Silicone painting question

[juno]

I've seen where the silicone head paint-ups look like there is actual veining underneath the skin. Yet, I've never seen a how-to on how it's done. Is it the same as with airbrushing a regular vinyl bust, or is there some magical trick I'm missing?

(If you click on the baby feet at Smooth-on's gallery, you can see what I'm talking about: Tasha Edenholm Creates Lifelike Babies with Dragon Skin® Silicone)

 

[Ozymandius]

It's done using many layers of translucent silicone paint and some alcohol based paints.

The silicone paint is the actual base silicone thinned with solvents and mixed with small amounts of pigment. It can be airbrushed or stippled on as needed.

The alcohol paints come in a dry palette and mix like a child's watercolor set, only with alcohol. We use them extensively for coloring silicone prosthetics.

 

[LawrenceKelatow]

Ozymandius is right; there's something called psycho paint from smooth-on which is Like a pigment binder for silicone pigments so you Use it to make your own paint with. I work in makeup effects and I've been using a product called FuseFx extensively the past couple of years; it's the best coloring systems for silicones in my opinion: Welcome to FuseFX.ca

Hope this helps, Lawrence