Help With Painting

[🪦 ToDreamNoMore ●]

Hey everyone,
I\'ve started work on a Zombie chest peice and I want to know the best way to paint it when it is done. I have tried the spray paint approach, but I really don\'t like the results. If airbrush is the way to go, can anyone point me in the direction of a decent airbrush kit (that isn\'t extremely expensive) that would have all the stuff I\'ll need to get the ball rolling? And in the meantime, can anyone give me some advice for painting latex peices that does no require airbush, and can still come out halfway decent? I appreciate all the advice everyone,
Thanks a bunch
Dave

PS. I know very little about airbrush. I saw a few sets on E-Bay. Should I steer clear of them?

[🪦 travsall ●]

Alright, a good airbrush is pretty much essential, I would recomend the Badger 350. That\'s most guys favorite, and from what I\'ve heard it\'s a pretty good price too! For a zombie chest piece you\'ll want some depth, to get this effect you want to give the entire front a full light coat of black with the airbrush, then take your main skin color and stipple it on (meaning, you dab it on in moderate coat with a sponge) this leaves the black in all the creases and holes and gives the chest a much more realistic look over all. Then you can dry sponge on some contrasting colors in a very light coat, or even give it a paint wash or 2 depending on the look you want. To finish it off airbursh in and exposed bone, blood or any other details like that and do a light wash over them to make the detail pop out!

Don\'t know if you meant spray paint as in the cans, but stay FAR away from that with latex. The paint will eat away the latex and completely ruin the piece.

Does that help?

[MegaJasonXXL]

Yup. Krylon is a BIG no no.

[🪦 Bullzilla65 ●]

Pretty good advice with the painting. But what I\'d like to know is exactly WHAT kind of paint to use on latex? Say for a mask? Acrylic? what?

[🪦 ToDreamNoMore ●]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I\'ve been using a few different techniques for painting the peices I\'ve made. For facial prosthetics, I usually use normal makeup for the paint job, and on a latex bust I made I used spray paint (it didn\'t eat through the latex, luckily. I just didn\'t like the way it came out.) and on a knee-cap appliance I made yesterday into today, I used a combination of makeup and spray paint. They come out well enough for my purposes, but they lack that professional look I was hoping for. I guess I will give airbrush a try. What do I need aside from the airbrush itself? And also, for doing details such as exposed bone, how do I paint that small section without getting that paint on the surrounding areas?
Any other techniques are also very welcome.
Thanks again, all
Dave

[🪦 SkeletonMurderer ●]

I recommend using acrylics as most other kinds of paint are cumbersome to use as a beginner. NEVER start with black as a basecoat. It often makes the colors you use over it much too dark. If your doing a dead character burnt umber (black brown) is much better for this, you could even experiment with a black green. Drybrushing or sponging washes is a very good way to add subtle details and color layers. For bone simply use whites and yellows to achieve the effect. The key is reference and experimentation along with learning all you can. I think all artists who use an airbrush should look at [url=\"http://www.airbrushtalk.com/index.htm\"]Airbrush Talk[/url] as a very valuable resource.

[🪦 ToDreamNoMore ●]

I think I\'m going to pick up an airbrush today. [url=\"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=28111&item=8102672793&rd=1\"]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...8102672793&rd=1[/url]
This sound like a good choice?
Dave