Painting seamless bodies (NSFW?)

AerynDiana wrote:I'm sure it will look great, cause she already does.

I like those pants! Did you make them? That's the kind of material I need for my team of ladies...

Kind of you to say.

And the pants/trousers are from the Tbleague Steampunk Red Sonja -- I cut the waist area down to make them more like Aayla's and painted them with fabric medium/acrylic mixture.

I think it looks awesome. I picked up the Sideshow head loose, and I think your coloring looks great. The shaded areas work the way shaded areas are supposed to work.

Thanks, Stryker! I'm glad the shaded bits look alright. I think I'm probably just second guessing myself too much, as always... ;p

Update on painting silicone seamless bodies (Phicen/TBLeague) with oil-based ink

As explained above (see Post 174), oil-based ink like that in the Pilot Drawing Pens (see Post 162 above) did not prove a permanent solution when applied directly onto the silicone seamless body. That solution appears to be provided by Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pens with water and fade proof pigment ink (see Post 192 above). However, when I experimented with this last option (Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pen) on a silicone seamless body that was painted with oil pastel, it failed. So I decided to give the oil-based ink another try for this specific condition, figuring that oil ought to work on oil. Preliminary testing was very promising so I proceeded with it for my custom Darth Maul (see Parts I and II HERE). Also see The Further Adventures of Darth Maul, HERE.

Having first painted the body the base color (I looked it up, Maul's is supposed to be red), I applied the patterns of the "tattoos" (I think rather "war paint") with different tip-size (005 to 08) Pilot Drawing Pens with black oil-based ink (and, for some larger areas, black oil pastel, although that came out exceedingly dull and I partly went over it with oil-based ink). So far so good.



You want to give the ink a chance to dry, after which touching it is no problem. I knew that protecting powder ought to help (building up a thin layer between the surface and anything else), but I held off on using it, lest it dull the colors for the initial photo shoot. It was not the smartest decision (as expected), because repeated handling to pose and move the figure, however careful, led to some dulling and very slight smudging in some places. The worst problem was where areas of the surface come together (like the inside fold at the biceps or at the knee, or at the armpit and down the inside of the biceps), which allow the oil-based ink (even at a couple of days old) to transfer (stain) the clean surface. Take this into account and either coat the figure in protective powder before handling or test for staining in such places and incorporate the "problem area" into the pattern ("if you can't beat them, join them"). Now that I have coated the figure in protective powder, it seems to be doing its job, but I'm going to be handling it very rarely and very carefully.

The moral of the story is that you can draw designs on silicone seamless bodies that are painted over with oil pastel, using Pilot Drawing Pens with oil-based ink, but you need to apply protective powder after this and probably exercise great care in handling. For drawing designs on silicone seamless bodies that are not painted with oil pastels, I would stick to Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pens with water and fade proof pigment ink. Still, proceed at your own risk and apply extra protective powder (although, if you get some of the oil-based ink onto a silicone surface where you don't want it, you can wash it off with soap and water).

Update: A few weeks later, and the oil-based ink transfer issue is still a problem. While I'm experimenting to find a better solution for the painting onto oil-pastel-colored silicone bodies, one thing that has contained the problem is a vigorous but careful rubdown (or massage) of the surface with paper towels. Make sure to not move the paper towel (once used) over another area to avoid retransfer or smudging during the process. Keep going over the problem areas with fresh paper towels until you see no transfer. Theoretically, this might be the solution to the issue. But it does mean your design would look a little duller or slightly faded.

Thanks so much for sharing the results and showing a bit of the process as well. I still can't get over how good it looks!

You probably already answered this, but does this particular type of oil-based pen come in any other colour or is only available in black?

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks so much for sharing the results and showing a bit of the process as well. I still can't get over how good it looks!

You probably already answered this, but does this particular type of oil-based pen come in any other colour or is only available in black?

You're very welcome. This particular line of Pilot products does not appear to come in any other colors, but there are other oil markers from this and other brands. I haven't experimented with them yet (in part because I was originally looking for really fine tips, and an "extra fine tip" means something far less fine where a marker is concerned). Here is a search result for oil-based ink on JetPens, where I got mine -- you can at least get some ideas from there. As long as the marker works on the oil-colored silicone, it is not a given that you need a super fine (005 or even smaller) tip for patterns like those on my Maul -- in fact I mostly used 08-, 05-, and 03-size tips, and if I helped myself with the 005 on occasion, it was not actually necessary to use something so fine.

https://www.jetpens.com/search?q=oil-based+ink&v=2

Response to the great alien painters:

Team Blue:

Sky, I instantly recognized the character of course, I think it looks brilliant to perfect, the brown is in perfect harmony with the blue skin, and the 23 was the best choice there. But I get it, you are a perfectionist and I was never 100% happy with the way my figures turn out too, so I totally get it. xD
 Have you applied the powder yet? I think you can lighten up the body a lot if you use more powder.


Team Red:

Still have to thank you for your uniball experiment, will try them once I find the time and courage.

And I am sure Maul also has teeth on the buttocks.

Ovy wrote:Team Blue:

Sky, I instantly recognized the character of course, I think it looks brilliant to perfect, the brown is in perfect harmony with the blue skin, and the 23 was the best choice there. But I get it, you are a perfectionist and I was never 100% happy with the way my figures turn out too, so I totally get it. xD
 Have you applied the powder yet? I think you can lighten up the body a lot if you use more powder.

Team Red:

Still have to thank you for your uniball experiment, will try them once I find the time and courage.

And I am sure Maul also has teeth on the buttocks.

Great idea about the blue; the protective powder would lighten it a bit. But I don't actually think it was that much darker than it should be (and the deeper color in places makes it look even better to me); when I mentioned something is a bit more greenish, I meant the image of the character we were given as reference -- but so much of this depends on one's monitor and also one's eyes (we all see colors ever so slightly differently).

You are very welcome. Just proceed with patience and caution, and I hope you will have success. As for that other part at the end (back?), well... I didn't see anything like this when I came across all that explicit "fan art," so who knows... LOL

Ovy -- Thanks so much for the vote of confidence! Feeling much more inclined to keep going on this one after all the encouraging words. <3

GF -- Ah, yes, my bad, I had indeed misread that part of your comment earlier.

Re: the protective powder -- I did apply some to the body before putting on the outfit, as I would have struggled to apply it afterwards. Of course I could always put more on with a smaller brush, but I think the current contrast does seem to look good.

I'm hoping to have a chance to work on setting up the display area soon, so I will try out Diana's suggestion and see how it looks with the lighting there, and then decide if it might need some additional powder.

No comment on Maul's butt-markings , other than to say that in this case, since he's wearing that skirt thingie, it doesn't matter as it won't be visible.

skywalkersaga wrote:No comment on Maul's butt-markings ... it doesn't matter as it won't be visible.

Unless he plans to delve into some of that fan fiction...

Let’s hope there’s no ‘delving’ going on...

Ovy wrote:And I am sure Maul also has teeth on the buttocks.

GubernatorFan wrote:As for that other part at the end (back?), well... I didn't see anything like this when I came across all that explicit "fan art," so who knows... LOL

skywalkersaga wrote:No comment on Maul's butt-markings   , other than to say that in this case, since he's wearing that skirt thingie, it doesn't matter as it won't be visible.

Stryker2011 wrote:Unless he plans to delve into some of that fan fiction...

skywalkersaga wrote:Let’s hope there’s no ‘delving’ going on...

No need to worry -- I won't be delving into that. The only reason I might have done that is if it were canon, though I don't have much respect for this part of what passes for Star Wars "canon" anyway. But it isn't, and it would appear that anything biological below Maul's waist is just "fan art," which leaves me free to pick and choose -- and I choose to believe that Maul didn't feel the need to extend his war paint (or "tattoos") to the unseemly (or at least unseen) parts of his anatomy (although he might just be the type of punk who would do that). Even the upper body markings are somewhat up for interpretation, as we have only seen them "canonically" in Cartoon and concept art form. As far as the movie canon goes, I suppose I could have just stuck the head onto an unpainted body. Because this is as far as it went:



But where would be the fun in that? (Although it would certainly be more comedic, I suppose...)

While I used the Kotobukiya statue as the basic source of inspiration, I have allowed myself a modicum of creative interpretation, especially when I decided to incorporate some of the off-printing/staining problem areas into the patterning after the photos and before the application of the protective powder. And before anyone asks, I'm not going to ruin the seamless body by hacking off the lower parts of the "flesh" and building up any kind of mechanical legs -- I don't have enough skill to do that even if I were to have the inclination or interest in the animated series to do it (which I don't).

Creative interpretation is fine! Where would the fun be otherwise? Plus, I think it's impossible to have 100% 'accuracy', even in 1/6 scale, so sometimes being slavish to that is pointless.

In summary, he looks great. : )

You mean you don't want to extend you romance novels into the sci-fi genre, GubernatorFan?

I've decided to give this a go, as soon as I receive the oil pastels I ordered. I'm creating an Anubis kit bash using the M36b as the body. As others have said, the M35 body it comes with is too big for the small head, and I have no problem saying I was influenced by the tall, lanky creatures from the 'Mummy Returns' film with Brendan Fraser. I'll let you know what happens, good or bad.

skywalkersaga wrote:Creative interpretation is fine! Where would the fun be otherwise? Plus, I think it's impossible to have 100% 'accuracy', even in 1/6 scale, so sometimes being slavish to that is pointless. In summary, he looks great. : )

Thank you, I appreciate the support. If I'm trying to recreate a specific character from a specific source, I would normally try to get everything just right as best I can, although I take your point. Here I'm also helped/excused (if needed) by the fact that canon leaves plenty of blank space to fill up with creativity -- between what it showed only in cartoon form (which could be assumed to be simplified/streamlined/stylized) and what it didn't show at all (at which point one fan art is theoretically as good/valid as another, so one can choose or make up his/her own). Of course, once I cross into parody/satire territory, all bets are off...

Nekk-ra wrote:You mean you don't want to extend you romance novels into the sci-fi genre, GubernatorFan? I've decided to give this a go, as soon as I receive the oil pastels I ordered. I'm creating an Anubis kit bash using the M36b as the body. As others have said, the M35 body it comes with is too big for the small head, and I have no problem saying I was influenced by the tall, lanky creatures from the 'Mummy Returns' film with Brendan Fraser. I'll let you know what happens, good or bad.

Well, I started a Further Adventures of Darth Maul thread, for which see HERE, so it is conceivable that you will soon encounter satires or parodies of this kind, too, there.

Good luck with the Anubis custom. If this will be your first oil pastel experiment, it might be advisable to read through this thread (at this point the relevant posts would be quite a few) to save yourself any trouble -- it works, but it requires some patience and consistency (neither of which is always my forte). If there are any questions I can answer, by all means ask and I shall try to answer (Ephiane is the real discoverer and expert on this method, but she doesn't seem to visit here much these days). I look forward to see what you end up with. By the way, in Egyptian art Anubis had the black jackal head, but the rest of the human body was a normal human color (in Egyptian artistic convention, brick red for males). Which would simplify things to a point, although that is not the look you'll be going for.

This weekend I will use oil pastels for the first time to create a character. Ovy was so nice to hand me some of his oils and I had an inhand view of his colorful chars.
I also read a lot of this thread and even though I have a jiaou I will try it...I only need neck mainly anyway.

Chhers guys for this awesome test thread

Valiarde wrote:This weekend I will use oil pastels for the first time to create a character. Ovy was so nice to hand me some of his oils and I had an inhand view of his colorful chars.
I also read a lot of this thread and even though I have a jiaou I will try it...I only need neck mainly anyway.

Cheers guys for this awesome test thread

Thanks. Ovy is a great guy. Be careful with Jiaou, it can really tear easily on the surface, and there is no fixing that.

Thanks! Here is the result of my quick work from this evening:


Before This is the "black" Jiaou Doll figure...it is rather greyish than brown. On the right shoulder you can already see two test strokes with one of the three different browns Ovy gave me:


This is already finished painting it, I didn't took pics in between (always forgetting these)
https://i.servimg.com/u/f96/17/81/67/29/_2020012.jpg


https://i.servimg.com/u/f96/17/81/67/29/_2020013.jpg

https://i.servimg.com/u/f96/17/81/67/29/_2020015.jpg


Pretty glad how it turned out.
Need to paint the hands and feet with acrylics

Nice job! It seems like it turned out well!

Valiarde wrote:Pretty glad how it turned out. Need to paint the hands and feet with acrylics

I agree, it turned out great, and it looks like you didn't scrape the surface, or otherwise succeeded with getting an even color. But you also need to crop or censor the genitals before posting the photo. I have changed them to links, but technically even that is questionable.

You did it, welcome to the circle! xD
Turned out great.
And thanks Gubernator for the nice words, haha, appreciated.

Looking at the pictures I have to think of the Anaconda Malt Liquor conspiracy from Black Dynamite. (Only watch to the end if you are ok with looking at the photos in the links above )

Here is my first attempt at painting/color matching a phicen body.  I used chalk pastels and massaged them into the body with a coarse paintbrush.

That Wolverine looks great. Nice job.

Looks really nice!! I always like the look of the chalk pastels, but worry about the colour transfer side of things. It's a really beautiful effect, and since it's a shirtless figure, probably worth it. : )

Thanks all. The pastels don't seem to be transferring, though I obviously haven't tested it out - as you said not planning on putting a shirt on him.

I have been thinking about adding some scars and blood work with silicon caulk and oil paint, haven't decided if I am going that direction though.

Anyone tried punching hairs in with a crown punch tool?

Worked out very nicely, though I'm hesitant to try chalk pastel. Keep us posted on how it holds up, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be fine. If you mix pigment (ideally silicone pigment but acrylic paint would work too) with silicone (e.g., silicone glue), you could add scars and blood, and if you don't like it you can probably peel it off (with some effort) later. Alternately, see the posts about various pens and inks above, although I don't know how much of this would still be applicable to a body treated with chalk pastel. As for punching hairs, I would imagine that even if successful, the method would be too laborious and impractical; but really, I don't have the tool or a body I'm willing to currently damage this much (if the experiment fails and causes damage), so I just don't know.

GubernatorFan wrote:Worked out very nicely, though I'm hesitant to try chalk pastel. Keep us posted on how it holds up, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be fine. If you mix pigment (ideally silicone pigment but acrylic paint would work too) with silicone (e.g., silicone glue), you could add scars and blood, and if you don't like it you can probably peel it off (with some effort) later. Alternately, see the posts about various pens and inks above, although I don't know how much of this would still be applicable to a body treated with chalk pastel. As for punching hairs, I would imagine that even if successful, the method would be too laborious and impractical; but really, I don't have the tool or a body I'm willing to currently damage this much (if the experiment fails and causes damage), so I just don't know.

Thanks GubernatorFan. Chalk can be a bit daunting but I find it is fairly forgivable. Pretty easy to hide all the "crimes".


I'll let everyone know, having said that I have some votoms toys I weathered using pastels over a decade ago that still look great. Obviously those were ABS and not silicon, but so far so good!

I remember Ephiane punching hair into (Mr Fantasy Beans?) legs, but she stopped as it took forever.

Round 2!  This time around I used pastel washes to paint the body rather than scrub in the colors.  I was extremely surprised and pleased to see the pigment stain the body and seems permanent.  Post process I washed the body in dish detergent with no visible difference to the process. Apologies for the crummy iPhone pic, I recently moved - I haven't dug out my photography equipment yet.