Best air brush and what kind of paint?

I've been given the opportunity to do some work designing on tote bags/t-shirts and such items for sororities and fraternities, and I want to travel a bit into using air brush techniques. Don't know much about it, and want to make sure I'm using the right equipment and paints to produce a good product. Mostly canvas bags. What are some good companies that produce quality air brush supplies that aren't super super expensive? I want good tools, but I'm just starting out. Any ideas or suggestions will be great! Thanks in advance!Best air brush and what kind of paint?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you're just starting out with airbrush, you're going to be spending some loot. That being said, I'll try to keep this as painless as possible.





First things first. You need a compressor. Since you're just beginning I'd suggest seeing if you can borrow one from a friend. You don't want to spend a few hundred on a compressor just to find out that airbrush isn't your thing. If you already have one, good for you. That's one big expense out of the way. If you really want to buy one, check Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/ I've had their 21 gallon compressor in my home studio for a few years now, and the only problem I've had was the power switch, that I broke myself. No problem though. I just called their 800 number and $7.00 later, they shipped me a new switch.





Now for the fun part. You need an airbrush. Iwata is pretty much the industry standard. My personal workhorse is their HP-C. At around $200.00 it's probably not what you're looking for right now. There are a couple of companies selling what are basically an Iwata knock off. They all come from the same manufacturer in China. They just put their own names on them. I bought a couple of these a while ago, and man was I surprised. They're not quite Iwata quality, but pretty damn close. A quality gravity feed airbrush for about $50.00! I'll take it. There are actually a bunch of companies selling these, but I've only found two that offer replacement parts. Airbrush City http://www.airbrushcity.com/ and Airbrush Depot http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/ Airbrush Depot calls theirs Master Airbrush. Get yourself one of their gravity feed guns with the 7cc paint cup.





As far as paint goes. There are some paints specifically made for fabric, but you can also just use Createx airbrush paint. It's basically just acrylic paint that's been reduced for use with an airbrush. You can get this pretty much any where that sells airbrushes. One thing to know about painting on fabric. When the artwork is finished you should heat set the paint. You can do this with an iron on a low setting (keep a piece of wax paper between the iron and the fabric), or a heat gun. I've even heard of some people just throwing the stuff in the dryer, but I 'm not promising anything there.





Miscellaneous stuff. You're going to need a regulator, a moisture trap, hoses and probably some fittings. You can get most of this stuff really cheap at Harbor Freight. If not, Airbrush depot carries everything. You can also rent some very helpful airbrush videos here. http://smartflix.com/





I hope this was of some help to you. Trying to learn the ins and outs of airbrush on your own can be confusing, and sometimes discouraging. If you have any more questions, and I'm sure you will, feel free to email me through Yahoo Answers. I'll be glad to help.Best air brush and what kind of paint?
Badger used to be a respected company,I don't know if they are still around as I use the airbrush tools in Photoshop now and transfer the work.One good company for colours was DR.Martin's concentrated water colour,but that is for Art work onto paper.Most fabric applications are made by silk screen printing from artwork,a process that normally invoves photographing the art work and producing a stencil to be printed using silk screen inks especially designed for fabrics.