What caused pitting in my aerosol knockdown texture?

Question

I recently replaced some gypsum drywall in my bathroom. When it came time to texture it, it seemed like the drywall's paper was swiftly sucking the moisture out of the texture that came out of my aerosol can. That didn't seem ideal, so I stopped, scraped off my first application of texture, let everything dry, applied 2 coats of primer (Zinsser 123, aerosol (because that's all I had at 10pm)), waited 1 day, then reapplied the texture.

Everything turned out decent, in that hidden trial spot.

Emboldened by my apparent success, I moved on to the next area in the house that needed a similar treatment. This time, I applied the same primer beforehand, letting it dry for 1 day. The I textured and let that also dry for a day, and then I painted.

In that second room, things did not go quite so well. The texture looked fine before the latex paint was added. But then while the paint was still wet, I'd see tiny bubbles pop up here and there. I didn't think much of it, and left.

When I came back, the paint was dry, but now there were 1000s of tiny pinhole craters in my texture. I'd like to know how I went wrong, so I don't make the same mistake.

(Bonus points for suggestions on remediating. Right now I'm trying a thin application of joint compound, which I was going to sponge off after it sets a bit, then apply a second coat of paint.)

For the knockdown texture, I followed the instructions on the spray can as closely as I could:

• I warmed the can up to 80F.
• I shook it upside down for 1+ minutes, with the ball rattling the whole time.
• I cleared the nozzle

Answer 1

Answering my own question.

I think I know what happened. Later on, I even saw bubbles forming in the fresh paint when brushing over already painted surfaces (such as, while doing the "cut in" around doors, etc.) So I think the new knockdown texture had nothing to do with it.

From searching online, I suspect that I got too aggressive with the drill-powered paint stirrer, after I first opened the can & noticed a little bit of colorant separation. I think I must have sucked some air down the vortex, which broke up into bajillions of tiny bubbles that were too small to float up in the viscous paint, but could rise out of a thin spread layer.

In the first room I painted, where I didn't have this problem: that was a different can of paint.