As stated before I get asked the following question a lot "Can I paint my silicone with silicone pigments?" The answers is yes AND no. Confused yet? It's actually very simple...

There are silicone PIGMENTS and there is silicone PAINT - A pigment is used to INTRINCICALLY color silicone; so if you add Silc Pig Flesh, for instance, to Dragon Skin silicone you get flesh-colored Dragon Skin. Silicone pigments are basically ground pigments in a silicone oil - that oil is called a CARRIER - and it makes it easy to get powdered pigment ito a thick liquid such as silicone. On it's own silicone pigment is just pigment in oil - there is nothing in there to make it adhere to the silicone if there is no BINDER in it. And thats what in essence a silicone paint is; a silicone rubber (the binder) with silicone pigments as a colorant.

Now this is, what I call "the unwritten rule" of silicone art. You cannot paint silicone with anything else than silicone.

Basically it's like this: nothing adheres to silicone but more silicone. It's what makes silicone such a great molding material; no resin or other material will stick to it, so everything is easy to demold. However, as a final artistic piece (wheter it's a manequin, reborn doll or special effects prop) that "resilience" to adherence is a problem. A problem that is easily solved.

You need to make a paint that has SILICONE rubber as a base - a binder if you will - so it'll stick t your piece (because, remember the rule: nothing sticks to silicone except for more silicone). There are several options:

• Silicone Pigments and a 1-component acetoxy-based silicone

• Silicone Pigments and a 2-component addition-cured silicone

The special effects industry was the first to paint silicones and started with one-part silicone caulking - although it worked at the time results could vary depending on the supplier and the way it was used.

Nowadays SilPoxy and SAM-32 are popular options; these acetoxy silicones are easy to mix in silicone pigments and cure quickly. They can be thinned with mineral spirits but preferably wiht a silicone solvent such as NOVOCS, OSS or DiClean

Always use in a well-ventilated area and use a oraginic-vapour-approved gasmask

Another popular way is by using a two-component silicone. At first artists used the same silicone they used for casting - such as Dragon Skin itself - but they quickly migrated to more specialized products.

Psycho Paint is a very popular option; this two-component silicone is easy to mix in silicone pigments and cures quickly. It can be thinned with mineral spirits but preferably wiht a silicone solvent such as NOVOCS, OSS or DiClean

Always use in a well-ventilated area and use a oraginic-vapour-approved gasmask

The Third option would be FuseFX; this Canadian company makes a pre-mixed, two component silicone paint that can be used to paint platinum-cured silicones such as Dragon Skin, Ecoflex and Platsil Gel.

Be mindful however; the FuseFX range exsist out of two lines; silicone PAINTS and silicone PIGMENTS. As stated before you can only use the paints for painting (and the pigments for pigmenting silicone rubbers OR make your own paint by adding it to any of the aforementioned BINDERS)

For painting silicone FuseFX has three lines:

The "M"-series of "medical" colors that are translucent and perfect for painting human skin.

The "LY"-series of "Layering" colors that are even more translucent and perfect for layering effects needed to create human skin.

The "F"-series of "FX" colors that are more opaque have all kinds of more exotic color options.

Before I list all the options concerning silicone pigments I want to clarify one thing... This question I get a lot too:

"In place of all these fancy silicone pigments of yours, can't I just use oil paints?"

The answer is: yes and no (my apologies that I keep doing that)

What you actually want to ask is: what is included in oil paint? Basically it is pigments (powdered pigments) a binder (Arabic Gum), a carrier (Always an oil, generally raw or boiled linseed oil) and a thinner such as turpentine.

Now, from all these ingredients you only need the pigment; all the other components are "extra" and may "contaminate" your silicone paint - and give both adherence and curing problems.

Silicone pigments consist of dry powdered pigments and silicone oils - this is all compatible with any silicone so very safe to use.

So... Yes you CAN use oil paints but you might run into a lot of problems that you won't run into when you use silicone pigments.

• Silc Pig Silicone pigments

• SilTone Silicone Pigments

• SAM (Silicone Art Materials) Silicone Pigments

• Key Pigments Silicone Pigments

• FuseFX "S" and "BC" series of Silicone Pigments

Whether you are using Silpoxy or Psycho Paint as you base; as soon as you've added your pigments you probably want to use a thinner to thin the paint down for easy painting or even thin it down even more for airbrushing.

While you could use any mineral spirit for this I would always recommend a SILICONE-based solvent such as NOVOCS, OSS or DiClean as these are non-organic and generally a lot safer to use.

In any case; always use in a well-ventilated area and use a oraginic-vapour-approved gasmask

For working with Psycho Paint the following receipe could be used:

- 1 part A component Psycho Paint

- 1 part B component Psycho Paint

- 1 pinch of silicone pigment (added to the B component Psycho Paint)

Combine and stir

- add (up to) 5 parts NOVOCS or any other compatible solvent for airbrushing

or

- add (up to) 2 part NOVOCS or any other compatible solvent for brushing

For working with SilPoxy the following receipe could be used:

- 1 part Silpoxy

- 1 part NOVOCS or any other compatible solvent

Combine and stir in a glass vessel and cap - this is your "paintbase"

- add 1 part "paintbase" to a clean mixing cup

- add a pinch of silicone pigments (depending on translucency)

- add 1 additional part of NOVOCS or any other compatible solvent