Airbrushing pigments, why would you?

[midas-kensai]

Hello everybody,

Recently the world wide web came onto my computer screen with a weird suggestion: airbrushing pigments.

Frankly, I can not see any reason why this would make sense. You have to mix the powder with water and seal the surface with some varnish afterwards. Why not simply take premixed, self-hardening spray medium (aka your trusty old airbrush paint)? Pigments are meant to be used similar to makeup, dry, either with a brush or with a sponge, else they would be called paints. Or is there something I'm missing?

 

[kathrynloch]

I'm right there with you and I'm the one who "paints" with pigments. Essentially you would be making your own airbrush paint and considering how thin it needs to be, I wouldn't want to try it in fear of gumming up the nozzle.

The only reason I can see would be to get a higher quality of color because of denser pigment value. But I can get that dry, so I'm not sure what the point is with airbrushing.

 

[DangerousBrian]

i definatly would not be trying this myself, also cant see the point and think it would clog your brush.

BUT, one valid tecnique is to mix up some pigments and stuff to make a mud mix, which you get on the end of a paintbrush, end then blast the end of the brush with the airbrush to create mud splatter.
Maybethis is what you/the person who wrote what you read heard about and misread it?

DB

 

[freakinacage]

No, it's a technique often used by afv modellers. Never understood it myself as you seem to get the same effect using it dryI have used pigments in spirits as a sort of wash which can produce lovely effects, usually rust. Have also see rust pigments flicked onto a model randomly then sprayed with spirits from and airbrush. That makes a great streaking effect

 

[kathrynloch]

Well at least that makes a little more sense though. I was wondering because it's not like you can mix pigments with water and get paint. They don't dissolve, so you have to go through some extra steps if you're going to make your own acrylics or oils.

 

[Einion]

Recently the world wide web came onto my computer screen with a weird suggestion: airbrushing pigments.

Frankly, I can not see any reason why this would make sense.

I've never heard of this before but I can think of one good reason: totally uniform application, something much harder to achieve by brush with a dry medium. Much like with mist-coating standard paints.

Pigments are meant to be used similar to makeup, dry, either with a brush or with a sponge, else they would be called paints. Or is there something I'm missing?

There's no "meant to be" here. Remember, paints themselves aren't originally intended to be used in many ways that they are commonly.

Like with a lot of things the whatever works manta should be the bottom line.

Einion

 

[DarkStar]

Well at least that makes a little more sense though. I was wondering because it's not like you can mix pigments with water and get paint. They don't dissolve, so you have to go through some extra steps if you're going to make your own acrylics or oils.

You mix them with alcohol. The alcohol evaporates rapidly and leaves you with an interesting effect that is different than applying pigment alone since you can paint with it, and wash with it. Once the alcohol evaporates, then the pigment returns to a powdery film state, it's very subtle and pleasing if done right.

 

[kathrynloch]

You mix them with alcohol. The alcohol evaporates rapidly and leaves you with an interesting effect that is different than applying pigment alone since you can paint with it, and wash with it. Once the alcohol evaporates, then the pigment returns to a powdery film state, it's very subtle and pleasing if done right.

Thanks DarkStar! I was reading something similar not too long ago. It sounds intriguing. (But I still don't know if I'd want to try that with my airbrush if I had one.) I sense more experimentation in the alchemy cave in the near future. lol!

 

[DarkStar]

Thanks DarkStar! I was reading something similar not too long ago. It sounds intriguing. (But I still don't know if I'd want to try that with my airbrush if I had one.) I sense more experimentation in the alchemy cave in the near future. lol!

Yep no problem. Works great to give some nice shades and hues to stonework on terrain/bases that sort of thing. Since it's dilute it flows into cracks and crevasses with a greater viscosity than applied dry (of course). I could go on about this techniques uses but it's really just arcana. Comes from the minds of painters who actually rust their metals in chemical solutions and such, the ultimate in realism and all that, far beyond what most of us need at this scale.

Airbrush is broken and awaiting a new one, so I can't take pics of examples of this unfortunately or I would since words are clumsy to describe this sort of thing, pictures are way worth it in these cases.