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Re: Nail Techs
I'll answer what I can, I've had a lot of students who were aimed specifically for nail art.
For the most part, the skills are the same as airbrushing other materials.
Primarily, nail artists use acrylics with a sealer/clearcoat on top. Like autobody work, the paint job is only going to be as good as the condition of the work surface below it, so learning the filing, sanding, and occasionally filling, is crucial for a good finish.
Nail artists obviously have a much smaller canvas than what most of us paint on on a daily basis, so the detail and grand designs tend to be kept to a more subtle range.
Getting a finger and wrist rest for the customer/victim helps to keep them and their hand(s) still and in a good working stance or position.
Gravity feed brushes are used because of the reduced pressure requirements, and because the severe working angles can be problematic. The gravity feed brushes also tend to have less paint lost in cleanup and usage.
While you can make stencils from almost anything, finding material that is durable and can hold detail is a must for a professional. More often than not, the nail artist, like a T-shirt artist, will have a set of designs that he or she offers, often times these are seasonal or holiday based. So having the tools that can last through doing the same design a few hundred times is a big deal. While it may seem like "a few hundred times" might be an extreme, keep in mind that most people have ten fingers and ten toes, so all it takes is having to do 10 customers on just their hands to need those tools to last one hundred times.
There are tons of stencils out their for nail artists, and also lots of cools stendcils for doing small scale models that nail artists use. Typically the commercial nail stencils are made from 5-10mil Mylar/polyester film. Most do not have an adhesive backing on them. You may find that you can make lots of cool designs using the basic Mylar and small hole punches. Scrapbook shops and craft stores have tons of cool little punches in a huge variety of sizes and shapes, these let you make custom layouts/designs, and help you to keep your costs down.
Like any use of the airbrush, cleaning and maintenance of your brush and tools is absolutely critical for a working artist.
And like any art, perfection and new skills come from practice. There is no substitute!
Learning and folowing a good cleaning routine, and proper use and storage of your airbrush and tools will allow you to use them for years to come.
Scotti, If you are getting bubbling back in to the brush, then the nozzle is not sealed properly or the nozzle cap is plugged up. Air escapes from the easiest point of release, if it's not through the nozzle cap, like it would normally be, then it pushes back past the needle into the paint reservoir/cup.
If you are getting spitting and splattering, either your paint is not properly thinned/reduced, strained, or mixed, your airbrush is dirty or damaged, and or your air presure is too low. It may be any or all of these things.
While sending your brush off to Coast Airbrush may be helpful at times, learning to take care of your own tools will be much more cost effective both time wise and monitarily.
Spray with the needle and nozzle cap on the brush, especially with doing nails. Because you WILL be working very close to the canvas (nails) damaging the needle or the customer/victim is very easy to do. Damaged needles not only cost you time and lost work, they also cost money, not just for the needle, but for the nozzle and needle packing/seal/bearing that get damaged when the damaged needle is pulled through. While the removal of the needle through the front of the brush seems like an easy answer, the fact is that it is much more time consuming, and you drasticallly increase the chances of damaging or destroying the brush body, the nozzle, and the needle itself in doing so.
Try to keep your brush clean. A clean brush is a happy brush, and lives a whole lot longer too!
The condition of your equipment reflects on you, your business, and the quality of your work.
Avoid letting your brush get crusty, inside or out. Having to force a needle by pulling it with pliers or something of that nature back through the needle packing/seals/bearing just trashes the seal's abillity to function properly, to you, that means that it will start leaking paint back into the trigger well and handle area, and paint getting into the airvalve is bad news.
Keeping a tooth brush resting in a cup of water or your chosen solvent where you work will let you keep the needle cap and brush exterior clean in a matter of seconds. A quick scrub of the needle cap will remove any paint build up, and help keep your brush operating the way you want it to.
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Nail Techs
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