painting on silicone

[poumcoco]

Hi,

first i 'm french and my english is horible so sorry, i'll try to be clear.

i'm a model maker and i want to know how Ron Mueck make his "Master pieces",

i know is using silicone for his casting so he can put some hairs on.
i know that you can colored the silicone to have a good skin color base but you can't control enougth to make realistics effects (in articulation areas ect), so he must paint on it and i dont know how to paint on silicone with wich material.
in an interview he says that he use acrylic but it's imposible it dont work, or maybe with an aditiv Medium.
it 's an obsession i must know, so please Ron if your hear me.... pleaaase just tell me.

[nep75]

I have heard of people actually using thinned silicone with pigments. Check out this site www.theeffectslab.com. It's a special effects site where they deal with a lot of silicone for the movies. I've been there a few times but can't remember exactly what they said about painting silicone. Hope this helps!
~ N

[poumcoco]

thank you !

[terracotta]

Is it possible he meant painting the casts with acrylic paints?

Or mixing acrylic paints or pigments with the gel coat of resin?

I don't know if the pieces are meant for outdoor display. They are strongly coloured, so I wonder how they would last in sunlight.

[poumcoco]

i found something!
you can thin the colored silicone with xylene or methylen chloride and paint the surface with. But they dont say the proportion.
i'm gonna make some test and i'll be back to give the result.
thank you all for your help!

[Merlion]

Poumcoco, Although I had seen Ron Mueck's very life-like sculptures when I was in London, I do not know nor can I guess his technique for colouring the silicone parts.

I suppose you are aware he uses silicone only for some parts of his figurative sculptures, in particular the face. The rest of the body he uses fibreglass resin.

[Tandigon]

Hello

This has been a task I have been faced with since 1969. Because I make life like replicas of human body parts, lost in accidents, surgery, or absent since birth. The products I make are custom built to match surrounding anatomy, in shape, size, texture, and colour. And my clients actually wear the product as a camouflage to mave about in society.

Lets us presume that you are making a part of the human anatomy. Before casting you incorporate the basic skin color with the Silicone elastomer. Your cast product will have the basic shade. Now you need Adhesive A which is a one part Silicone, powder pigment, xylene, and an airgun. You first mix the powder pigment with a little of the Adhesive A in a mortar bowl with a pestel. And thin this sufficiently with xylene so that it can be atomized through an airgun. Thats it. But your finish will look glossy. So before it dries, you can dust it with icing sugar. The next day you can wash off the icing sugar. However this method is OK if you product will not undergo much abrasion.

The more difficult but longer lasting method is called intrinsic coloration. Lets suppose the sculptor you are referring to, made only the head, hand and feet in Silicone elastomer. He may have used this method. You do what is called reverse painting inside the mold by a method of layering as devised by Dr. Robert Erb. If you are serious I could elaborate.

But you can do it believe me. Meanwhile since you are French, ask about Dr. Pillet in France.

[poumcoco]

Tandigon,

Thanks for your awnser!
i'll try your funny ice suggar solution!
The pieces i have to make will be frozed in 2m² ice cube it gonna be exposed six moth in a frozed bar (-10°) in Paris.
It's represent a frozed bar's client.

thank you very much!!

I gonna surch about dr Pillet.

I think i can be interresed by helping people like you do to have apparent entier body.

[poumcoco]

tandigon,

i'm serious so please elaborate

[Tandigon]

Hello

You can write directly to Robert Erb, Ph. D.
I shall send you the email address.

Good Luck

[Tandigon]

In your first post you mentioned Ron Mueck. I had never heard of him (imagine) but now thanks to you I visited various sites about him and his work, and I must say his work is unusual.

Regarding his technique, if you are interested, would probably be fibre glass and silicine elastomers. But the trick would be in creating a seamless homogeneity. Thats the difficult part and would call for serious craftsmanship.

About the silicone elastomer head: From his clay model he will have made suitable piece molds, say for example of the head. He probably did initial intrinsic coloring in layers with color in catalysed silicone and finally used a thixotropic agent with the final basic skin shade to lay up a thickness. and lastly after curing he probably layed up with fibre glass matting to maintain structure.. There are Silicone finishing tools for final finish before eventualy extrinsic coloration.

The beautiful part about his work is the natural anatomy and emotions of the subjects. Theres no doubt he is a good sculptor and craftsman. The difference between his work and that of those with traditional materials is that the latter have proved their ability to last for hundreds of years. Time will tell.

[Merlion]

Tandigon, About Ron Mueck, a big exhibition of his artworks is opening soon in Edinburgh, until Oct 1. It is well worth a visit if you can make it. You may be able to talk to him if he happens to be there. More details in this thread.

[GuyLouisXVI]

Salut Poumcoco,
Just wanted to let you know that I manufacture a Platinum Base Silicone paint called FuseFX.
Originally developed for the medical Anaplastology field, it's now being used widely by the FX and art industry.

Guy

http://www.fusefx.ca

[anton]

hi guy anton here it good to see you out and abbout on the community your inpu t will realy help a lot of us here , cool web site looking good!!!!!!
well come
anton