# Best paint method for mache heads?



## edwood saucer (Aug 21, 2006)

How does everyone like to paint their heads?

Mine will have UV Led spots pointed at them and have backlit vaseline marble eyes.

Glow in the dark paint is expensive thought i will get a small bottle to experiments with.

What other secrets do folks like to use? Does anyone use flourescent paint?

I really want the faces to pop.

Any suggestions are welcome.

ews


----------



## krough (Oct 7, 2004)

here is what I do Edwood.

http://www.grimvisions.com/painting.htm

Maybe alter it with a final dry brush coat of UV reactive paint

One more Idea I have always wanted to play around with edwood is to paint the head entirely black. then paint tiny veins of clear UV paint all over it. 
Then shine a UV flasing light at it. Then when the light flashes it would appear to have cracks in it like it was glowing from the inside.


----------



## NecroBones (Feb 10, 2006)

I haven't done many mache projects, but the one I'm doing for my scarecrow is working out pretty well. Won't be terribly weatherproof, but I'm using a combination of spray paints or acrylic for the base coat, and then carefully selected colors of acrylic to drybrush or wash (depending on desired effect) over it. Then a final clearcoat. Won't want to leave it in the rain, but you get a lot of control over the appearance.

The lack of rain resistance isn't an issue if you're the sort of person who puts things out only for a day or two. I'm wondering how well it might hold up though with very thick application of that clear layer.

But anyway, painting such that you get a nice dark color in the crevices and a lighter shade drybrushed across the ridges, you can get a lot more definition out of the surface texture and details than really exists. Take for example the picture below... three colors are in the "brown" part of the picture:


----------



## edwood saucer (Aug 21, 2006)

Thanks guys, 

K - your idea is very cool - I can picture it in my head...

So far - I have painted them black and added the first coat of green apple - it's a beautifully obnoxious color of green - bright - but not flourescent.

My boy didn't quite get the concept of "dry brush" - so they are "all green" which is absolutely fine. They are still dark in the recessed areas like eyesockets - so the black wasn't totally in vain.

I will experiment (and post results) with a handful of paint ideas including glow in the dark and a very cheap version of glow in the dark I found in the Walmart craft section. We'll see what happens.

I'm really trying to push the envelope - so to say - with the paint to get the maximum impact without turning "dayglo"

Thanks!


----------

