Thanks for that Gizmoses, I'm definitely finding matte a tricky thing to get right and maybe thinner layering is a key step. I tried to test this by doing a thin layer today and letting it dry for 3 hours, then adding another layer. I think I went too thick again though; it's hard to judge after the initial application because it appears glossy when wet and I haven't figured out how much time it takes to start going into the matte state. But looking at the airbrushing_29 picture, even though the paint was done that day, there were hints of matte along the edges and it pretty much stayed the same until the next day in airbrushing_34. So maybe I just need to keep going with even lighter coats and if it ever appears glossy during airbrushing, I've gone too far.
I'd hesitate to apply anything but this paint to the silicone based on how little anything seems to stick. When I did the first adhesion test on the back of the doll's head and only used soapy water to clean it, the paint didn't stick well. So if I go overtop a layer of makeup I imagine it will be even worse.
Look how small the matte paint on the left shrunk compared to the glossy on the right. Both were mixed and let dry in mixing cups with the same diameter. So besides being more brittle, matte thinner also makes the paint shrink [edit from the future, discovered that adding any thinner to the silicone will make it shrink no matter if it's matte or not...see tomorrow's post]. This probably won't happen when it's attached to silicone (it wasn't attached to anything since it dried in the mixing cup), but maybe the matte paint has some internal stresses after it dries on the silicone.
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Here's what it looks like mixing a color. I'm using maybe 4 times as much pigment as was done with the initial tests since I'm trying to make the paint less translucent. Using more pigment has made an improvement to the coverage and I'm going to continue increasing how much is used in future mixes. This is also what 1g of part B looks like. You create the color you want and then add 1g of part A, mix, then add 3-4g of thinner. The airbrush I'm using needs the paint to be thin enough to drip off the mixing stick with very quick, small drops; if there is any long streaming of the paint off the mixing stick, it's too thick and will clog the airbrush or cause it to splatter rather than spray a fine mist of color.
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My plan for today was to spray the nipple that had been painted with the coverup color and let it dry for at least 1 hour, then spray it again with the goal color. I completely messed up the coloring though, it was far too light for what I wanted so I decided to add some red and try it on the non-covered-up nipple. I messed up this color as well and added too much red in the heat of the moment
I still went with it and by the end of the day I had used 3 different colors.
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Top picture is the initial state after the glossy cover-up color dried overnight and below is after the too-light of pink (and matte) color was added. The coverup helped some but also the pink color is close to what the doll original had. The pink doesn't look matte either so maybe I went too thick again and/or I need to use a higher ratio of matte thinner.
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Here's the other nipple with the top picture being the initial state with just the dried petroleum jelly, middle is the too-redish pink that was let dry for 3 hours, and bottom is the second layer of paint. The matte finish is starting to appear around the edges as it's drying right now but the middle is looking glossy again. So maybe the same situation as the other nipple, too thick of matte paint and/or too little of the matte thinner. The color is more red than I was going for but it did a good job of covering the lighter pink underneath...at least on the top and sides. There's a large chunk of the lighter pink on the bottom and it's showning through the color unfortunately. Maybe a third coat will help and this will be in the game plan for tomorrow. There's also a large paint splatter on the left side. I noticed the paint starting to splatter towards the end of the session as it got thicker, so again I need to learn to recognize this and add thinner when it happens.
One other difference with this one, I didn't use the stencil on it, it's freehand. I made it a bit larger than my goal but it was good practice. I'm going to try using the stencil to create a light dusting of color, then remove it and do the rest freehand. It seems like going freehand makes it easier to create a smooth gradation of color along the edge.
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For another quick test I tried shading the thumbnail slightly. It was easy to spray and wipe off, and try again. I wiped it off before drying and will revisit this in the future.
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During all the painting today the airbrush got good and clogged. This is the first time it couldn't be cleared quickly so I did a full teardown and even some troubleshooting. I initially started with a toothpick but it took every tool the airbrush came with to get the dried paint out: from the small diameter wires to the thicker ones, and the smaller brushes to the larger ones, I needed them all.
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- airbrushing_48a.jpg (287.72 KiB) Viewed 494 times
When I reassembled everything the airbrush wasn't working correctly, there was air blowing up into the paint cup. I eventually discovered an important o-ring had come off and am pointing at it with the toothpick. This o-ring is on the end of the "needle cap" and creates a seal against the airbrushes' main body. If it's not present the high pressure air goes out through the "nozzle cap" a little, but it mainly goes up into the paint!
During the troubleshooting I also discovered this brass screw buried inside the airbrush and it was removable with a flat head screwdriver. It feels like it presses against another o-ring that I can't see but assume it's there based on the research I did when creating this drawing. This airbrush is unlike typical ones so I made this drawing to help share the knowledge. I didn't include the trigger mechanism since it matches how other airbrushes are setup and it simply moves the needle forward and back.
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- airbrushing_50.png (21.13 KiB) Viewed 494 times
Based on all this, the plan for tomorrow is remove all paint from the light-pink nipple and try to add a few EXTREMELY LIGHT layers of the correct pink color and hopefully see a matte finish by the end. I'll go back to the 1g matte thinner to 2g normal ratio as well to help improve the chances of obtaining the matte look. For the other nipple I'm going to add more pink layers to see if the doll's original light pink will eventually be covered up. One challenge is having to mix new paint every couple of hours and getting them to match. If I make a batch, spray it, then wait 1 hour; I think I'll be able to use it again if I add a little thinner. But I think I'll need to mix another batch for the third hour and layer, so I've got to get better at color matching. After every layer I'll spray thinner through the airbrush and then remove the nozzle cap and needle cap to completely clean the front of the airbrush...another important lesson learned.
I wore an N95 mask and had the bathroom vent blower running.
