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Airbrushing/Questions Answered by Expert Ellen Choate
| Subject | Date Asked |
| Air tanks | 3/29/2011 |
| Q: Ellen, I was wondering how much airbrushing can be done with a filled ten gallon air tank? Can I ... A: Jim. I'll answer to the best of my ability on this one. I haven't airbrushed with a tank in years, ... | |
| Airbrushing on Glass | 8/11/2010 |
| Q: I'm new to airbrushing. I just purchased the Paashe Talon Airbrush TG3 and Golden acrylic ready to ... A: You don't need any kind of primer to paint on illustration board. It's already nice and smooth and ... | |
| Airbrushing | 8/6/2010 |
| Q: I'm new to airbrushing. I just purchased the Paashe Talon Airbrush TG3 and Golden acrylic ready to ... A: Tracie. I'll need a little more information before I can fully answer your question, but here are ... | |
| Airbrushing Cocoa Butter | 8/1/2010 |
| Q: I'm using colored, melted cocoa butter as 'paint' with my Iwata Eclipse. The cocoa butter must be at ... A: Mark, the last compressor I bought was a 2hp Ranger, but they don't make these anymore :( Too bad, ... | |
| Airbrushing Cocoa Butter | 7/31/2010 |
| Q: I'm using colored, melted cocoa butter as 'paint' with my Iwata Eclipse. The cocoa butter must be at ... A: Mark! I don't have specific experience with cocoa butter airbrushing, but I think everything is ... | |
| iwata eclipse hp-bcs repair | 7/30/2009 |
| Q: . i as i but it back together i notice that when i but the button back in it is pushing the little ... A: Terrell. I tried to recreate this problem with my Iwata since I've never run into this, and I ... | |
| Paint | 4/13/2009 |
| Q: I am starting with airbrush and looking for information what is the best paint to receive the ... A: I'm very sorry for the delay in answering you; I did not receive notice of this question until ... | |
| one shot paints | 4/9/2009 |
| Q: Can use you one shot lettering paints for airbrush use? And how would you thin them? ... A: You sure can. Thin them with the 1-Shot reducer to about the consistency of cream, or whatever ... | |
| Airbrush not spraying. | 12/14/2008 |
| Q: I have done Temporary airbrush tatooing for 4 years, previous to that I used to airbrush model kits ... A: I don't know if I can be of much help; I've never had this problem where it wasn't a blockage ... | |
| iwata eclipse airbrush | 5/24/2008 |
| Q: the airbrush is clogged and is not working properly. The paint comes out from the paidnt side. ... A: Okay. The most likely thing is a clog in the cone or head assembly. Take the head assembly apart ... | |
| acrylic paint | 12/25/2007 |
| Q: when using an airbrush with water based acrylic paint are the any dangers, inhaling fumes etc.etc. A: Well, nothing as far as fumes, but you still have a lot of overspray floating around in the air ... | |
| protect from spray painting | 12/3/2007 |
| Q: i want to spray paint body of my mobile instrument. there are few areas on the body in center of the ... A: By "mobile instrument" I'm guessing you mean a cell phone-type device, right? For the ones I've ... | |
| Airbrush | 8/15/2007 |
| Q: I bought a new airbrush and the problem I had was that the trigger began to stay down which meant I ... A: Alan. What kind of airbrush do you have, not that it makes that much difference. I have noticed ... | |
| Airbrusing Laptop | 7/17/2007 |
| Q: Okay, I want to paint my laptop. I have a spare broken laptop, so that will be my test subject. ... A: Oscar, I'm sorry to be so long in getting back to you. I'm going to have to do some further ... | |
| What paints do I use for t-shirts??? | 2/7/2007 |
| Q: ) i was woundering when doing t-shirt designing (using stencils or freehand) what kind of paint do i ... A: There are several brands of paint made for t-shirts. Which one you use is largely a matter of ... | |
| Etching | 12/17/2006 |
| Q: You helped me once before, regarding flocking. I’m almost finished with the completion of the ... A: Sure do. It's called Chartpak transfer lettering. They've been around forever; it's how graphics ... | |
| Short cuts... | 11/7/2006 |
| Q: My brother and I are "natural" artist/self-taugh and have begun to move in that direction as a ... A: I know what you're asking; I'm not sure how much I can help here. I'm afraid it's not going to be a ... | |
Ellen Choate
Top Expert on this page
Expertise
I can answer questions relating to basic and advanced airbrushing technique, general how-tos, preparation and compatible media for different substrates, proper paint-to-air ratios, troubleshooting, color theory, maintenance and repair, stencil cutting and use, and most other areas relating to airbrush. I'll be posting tutorials in the future if that would be helpful, and if possible.
Experience
I learned to airbrush the hard way, watching and collaborating with people who didn't know much more than I did. Later I got instruction from people who knew what they were doing and learned what I had been doing wrong. I have been airbrushing for over 30 years; the first two years were in an amusement park painting as fast as I could, often for 12 hours a day, six days a week. You get good real fast. I have painted on almost everything imaginable, from walls to a bus to prosthetic limbs.
Education/Credentials
I studied art at the University of Texas at Arlington for three years but haven't made the time to complete my now obsolete "graphic arts" degree. We did layouts and color separations by hand, thank you very much. It has served me well, but not in the way I expected.
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