Low opacity colors to apply with an airbrush

As with all existing ranges of airbrush paints, there are colors that are more or less opaque, or transparent, and Graphic airbrush paints are no exception to the rule. The reason for the disparity among different colors of airbrush paints is explained by the fact that pigments are natural, unique substances and as a result, they each have a different property and character.

Certainly, nowadays, some pigments are no longer natural, but rather synthesized. However, their properties and characteristics remain substantially the same.

Water-based and solvent-based airbrush paints are made with various ingredients, the main one being the pigment. A paint can be made with a single pigment (mono pigment color) or several pigments.

Each pigment can be seen under a microscope in its true form: we can discover different shapes but also different sizes. Each pigment is also a unique chemical molecule that will allow the reflection, the blocking, or on the contrary the passage of light. It is difficult to lay down a rule on the matter. For example, it is not true to say that a small pigment is going to be more transparent than a large pigment.

Semi-transparent colors of Graphic airbrush paints

A glaring example is the color white, which nowadays is only made from titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is admittedly an extremely fine pigment and its size approaches the boundary between micrometer and nanometer. However, it is one of the most opaque pigments.

On the contrary, a yellow or red pigment is also very fine and yet it remains poorly covering.

Although there are thousands of pigments that are classified according to the organization of the "Color index", it must be admitted that only about twenty pigments are mainly used for the manufacture of paints around the world. These are the main pigments which are the most accessible, the most affordable in terms of price, the safest because they are not dangerous, and of course the most effective thanks to their coloring power.
Consequently, that We are talking about the artistic field of oil paints, or airbrush paint, passing through body paint or even house painting, we will find their base in the same twenty pigments.
Let's take the example of the Graphic airbrush paint, they are composed of the same usual primary colors found in other fields.
Among these are main pigments which are called for some primary colors, are very highly transparent.

Primary transparent colors

Some colors are known to be very transparent.
This is the case of magenta (PR122) which is the primary red, which is a 90% transparent color. But so is primary blue (PB34), which is also an almost totally transparent color. One of the main colors that also has great transparency is green (PG41). For experienced artists, the existence and omnipresence of transparent colors in the paint palette is not seen as a disadvantage but rather as an opportunity to play with flat colors.
It is of course impossible to cover a background with a transparent color, so you have to play with transparency and a lighter background color.

Natural opaque colors and mixed opaque colors

To satisfy users, and not to get a bad reputation as a "non-covering paint", paint manufacturers usually complete their color range by removing the natural transparency of the tints.
Indeed, there are naturally perfectly opaque pigments, which give intense and covering colors, even in low concentration, and there is on the contrary, a need to modify transparent colors by giving them opacity:
creating an opaque pink is difficult. Ditto for creating an opaque purple, because its colors come from mixed transparent colors.
The technique to opacify these weak tints is to mix them with opaque pigments: this breaks the depth and beauty of the tint but this has the advantage of creating a covering paint.

Opaque colors of Graphic airbrush paints