Last week myself and Riff grabbed the opportunity to test out the Sugar brand of spray paint by Ironlak. The range of paint boasts as a competitor to the recent releases of more environmental conscious spray paint for graffiti artists. I couldn't really find any decent reviews online and I cant be arsed to watch dodgy shot Youtube videos so here I'm gonna try to be as concise as possible as to how I found it.
Background info:
You can find this shit online but in short;
A recipe of alcohol and water, less solvents and volatile compounds, almost no smell. You can read all the rest over on their site/ tumblr page.
Pressure/ Flow/ Coverage (Straight to the nitty gritty):
Firstly I'll just say overall I was impressed, I liked it! You pretty much get a solid coverage. The surface I was painting on was emulsioned wood panels so quite porous surface. You definitely have to give the tins a good shake, a lot more frequently than usual. What you will find is that with some colours you get a bit of a random change in tint, it's almost like using a wet brush in photoshop. I experienced this with TEEVEE (purple) and a bit with SHERBERT (pale mint). I couldn't quite get a good control of that colour issue but didnt affect the final outcome that much.
The pressure is DOPE, big clap to Ironlak. I prefer it to Ironlak pressure to be honest and is as soft as MTN 94 and as smooth as Montana Black (a good combination in my book).
Regarding coverage, it was decent enough. The only colour which seemed patchy was GUMDROP, I had to do another cover of that to get a smoother finish.
You may find that you need to leave a certain area to dry a bit before going over again. Not too long mind you, but paint build up is a lot more immanent than general spray paint. So if you see it, take a chill and work on a different area for a bit.
Straight away with the primary sketch out/outline I could see that the pressure was right.
Regarding fades it was a bit scrappy, not as smooth as general brands, but definitely not impossible.
I was still able to use the general techniques such as cutbacks (wether you like them or not).
Caps:
Everyone has their favourite caps and I had no idea what to go with so only tried a few.
Firstly the ssssstandard cap that comes with them looks like a knock off green level one! I've used it recently on a 94 tin (mistaking it for a level one) and I thought it was pretty shit. HOWEVER on the Sugar tins, a big thumbs up. They're decent for doing a fill, good enough to do a nice thickish outline. The fade was ok, probably could definitely find a better cap for a fade, maybe the classic grey dot (soft) or the yellow banana.
I also used the Blue Skinny Pro which has apparently replaced the Black Skinny Pro. Worked bloody marvellous for my outlines. Real nice flow, skinny lines, and you could do a nice flair with them too, so pretty good thick to thin contrast (take your time with them, always tae your time with flairs.. treat them like the curves of a good woman).
I used the Green Level 1 a bit, it was decent. A bit more pressure out of this cap, great knocking out a fill, probably really good to do a flair as usual, and actually good for tight fades like riff used in his glasses.
Fumes and Dust:
Regarding a smell (I love smelling a good tin of paint)… hmm you get a hint of wet cardboard with a kick of vodka.
Remember when Ironlak was first released, you used to get loads of silly string pumping out? Well I've noticed these really fine hair like fibres flying around!! I checked if there was dust on my boards and all that. But my arms looked like I had cat hairs all over me. It wasn't every tin though.
I didnt get any nauseating feeling, and there were no fues that scared of the people in the event, so a job well done.
Overall round up:
I bloody well like them and if you've got an indoor job this is your product. I need to test on an actually wall but I was exerting loads of energy t pull off a tight piece. It did the job well.
Shakey points:
Some colours aren't what they seem on the doughnut- Teevee/ Gumdrop/ Fiorvanti
Need to shake up a lot more than usual.
Little cat hairs flying out now and then.
Some patches here and there.
Need to leave paint build up for a while longer than usual paint.
Good points:
No much cap blockage (BIg thumbs up).
Nice juicy colour range (limited but enough)
Colours that you would expect to be watery like yellow and white are fucking solid (Boom)
The black is on point, so outline away!
Not much of a smell at all.
Really looking to do a nice interior wall with these.
I've tried Liquitex. It's pretty shit, swamp water compared to this. Sorry Liquitex just have to be honest.
