Painting latex with brushes - what kind of paint? Techniques?

[Westies14]

I'm gearing up to start a rough & dirty costume project, and I'd like to hand paint some latex-skinned carved foam pieces. Any advice? Should I be using latex paint? Can I use acrylics? What if I'm okay with cracking, so long as it doesn't come off? I have some perma-wet on order that will go over some of it, but I was hoping not to use that look on the entire piece.

Thanks in advance for any tips you can share!

- Douglas

 

[lingarn]

I found that using foam brushes worked fine, generally.

For painting, you can mix acrylic paint into your latex and paint on colors that way. I've only done it once, but it worked.

 

[hankey01]

I found that using foam brushes worked fine, generally.

For painting, you can mix acrylic paint into your latex and paint on colors that way. I've only done it once, but it worked.

I did the same with an airbrush. Worked great!

 

[Westies14]

Unfortunately, my latex is black!

 

[hankey01]

I got some at Michael's. It was white.

It comes in a plastic jar about 4 or 5" diameter x 4" tall....and I believe it was called casting latex or something.

I was able to dilute it with water for painting too.

 

[Westies14]

That's great - thanks fellas!

When the acrylic is mixed with the latex, you need to have a certain amount of faith in the final color, correct? Like the color you mixed won't look right while mixed with the latex until the latex dries?

- Douglas

 

[doody]

yo doug,

here's a brief rundown on options:
1. pax paint. prothetic adhisive mixed 10:1 with dist. water, add acylic paint. old foam latex makeup thing.
2. thinned latex base, or ballon rubber, or 10:1 thinned add a. paint.
3. rubber stamp ink. This is actually what they used on the B+R suits. Union Process ink is the co. name. thinned with any paint solvent. but my fav. is no 4.
4. SC-89 primer/paint. must be sprayed. by far the best looking. but also the most toxic. it's a urethane paint that will work on latex. In my opinion this paint will take your latex goods up a notch in appearance. BJB.

 

[patsmear]

If you really want to go cheap, you can paint latex with straight up acrylic paint. After it dries use a can of clear plasti dip spray and do two coats with drying inbetween .

It creates a barrier over the paint and allows it flex without cracking paint.

I have used it too many times to count, and have never had a problem.

If the whole piece has to be black, just use black plasti dip spray!

Pat