hard to even get just the Liquitex paints you mention.
Right now I'm scoping out mail order sources for Dr. Ph. Martins Airbrush
Colors, and Medea Com-Art Airbrush Colors, although many of the businesses
I've written to haven't e-mailed me back.
Just in case you weren't aware, there is a really great website dedicated to
airbrushing at:
It's another place you can post messages and talk about airbrushing, and the
people are very helpful. Well, I hope that's everything. Talk to you again
soon!
Best Regards,
Kelvin
Ade
Unfortunately my knowledge of home built compressors is
all theory! I asked here about converting a fridge compressor to
use with airbrushing and got a few replies from people who
had varying degrees of success, but I still haven't got my hands
on a spare compressor yet! Unfortunately, I can't find any info
on the web on how to do it, so I figured I'll put instructions on
my site one day. It all seems to come down to the quality and
compatibility of the parts you can obtain, but I don't see why it
isn't possible to construct a good powerful silent compressor.
If you can get hold of all the parts you need, I'd be glad to tell
you all I know..
I'm afraid I've never used an Aztek, so I don't know how they
handle in comparison to Iwata's, but I have a few other types
of airbrush, and I always come back to Iwata's. It's probably
just me, but I feel that they are better built, more precise, more
easily controllable etc. I use any type of airbrush for murals
and large scale work, but Iwatas seem better for fine detail on
canvas work. Most of the airbrushed stuff on my site was done
with the HP-B model, which was my first airbrush and still
produces the fines line of them all. The HP-C is very similar
to the HP-B, but has a larger cup and slighly larger nozzle -
needle size ( 0.3mm instead of 0.2mm ). I don't find much
difference between these two, although I think the HP-C
can go from thin to fat lines more easily, and seems better
at producing gradual fades. However, I recently got a
top feed Iwata Eclipse ( HP-CS 0.5mm nozzel and needle )
like the original eclipse, it can handle thick paint, and can
also go extremely fine, probably not as thin as the HP-B
but it all depends how fine you will be working. My problem
is that I'm hopeless with brushes, so I rely on the HP B for
fur effects etc. If you want more info, I can try scanning some
lines from each brush and e-mailing them to you.
Also, it may just be that I like Iwata's cos they're Japanese!!
Anybody else have any opinion's on what the best first airbrush is?
Hope this helps..
Ade Butterfield a...@bayview.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.bayview.freeserve.co.uk
On Mon, 11 Jan 1999 22:57:26 -0600, "Kelvin" <Da...@inet2000.com>
wrote:
Kelvin
my own compressor for a while now with no real sucess, and the silent
compressor I ordered came in so I picked it up. It cost a lot, but now it's
one less thing I have to think about. Oh well... now if only I can get used
to that load pop-hiss it makes whenever it turns off. Splatterd paint
everywhere the first time it didn't because I wasn't expecting it. This kept
happening about every five minutes... :-)
I thought the Eclipse HP-CS top feed had a .35mm needle/nozzle, at least
according to their website it does. Or did you put the .50mm needle &
nozzle from the bottom feed (HP-BCS) version into it?
Best Regards,
Kelvin
Ade wrote in message <369b7b1f...@news.freeserve.net>...
Ade
wrote:
>I thought the Eclipse HP-CS top feed had a .35mm needle/nozzle, at least
>according to their website it does.
Yep, you're right, I can't find out what size it is, but it isn't .5mm
Airbrush Action December says .31mm to .35mm, so I presume
it's .35 !