Special Effect Painting Techniques

By Michele McNeilly

From cosplayers, to movie studio prop departments, to hobbyists, special effect painting can take an everyday ordinary object or craft into something extraordinary. You could make something brand new from scratch and with some simple painting tricks make it looks hundreds or thousands of years old.

So how can you achieve this technique?

Primer

The first step is to prime your object.  A good primer will ensure that all your work has a better adhesion for your project's paint to stick to.  It will also reduce the layers of paint you need to apply for your primary or main colors.  If you choose not to prime, it will take more coats of the primary/main colors and the paint might chip or peal during the process. By priming, you will save some time and paint. Here are some primers that are recommended for 3D Printed items or to repaint objects.

Automotive Primer has special filler properties that can minimize or eliminate layer lines which helps create the appearance that your project is a solid object instead of layers of plastic stacked on each other. Automotive primer can only be purchased at stores like Auto Zone, Pep boys and similar stores.  This spray paint is usually slightly more expensive than regular spray paint, but still affordable. When coating your object, you will need to wait up to 1 hour between each coat you apply. To fully handle the object, you will need to wait at least 2-3 hours.

Primer Spay Paint or Krylon Paint + Primer are most commonly used for their ease of accessibility, availability and lower cost. You can pick a can up at your local hardware or craft store (must be 18+ to buy).  The Primer spray paint typically has a limited number of colors available, usually white, black or grey.  The Paint + Primer paints have a larger range of colors and shorter dry time window of 10 minutes between each coat.  To fully handle the object, you will need to wait up to 1 hour.

Paint

The type of paint you use for your project can vary depending on the effect you are looking for. For more simplistic look, regular spray paint work great.  It's fast, coats pretty evenly if applied correctly and dries quickly. You can also use the special effect paints like hammered metal, metallic or frosted paint to add some special elements.

To create details or effects with your project, acrylic paint most commonly used   Acrylic paint is fast-drying, which is great with building colors on, for example wood grain.  You can have a base color and layer different shades to give depth, grain, age and more.  This type of paint is also very easy to mix in order to get custom colors or vary the shades from light to dark or cool to warm in tone. You can even alter the opacity of the paint by diluting with water which, depending on the amount, can range from full coating to a light wash in appearance. Acrylic pain can also be altered enough to be use in airbrushing, which is a way to evenly coat or add dimension to your object.  Acrylic paint is also great for when it fully dries it becomes water resistant and can add a protective plastic-like coat.

 Sandpaper

If you are looking to make your project appear scuffed up, distressed, damaged, maybe a little battle-worn, sandpaper can be one of your favorite tools.  It sounds a little counterproductive to use sandpaper to remove paint, but it can add small details that can make your project more realistic.  When using sandpaper, be aware of the grit size.  If you are looking to remove bigger sections of an area more roughly, 40-150 grit is larger in grit size and will take off more paint with each pass, while 240 and up are finer grain, mostly used for polishing, and therefore only removes small traces of paint.

Brushes

Brushes play an important part in how successful your effects painting is.  Large brushes are great for applying paint to a larger surface area, which works for base or primary coats of the effect paint. Instead of dipping into paint multiple times, the larger brush can pick up more paint in one dip and spread it out quicker.

If you have a lot detail or small features that need to be painted, you will want what is called a "detail brush."  These are small brushes with short or thin bristles that work for adding lines or working in small tight spaces missed by the larger brushes.  Small brushes are also great for speckling paint, which is where a brush is dipped into diluted paint and the bristles are flicked or tapped to spray out the paint into droplets.

The final type of paint brush is the specialty brush.  These are brushes that are not your typically used brushes.  They are often shaped differently but have a wide array of uses.  The fan brush is great for creating flower petals or several thin lines like in wood grains. A ribbon brush can pick up multiple layers of colors that can create a ribbon effect, this brush looks like a triangle was cut out of the middle to make a fishtail. Dabber brushes are round flat edged brushes that are great for creating the appearance of fur or water. You can also create your own special brushes with items around the house such as a toothbrush (good for speckling), a sponge, felt or even a pom-pom.

Sponges

One tool I use for a lot of projects, be it weathering metal-like props or aging bone, is the painting sponge.  This painting tool is used for adding texture, depth and complexity to the object you are painting.  With metal like painting, you could add the appearance of rust/oxidation, or add the appearance of dirt and grime buy picking up different colors in one dip and patting the paint randomly on with the sponge.  For bone, typically you would want to have a base coat of ivory and then pack you sponge with a light brown or reddish brown color that has been diluted with water and gently pat that all over.  If the paint is too dark, use a clean and dry paper towel and pat the paint gently to remove some of the paint, but still leaves a slight trace of the color.  You can combine sponging with speckling for some amazing results.

There are several types of sponges to consider as well.  You can cut up a kitchen or makeup sponge which work well for more condensed or packed sponging, like the build up of dirt/grime in a specific area.  Art sponges can be purchased from craft stores or online and have many different shapes and textures that create an array looks.  A sponge that has several holes and open spaces will not leave as much paint behind as a more condensed sponge would.  You can also create your own "sponges" from other materials like paper towels, potatoes and even plastic grocery bags (thinner bags work best).

Reference Photos

If you are working on a prop and you are not too familiar with its real-life version or have never seen it personally, you might not know where to start with your painting.  This can be problematic as you won't know what colors you may need for the paint, or if you are trying to recreate an design, where there might be elemental reactions or particular makings that make it recognizable.  This is were reference photos come in hand.  A reference photo will provide you with a image to study and can show you where areas are light, dark, clean, dirty and more.  Do a Google image search or pick though fan sites to see what your project should look like. This will also be important for understanding what different elemental reactions should look like.

Elemental Reactions

One final item to consider with special effect painting is to learn the science of how a real life version of your project would react in it's natural environment.  Is it a new object, or one that has been around for generations?  Is it a costal object, or does it only exist in the desert?  You don't need to know everything about it's science, but understanding how materials react to their environment will help make your project appear more realistic.

Erosion: the gradual removal of the Earth's surface that are worn down through time by natural forces such as wind or water.  When painting you can give the appearance of smoother surfaces with long smooth lines or the brittleness of rock with sponges.

Corrosion: is the gradual destruction of metal objects, usually due to oxidation, an acidic reaction or some type of electrochemical reaction.  When painting you will likely use a lot of brown and red tones, but the occasional green, yellow or white pigments in a very layered effect.  This not only shows the effect of corrosion but time itself.

Decay: is the breakdown of organic material by bacteria or fungi.  If you are painting an organic item like a tree, an animal or a body part (like a hand) and want to show that it is breaking down, you will want to use darker colors to represent the parts that are dying.  Shades of black, dark browns and dark reds, like maroon or oxblood, are going to be used in your wheelhouse for bacterial decay.  Fungal decay uses more shades of white, tan-yellows and oranges.

Happy Accidents

With special effect painting, the most important advice is to have fun and don't worry about mistakes.  In real life, not everything is going to be exactly perfect.  Work with your mistakes and have them become part of your design.  If you spend too much time correcting, you might overcorrect and leave your project looking too unrealistic.  To paraphrase the great instructional painter, Bob Ross, there are no such things as mistakes, only happy accidents.

If you have any questions about tips for special effects painting, comment below.