The nice thing about airbrushing is the amount of detail and texture you can put into your pieces. Too much can also break a piece.
There are different methods to adding texture. Some like to spray it in or use a brush but the most common for adding white is to remove the paint so that the white of the surface comes through. To do this, you first need to know on which surface you can do this. Some papers are just too absorbent and you can never get the paper clean again and others are just too smooth that you can not get subtle effects. But the paint also plays a roll. Some dries to a very hard film and you can not remove it on certain surfaces. You have to try and match your tools to what you want to achieve.
I’ve tested four popular papers with five inks I have in stock and eight tools used to create different effects.
First are the paints. I used Createx Illustration (black), Schmincke Aerocolor (Sepia), E’tac/Marissa EFX (Carbon black), Com-art (Payne’s grey) and Lukas Illu-color (Vandyke’s brown). These are the darkest colours I have from these brands. All of them were used without any reducers and the air pressure was adjusted to make them sprayable but never higher than 30psi.
The tools that were used are set out as follows.
When I sprayed the strips I tried to do them as even as possible in dry coats until I got full coverage. Some took more coats than others. After the spray I waited five minutes while cleaning the gun, for the paint to dry. I also gave it an once over with a hair dryer on a medium setting.
The paper I used were Dru Blair Synthetic, Yupo, Lana Vanguard and Schoellershammer #4. The results are as follows.
Createx Illustration Colours
The Dru Blair paper and the Createx Illustration Colours were made for each other. It’s the combo that is used in all of Dru Blair’s classes so there is no surprise that it works great together. Using the soft Perfection eraser was a bit of a mission.
Schmincke Aerocolor
This stuff clings to the paper like crazy. The soft tips from the Perfection- and Derwent erasers hardly moved it.
E’tac/Marissa EFX
These two did not play together at all. The paint remained soft and you can even see my fingerprints in the strip. Some of the other tools just removed everything.
Com-art
The com-art performed really well on this. It was a good match.
Lukas Illu-color
This paint is my least favourite paint but it performed pretty well. It also stuck like crazy and the various soft tips had a hard time removing it.
Createx Illustration Colours
The paint stuck really well and as usual the soft erasers had a hard time. Got some nice effects with the other tools.
Schmincke Aerocolor
Again, this paint sticks and the soft erasers could not move it. Even the skewer had a hard time.
E’tac/Marissa EFX
The same as with the Dru paper, these two did not gel. Interesting about the skewer is that is did not want to cut all the way down to the paper.
Com-art
Again the Com-art performed well. The skewer had a few skips though.
Lukas Illu-color
Again, this also stuck pretty good. It was a bit of all-or-nothing on this paper.
Createx Illustration Colours
I had to work had to lift this paint off. The skewer is hardly visible.
Schmincke Aerocolor
Surprisingly this one works well. The blade skipped a bit.
E’tac/Marissa EFX
This is my everyday combo and I get quite good results despite what this test might represent. The skewer hardly had any effect on it.
Com-art
Again, this performed well. It did not remove as cleanly as the Aerocolor but even throughout the whole bank.
Lukas Illu-color
This one really surprised me. Even the skewer did a great job.
Createx Illustration Colours
Performance was about the same as with the Yupo. The Faber-Castell ink eraser cleaned it right off.
Schmincke Aerocolor
This one was also about the same as the Yupo. The blade did skip a bit with on this.
E’tac/Marissa EFX
As expected, these two does not work together.
Com-art
Again, this paint work well on here. Very consistent results.
Lukas Illu-color
No surprise. Also the same as Yupo and all the others on this paper. And just like with the Createx and Schmincke, the soft erasers does nothing.
CONCLUSION
I am quite surprised that my favourite combo does not perform as well as the others. But it is quite clear that you can not expect to achieve the same results with your paint and paper combo that you see others do with a different combo. And on top this, you need to consider the paint’s performance over all. No point in getting great results with scratching and scraping and the paint can not perform other duties or is a pain to clean out of the gun.
AVW AirbrushWorks 