[New to Airbrushing] Bad result with liquitex ink

[upper juniper]

Hello yall, im a beginner in mini painting and just bought an airbrush + compressor but cant seem to get "silky smooth" result when using airbrush with liquitex.

I tried the spoon test (primed), used 30 psi and thinned it 3:1 paint (left one), and 2:1 for the middle and right one. I spray 12-15cm away and didnt pullback that much on the airbrush

The paint is often too liquid and didnt stick very well.

For the thinner I use mix of water, IPA, glycerin, and retarder because most of the well known brand one (vallejo, liquitex, citadel, etc) is not available in my country / too expensive.

Thanks for the help!

Also pardon for my bad english 🙏

For the thinner I followed barbatos rex's recipes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwOAHRtp7RE

[fair sleet]

30 psi is way too high for inks. Try something around 15 psi.
And do very thin coats first and let them dry completely before putting another layer

Believe me, I've done quite a number of spoons

[upper juniper]

Aye noted

Also how much do you thin it?

[upper juniper]

"thin coats"

How thin are we talking here

[fair sleet]

It depends. I could go up to 20:1. It depends on what I want to achieve

[fair sleet]

First layer is nothing more than a dusting. Then I apply quick passes.

[upper juniper]

20 drops of paint to one thinner?

[fair sleet]

You will built uniformity and opacity with multiple layers. The first ones will be still very transparent, but as you add more layers, you will get a uniform coverage. I think for the spoons above, I did 5 or 6 layers

[fair sleet]

No, the other way round. 20 thinner for 1 paint. That's when I want to do some glazing/filtering

[upper juniper]

That is indeed a beautiful spoon, I would hang it on my living room

[upper juniper]

Woah 5-6 layers

I see"

I thought it was less than that since the videos on youtube usually only does 1-2 layers, maybe they cut it.

[fair sleet]

It also depends on the paints itself. Some paints are inherently more opaque than others. Yellows/orange/reds are very transparent and will need a lot of layers.

[upper juniper]

I see

Anyway, thanks for the help @fair sleet 🍻

Will update when I try it

[upper juniper]

Well it definitely looks better

Took me like 15min+ tho 😅

[fair sleet]

An airdryer set up on low setting helps a lot for the drying.
And with experience you will get faster.

[upper juniper]

Is it nornal for the spray to be a little wet (like a wet paint after brushing) after just spraying it? Or you need it to "look dry"

[fair sleet]

Yes, that's pretty normal. You don't really want to have something to look dry instantly.
For base coating, your first layers should look wet for a few second then dry. You can be a bit more heavy handed after that.