Painting seamless bodies (NSFW?)

Thanks a lot! I don't know about the stencils yet, but Gubernator used round hole stencils for certain unpainted areas, pressing them onto the body and then painting over with the pastels. Might work for more detailed tattoos too.

If I may guess, is your project that tribal blue worm painted Anakin from the old clones wars?

Ovy wrote:Thanks a lot! I don't know about the stencils yet, but Gubernator used round hole stencils for certain unpainted areas, pressing them onto the body and then painting over with the pastels. Might work for more detailed tattoos too.

If I may guess, is your project that tribal blue worm painted Anakin from the old clones wars?

LOL, yep, I'm not exactly subtle. ;D

It's a project that is still just a distant dream, since I still haven't even figured out if modding the tbleague body to have the mech arm would actually be feasible or not. But I need to know if it's possible, so I know if I can keep dreaming....

ETA: In case anyone doesn't know wtf we're talking about, it's the Tartakovsky 2D-animated Anakin from the Nelvaan quest storyline: 









I'm only a little obsessed..... 

Hm I am pretty sure it can be done - the animated style also leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The metal skeleton is a good base for a mechanical arm,  the skin around it could be cut off. But I guess you considered all that already. Do you know what kind of body you might use? I guess M32 (Bruce Lee) or M33. Maybe M32 as it looks  tall, slender and super strong. I have a m32 waiting to be fully body painted so the lady above has not to be alone. As I go full freestyle on them anyway, I might try out how some of Anakins rectangular, pointy blue tattoos might look like on a tanned seamless body. I will let you know, I might get it done this week.

Ovy wrote:Hm I am pretty sure it can be done - the animated style also leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The metal skeleton is a good base for a mechanical arm,  the skin around it could be cut off. But I guess you considered all that already. Do you know what kind of body you might use? I guess M32 (Bruce Lee) or M33. Maybe M32 as it looks  tall, slender and super strong. I have a m32 waiting to be fully body painted so the lady above has not to be alone. As I go full freestyle on them anyway, I might try out how some of Anakins rectangular, pointy blue tattoos might look like on a tanned seamless body. I will let you know, I might get it done this week.

It's kind of you to experiment a bit on my behalf! There was a thread a while ago where Rev described how one might mod the arm, and it sounded like with the right tools it could definitely work. And likewise, you may be right that the tattoos are possible, presuming the oil pastel can indeed be controlled well enough. My idea was to use an M33, but with ankle extenders to make up the height. 

There have been several factors preventing me from going ahead with this project, including too many other WIP projects going on already, as well as lack of spare funds, and thus my hesitation to experiment too much since I can't really afford to 'waste' any tbleague bodies. Also, I don't have any kind of tool to cut the metal on the tbleague skeleton. So it's all been a bit 'pie in the sky' anyway for now. I had even given up on the seamless bodies for tattoos and had been considering using an old plastic muscle body just so I could paint it more easily, but then struggled to find any plastic body that I liked enough to use. :p

Btw, curious to see more of your painted people! The one you showed above is just so beautifully done and aesthetically pleasing. I do love body art that enhances or emphasizes the natural body shape. 

Very impressive body painting, Ovy!

GubernatorFan wrote:Very impressive body painting, Ovy!

Thanks, also thanks to all of you pioneers and honor to all the bodies that were sacrificed in the name of science.

skywalkersaga wrote:[...]


It's kind of you to experiment a bit on my behalf! There was a thread a while ago where Rev described how one might mod the arm, and it sounded like with the right tools it could definitely work. And likewise, you may be right that the tattoos are possible, presuming the oil pastel can indeed be controlled well enough. My idea was to use an M33, but with ankle extenders to make up the height. 

There have been several factors preventing me from going ahead with this project, including too many other WIP projects going on already, as well as lack of spare funds, and thus my hesitation to experiment too much since I can't really afford to 'waste' any tbleague bodies. Also, I don't have any kind of tool to cut the metal on the tbleague skeleton. So it's all been a bit 'pie in the sky' anyway for now. I had even given up on the seamless bodies for tattoos and had been considering using an old plastic muscle body just so I could paint it more easily, but then struggled to find any plastic body that I liked enough to use. :p

Btw, curious to see more of your painted people! The one you showed above is just so beautifully done and aesthetically pleasing. I do love body art that enhances or emphasizes the natural body shape. 

Ah I think I remember the cybernetic experiments. I thought the metal arm could be incorporated into the arm. And yeah this hobby and it's many problematic sides. Sometimes I think it's 80% problem solving. But enough of that, I hope the Anakinxperiments can cheer you up/motivate you.

I didn't paint him with the mindset of accurately recreating the tattoos. The square...spiral (squiral?) Became much more dense and labyrinthine like and will be easier if you stick to the original design.
The best result to get the pointy ends is to use swift strokes, so it might make sense to cover up a part with a piece of paper, start to draw here up to the skin, so only the pointy end ends up on the skin. (Didn't try that) I am not sure if I understand what I just wrote...well. Also use multiple light strokes per line.



No lamb hair.


And thanks sky, 'painted people' is a good codename.  
The rest is WIP, but I am blurring the lines between tutorial and something else here. Might open another thread, with story and all.

Your painted people look psychedelic, Ovy! Maybe they can be a tribe of rave-goers who somehow were so zoinked that they were not impacted by the cataclysm.

This tutorial thread is very cool. Some nice ideas you have and thanks for all the testing.

I like the possibilities these Oil pastels offer. Might try one day for myself.

Ah, wow, Ovy! That line painting experiment turned out so well! I will bear in mind those tips if I end up attempting this. Thank you so much for sharing, it really did cheer me up. :') 

I love how you incorporated it into the full body paint... like GF said, it's very psychedelic. And is there something about the Painted People and making kissy faces? If I had to guess...maybe some vestige of 'selfies'... lol!

Has anyone experienced issues with oil pastels and colour transfer? I recently had this problem with a tbleague body I coloured, but I'm not sure if it might just be due to the fact that I maybe didn't wash the residue thoroughly enough? I have been struggling with this one in particular because the colour doesn't seem to evenly stain the body, so I keep washing it, then going over it again, washing it, going over it again, etc, to try to cover up the areas where the flesh colour keeps showing through underneath. So there is a chance that maybe I haven't washed it enough since I'm trying to keep the colour even and heavy cleaning with soap tends to make it look patchy. 

The other oddity is that I only seem to notice the colour transfer after the body is dry and I coat it in the translucent makeup powder again. I'm wondering if the powder somehow absorbs some of the colour, and the seeming 'transfer' is actually from the powder itself picking up the colour and then transferring it onto the clothing? 

Sorry if this sounds strange, but just thought I'd check if the powder issue had happened to anyone else? 

Otherwise, it's likely just me.... I probably need to just wash it more thoroughly, even thought I'd thought I'd done so already...

skywalkersaga wrote:Has anyone experienced issues with oil pastels and colour transfer? I recently had this problem with a tbleague body I coloured, but I'm not sure if it might just be due to the fact that I maybe didn't wash the residue thoroughly enough? I have been struggling with this one in particular because the colour doesn't seem to evenly stain the body, so I keep washing it, then going over it again, washing it, going over it again, etc, to try to cover up the areas where the flesh colour keeps showing through underneath. So there is a chance that maybe I haven't washed it enough since I'm trying to keep the colour even and heavy cleaning with soap tends to make it look patchy. 

The other oddity is that I only seem to notice the colour transfer after the body is dry and I coat it in the translucent makeup powder again. I'm wondering if the powder somehow absorbs some of the colour, and the seeming 'transfer' is actually from the powder itself picking up the colour and then transferring it onto the clothing? 

Sorry if this sounds strange, but just thought I'd check if the powder issue had happened to anyone else? 

Otherwise, it's likely just me.... I probably need to just wash it more thoroughly, even thought I'd thought I'd done so already...

Not sure I can evaluate the problem, given all the potential unknowns. Maybe ask yourself the following and see if there is something you might have missed somewhere, although I'm sure you already know all this...
Are you applying the oil pastel to a TBLeague silicone body surface?
Are you washing off any protective powder before applying the oil pastel?
Are you using non-water-soluble oil pastel? (they make some of those too, avoid them for such purposes)
Are you rubbing in the oil pastel enough into the silicone surface before rinsing, drying, and coating with powder?
With enough of the above treatment, it ought to stick and not transfer.

GubernatorFan wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Has anyone experienced issues with oil pastels and colour transfer? I recently had this problem with a tbleague body I coloured, but I'm not sure if it might just be due to the fact that I maybe didn't wash the residue thoroughly enough? I have been struggling with this one in particular because the colour doesn't seem to evenly stain the body, so I keep washing it, then going over it again, washing it, going over it again, etc, to try to cover up the areas where the flesh colour keeps showing through underneath. So there is a chance that maybe I haven't washed it enough since I'm trying to keep the colour even and heavy cleaning with soap tends to make it look patchy. 

The other oddity is that I only seem to notice the colour transfer after the body is dry and I coat it in the translucent makeup powder again. I'm wondering if the powder somehow absorbs some of the colour, and the seeming 'transfer' is actually from the powder itself picking up the colour and then transferring it onto the clothing? 

Sorry if this sounds strange, but just thought I'd check if the powder issue had happened to anyone else? 

Otherwise, it's likely just me.... I probably need to just wash it more thoroughly, even thought I'd thought I'd done so already...

Not sure I can evaluate the problem, given all the potential unknowns. Maybe ask yourself the following and see if there is something you might have missed somewhere, although I'm sure you already know all this...
Are you applying the oil pastel to a TBLeague silicone body surface?
Are you washing off any protective powder before applying the oil pastel?
Are you using non-water-soluble oil pastel? (they make some of those too, avoid them for such purposes)
Are you rubbing in the oil pastel enough into the silicone surface before rinsing, drying, and coating with powder?
With enough of the above treatment, it ought to stick and not transfer.

Thanks, GF. I think that's probably the only possible step of the process that I could be doing 'wrong', other than perhaps not rinsing it well enough at the end -- I'm currently trying to colour one of the smaller tbleague bodies, and certain areas, especially around the joints, are very delicate, and I've been a bit afraid to apply too much pressure lest I somehow break the underlying metal skeleton or puncture the 'flesh'. So I'm thinking in some spots I might not have rubbed it in strongly enough with the sponge. I'll try again and hope for the best.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks, GF. I think that's probably the only possible step of the process that I could be doing 'wrong', other than perhaps not rinsing it well enough at the end -- I'm currently trying to colour one of the smaller tbleague bodies, and certain areas, especially around the joints, are very delicate, and I've been a bit afraid to apply too much pressure lest I somehow break the underlying metal skeleton or puncture the 'flesh'. So I'm thinking in some spots I might not have rubbed it in strongly enough with the sponge. I'll try again and hope for the best.

I don't think it is really a question of strength. Just to thoroughly get some of the oil pastel to get stuck/bond there, while the excess gets loose and gets stuck somewhere else or removed. I remember it took me a long time to get it to the point where it would not only cover an area, but also will not transfer. So spend some time rubbing it on, then rinse, if necessary more than once. I would pat dry with a paper towel in between, and before the final application of protective powder.

Gotcha, will make sure I do that!

Regarding the colour transfer issue, fingers crossed I seem to have sorted it -- I think it was simply down to not washing one of the areas enough... I had overlooked certain spots. Hopefully it will be ok now. 

And going back to the subject of colouring Jiaou doll bodies, I was recently reading a thread over on the old site, and someone mentioned the fact that washing Jiaou bodies in soap can dry them out and cause peeling and cracking. I'm now wondering if that might be a part of the problem I encountered with my earlier attempts to colour one. Is it even possible to adequately 'wash' the oil pastel off a body without soap?

Update: the method described here is in fact reversible, see Post 174 below. For a better alternative, see Post 192 below.

Seems like several of us are experimenting with applying color -- for various purposes and by various means -- to seamless bodies. I've come up with a little breakthrough, and wrote it up and illustrated it below. Ever since I got the ADD Toys War Wolves "muscle version," I couldn't fail but be impressed with what they did paint-wise, and how it leapt ahead of TBLeague and Jiaou in that respect (less so when it comes to sculpting -- nipples should be 3D! -- especially articulation -- nothing seems to beat a real stainless steel skeleton so far). Now why can't one company get everything right?

Anyway, I sought a way to draw body hair on a TBLeague silicone-covered steel-skeletoned (is that a word?) body. Short of some factory setup with breathers and masks and silicone spray pigments and other futuristic technology (I don't actually know how ADD Toys pulled it off), that was not going to happen. Oil pastel seems to be the easiest approach to coloring the silicone covering of TBLeague bodies (though see now Gooboo's excellent write up of the dyeing alternative), but there is no way oil pastel could produce lines that are sufficiently thin, and the methods used in conventional paintings to produce such lines (by scraping off the excess material) would hardly be applicable here.

So I looked for an oil-based ink pen with a tip small enough to do the job. The best I could find was a Pilot Drawing Pen with Oil-Based Ink, tip size 005 (Pilot M-20DRN05-B, 200, is the name/number that appears above the bar code on the pen; the rest is in Japanese). These come in very limited color (black, maybe also blue and red -- at least the other sizes do), so I went for black.

For the experiment, I took one of my M30 bodies (TBLeague's first go at a seamless male body, turned out too pale/greyish and short, some say too cartoonish), gave it a gentle wash to remove the protective powder, colored the nipples with oil pastels to get that part out of the way, and proceeded with hand drawing the little hairs. On a hard smooth surface the line is very fine, though not quite as fine as the painted hairs on the ADD Toys muscle body; on the silicone cover the line is less fine and harder to draw, but still better than any of the alternatives I could think of. Hand drawing body hair can get tedious real fast, but I am stubborn for a reason; still, more patience and care might have produced a somewhat better result. But ultimately, this is for experimental purposes.

As expected, the oil-based ink was able to bond with the silicone surface once that had been cleared of protective powder. It did not come off when gently washed off and patted dry. It dulled just a little bit when I re-applied protective powder over it (and that is actually a good thing, otherwise it was a bit shiny and sharp; besides, the silicone surface should be protected). It did not transfer on paper towels or clothing. A drop of water left on top of it had no effect; but rubbing the water in a bit led to a little bit of smudging (though not washing off or color transfer). Update: for more on this, see Post 174 below.

Regardless of my success or failure in drawing the body hair (I may have gotten carried away) in a remotely realistic manner or the suitability of this tip for that purpose (I don't think we can find a finer one), the permanent coloring goal seems to be successfully attained. A number of you have expressed concern about finding a way to draw tattoos on these bodies, and this might work even better for those than it does for body hair (you might want to get both this finest tip and one of the slightly less fine ones to cover more ground).













What do you think?

Update: the method described here is in fact reversible, see Post 174 below.

Interesting technique. I think you’re right about going a little overboard Now you need a Robin Williams sculpt — that guy was practically a primate. A little less and I think it would look really good — it’s too bad the pen doesn’t come in brown, as that might make it a bit less stark. Really good first attempt.

Stryker2011 wrote:Interesting technique. I think you’re right about going a little overboard Now you need a Robin Williams sculpt — that guy was practically a primate. A little less and I think it would look really good — it’s too bad the pen doesn’t come in brown, as that might make it a bit less stark. Really good first attempt.

Fair enough, and thanks. The reason I kept going was, in part, because of how stark it was (even though I knew the protective powder would soften it a little bit) -- having significantly less coverage of body hair that was otherwise this stark would have made it look too "manscaped," and that was not an effect I wanted to end up with. While I own/wear a hairy body myself, I have little or no experience recreating the look, so I did some online research (which exposed me to some pretty questionable content on occasion); in some cases it is funny what passes for hairy these days, but there were plenty of photos with people much hairier than this. Robin Williams would have needed brown or brick red ink and a different body type, but you have a point. For your purposes, I think the potential for tattoos is pretty great.

Haha, he reminds me of some hairy Persian blokes I used to know.  

But seriously, this is a really cool discovery! I actually had thought about the potential of oil based pens myself a while ago, but then couldn't track any down and promptly forgot about it. I'm glad you managed to find some. Does it really only come in black? If so, frustrating.  Even so, it's still a really promising find for tattoo purposes, as you say!

skywalkersaga wrote:Haha, he reminds me of some of hairy Persian blokes I used to know.  

But seriously, this is a really cool discovery! I actually had thought about the potential of oil based pens myself a while ago, but then couldn't track any down and promptly forgot about it. I'm glad you managed to find some. Does it really only come in black? If so, frustrating.  Even so, it's still a really promising find for tattoo purposes, as you say!

At the store from which I ordered, the oil-based version appears to come only in black.

https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Drawing-Pen-Oil-Based-Ink-005-Black/pd/11663/related?&f=0b5772b744ab187585e452fc4d268ecc

GubernatorFan wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Haha, he reminds me of some of hairy Persian blokes I used to know.  

But seriously, this is a really cool discovery! I actually had thought about the potential of oil based pens myself a while ago, but then couldn't track any down and promptly forgot about it. I'm glad you managed to find some. Does it really only come in black? If so, frustrating.  Even so, it's still a really promising find for tattoo purposes, as you say!

At the store from which I ordered, the oil-based version appears to come only in black.

https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Drawing-Pen-Oil-Based-Ink-005-Black/pd/11663/related?&f=0b5772b744ab187585e452fc4d268ecc

Thanks for the link, will definitely keep these in mind.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks for the link, will definitely keep these in mind.

You're very welcome. Just discovered there are 003 tip drawing pens; that would be even finer, however, I cannot verify whether the ink would work yet, as they don't appear to use oil-based ink.

Ah ok. Well, hope you find as fine tips as possible for your tbleague 'hair-ing'.  

Just curious -- do you know if 'paint pens' work in a similar way to the pens you've just used? I mean the sort of oil-based marker pens that people use to draw designs on glass, for instance. ETA: I'm guessing they don't stick very well and would probably wash off, but just wondered for obvious reasons! ;P

skywalkersaga wrote:Ah ok. Well, hope you find as fine tips as possible for your tbleague 'hair-ing'.  

Just curious -- do you know if 'paint pens' work in a similar way to the pens you've just used? I mean the sort of oil-based marker pens that people use to draw designs on glass, for instance. ETA: I'm guessing they don't stick very well and would probably wash off, but just wondered for obvious reasons! ;P

I mean to investigate that too. Fine tips in those are not on the same scale of fine, but I did get some (by iBayam and by Zeyar, which also makes acrylic paint markers). Just haven't tested them yet. I can tell you oil-based color pencils don't work well for such purposes.

Hah, nice one, good to know there is a 'precise' method like this.

Btw, attacked a Jiaou dude's covered leg with the tattoo machine just for fun, while it did not work like a real tattoo, somehow this ink sticks to the body. But still some experimenting to do there.

And a happy little accident: I outlined the craft paper wings for Fyyit with a graphite pencil to cut them out. When trying on the wings, the line of the pencil seems to have transferred onto her back permanently.
Have not reproduced that yet, as I am out of testing bodies. But maybe someone would like to experiment further if it is possible to draw fine pencil tattoos on the paper and transfer them to the skin.

Update and response to Ovy

The oil-based ink method is not quite as irreversible as I thought. As I mentioned, if you rub some water onto it, it can smudge a little bit. Well, if you rub it just a little more vigorously with (for example) a wet q-tip, you can pretty much completely remove the ink. This is both good news and bad -- the good news is that it is reversible, in case you make a mistake or change your mind; the bad news likewise, in case you wanted to be certain that it is stuck there forever. But if you are not going to wet and rub the figure (we're still talking TBLeague silicone body here), the oil-based ink seems like a reasonably stable option for tattoos and body hair or whatever.

Ovy, I don't quite follow what you mean about a tattoo machine, but I'm sure soon enough you will show us. I did try to replicate your pencil graphite discovery, and it works just like you say. I did a quick little X on a bit of paper, making sure to make it thick and full, then just rubbed it a bit onto the silicone surface, and sure enough it left an offprint. Then I tried to remove it with a wet q-tip. It gradually turned into a smudge but eventually came off completely. It performed the same way both before and after removing the protective powder. Looks like another reversible approach.

Ovy wrote:Hah, nice one, good to know there is a 'precise' method like this.

Btw, attacked a Jiaou dude's covered leg with the tattoo machine just for fun, while it did not work like a real tattoo, somehow this ink sticks to the body. But still some experimenting to do there.

And a happy little accident: I outlined the craft paper wings for Fyyit with a graphite pencil to cut them out. When trying on the wings, the line of the pencil seems to have transferred onto her back permanently.
Have not reproduced that yet, as I am out of testing bodies. But maybe someone would like to experiment further if it is possible to draw fine pencil tattoos on the paper and transfer them to the skin.

Thanks for the update, GF. It seems like very few things are truly ‘permanent’ on the silicone, so it’s not surprising. But it’s still an interesting technique that could be useful for specific needs and perhaps be fine in smaller areas (with less chance of constant handling and getting rubbed or smudged). Such as if someone wanted to add just a bit of chest hair on a figure with an open-necked shirt, or tattoos on a bare arm or something.

I appreciate everyone performing these experiments to test the various materials. Sometimes we make breakthroughs, and sometimes it’s a ‘false alarm’ — I was so excited at first when I thought I’d managed to colour the body with the white oil pastel, but then sadly realized it was all washing off. But it’s helpful to do that process of elimination, as otherwise we might always be wondering about it.

Update on painting/drawing on TBLeague silicone body surface with oil-based ink.

Oil-based ink seemed like the natural candidate for drawing small details (like tattoos or body hair) on this surface, and I reported on my experiments in an earlier post (post 162 in this thread). As I noticed and noted, it seemed like a fairly stable solution, but it is possible to smudge the lines if you rubbed them with something wet. Continued experimentation confirms this. In fact, with enough effort, that solution can now be classified as reversible rather than permanent.

If you do not handle and rub the body with wet fingers or tools you will probably have stable and clear lines. But if you do, you will get some smudging. The silver lining is that this means that if you make a mistake in the painting/drawing or simply change your mind and want to remove it, you can. Getting the body wet and rubbing it down on purpose with a modicum of effort produced much more smudging, eventually an artsy wash effect that I wish I had photographed, and finally (after some recourse to soap, not just water), the oil-based ink washed off, leaving almost no trace. I say almost, because there are still some faint variations in coloring, in effect reminiscent of slight pitting or hairing on the body. The process also removed the oil-pastel coloring on the nipples (I don't know whether it would have the same effect on larger surfaces painted with that medium: this instance affected very small areas, which were also not given quite as thorough a treatment as when one paints the entire body surface with oil pastel).

Here are a couple of shots of the body (the same one featured in post 162) after removing all the oil-based ink hairs. While I'm somewhat disappointed by the reversibility of the oil-based ink method, it resulted in a more nuanced (and natural) appearance (remember M30 bodies were a bit greyish in skin tone to begin with) and allowed me to continue experimenting on the same body with other options (more on that presently).

Interesting effect -- looks almost like he's got a five o'clock shadow where his body hair used to be. ;D 

Curious to see what you do with it next...