[phantom11]

... yep, as the header says, I'd like to use my airbrush to paint translucent clothing on a figure I'm building. Anyone have any tips as to the best technique to achieve the desired result? I tried the search function on the forum and didn't come up with any answers...

 

[machgo]

It's something I've never tried, but plan to. One technique I've read explained has one paint the flesh tones, or under tones of underwear or whatever, first. Overcoat with thin, light coats of the final cover. You want more cloth paint coverage on areas where the cloth would not be touching the body beneath.

For heavily wrinkled/gathered/puckered cloth, apply flesh tones primarily in the valleys--where the cloth touches the body, leaving the peaks the cloth color.

Imagine a wet T-shirt contestant: not all the shirt is see through, only the parts most wet and most contacting the body.

A lot will depend on the degree of transparency you are after.

 

[falcondesigns]

Tamiya smoke works well for that.

 

[spawndude]

How is this technique different than just painting clothing with regular paint?

Unless...would this be something like painting a female figure in a see through article of clothing. If so just call me naive!

 

[Mark McGovern]

...would this be something like painting a female figure in a see through article of clothing. If so just call me naive!

Dear naive,

That's the way I read 11's post. Macho's advice coincides with what I would do, except for the part about imagining a wet T-shirt contestant. Doing that makes my hands too shaky to paint... :tongue:

 

[SteveR]

You want more cloth paint coverage on areas where the cloth would not be touching the body beneath.

I think that only works for wet clothing, no? Mind you, if the clothing is translucent and diffusing, the details underneath would be sharper and coloured more closely to the underlying surface, whereas hanging parts of the clothing would be clored more closely to the fabric. In other words, for a white blouse on a woman, the bust area might be pinker, while the stomach area (loose) might be white. So I guess you're right, machgo.

I would Google "sheer blouse" and see what I got. Maybe I'll do that now ... :hat:

 

[btbrush]

I've painted alot of female figures over the years and that's how I pretty much do it. Paint the underlying figure as nude or whatever, then mist on the cloth color and come back and hit the hanging cloth more opaque. Word of caution: don't overdo it. Do a little bit and walk away for awhile. Take a walk then come back and see if it needs more.

 

[Dyonisis]

Here's a better tip: Use a lighter colour than what you're using for the skin tone. Meaning, if you're going to paint pantyhose then you want to use a lighter colour brown, white, black, or pink, etc. What this means is that if you're painting a nightie one colour, then paint the stockings the same, but a little lighter to represent transluscentcy. The more ruffled, or folded material you'll want to paint slightly darker. The stockings will be easy, just doing a shirt, or blouse with see-through qualities is a little harder, but not impossible. You'll want to add your colour to a clear coat to thin it down. It won't cover all the way, and this is the effect you're going for. Mask then spray over your ruffled edges where it looks thicker, but not too much - it can make it look darker than what you're looking for if you're not careful. Try on scrap first to get the technique first. I know this is more time, and clean up than you want, but it's easier than ruining your paint job, then having to start over.