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I’m really interested in trying my hand at one of the PYOs. When I was much younger I used to really enjoy painting sculptures and glazing pottery, and I think now that I am much older and have more experience I could do a decent job provided I had decent paints and brushes. Problem is, access to high quality art products in Japan (where I am right now) is incredibly inconvenient and also expensive (it usually costs me 2-3 times more for art supplies here, if I can even find them). Also, the general recommendations say that airbrushing gets better results because painting can result in too much thickness that can ruin the sulptures’ details. So it would be much better if I could use some of the art supplies that I already have here.
Which brings me to my question: Has anyone tried using copic markers and/or the copic marker air brush system for a PYO project, and if so, what were the results? These markers can lay and work beautifully for blending and shading, especially if you have alcohol solvent for blending.
I have a wonderful set of copic markers with literally over a hundred colors as well as an airbrush system that I can use them with. For those of you who might not be familiar with them, these are a professional-grade brand of alcohol-based markers of archival quality (but do fade fast when exposed to direct sunlight). They work beautifully with paper and I’ve even seen people use them on canvas/fabric. I did a little research into the forums and saw that people have used archival caligraphy inks, presumably the kind that come in a pot. These however are actual markers with two tips, one brush and one broad. I don’t think using them as pens might be very wise, as perhaps the gypsum surface might be rough enough to damage the nibs (although they are replaceable) which is why I was thinking maybe in conjuction with the airbrush it might work.
Hello!
Airbrushing is certainly not necessary to get a very fine finish… my PYOs and official Windstones were not airbrushed (you can see some here: http://featherdust.com/windstonehtml/ ), and many other artists here do not airbrush. 🙂
Copic markers use an alcohol-based ink. I am inexperienced with how gypsum reacts with this type of ink, especially long-term. Generally, dyes suspended in alcohol based inks contain acids, which may interact with the gypsum over time, and markers are not known to be archival.
What I am trying to say is that alcohol based ink is untested and may not last well or be colorfast long-term. If this is not important to you, by all means experiment. 🙂Also be aware that using markers will require a transparent approach (like watercolors). You can only make colors darker, as they will not go on in an opaque way.
Are all types of paints hard to find? Maybe someone from the USA can send you some, are paints allowed in international mail?
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My art: featherdust.comIf you are looking to use paints and are finding them expensive or hard to find there, maybe ask around (if you have an art teacher at a nearby school, they might be able to help). If not, perhaps try Dick Blick and see if they will ship? I’m not sure if you have a military address or not (could make a difference for a US company shipping internationally), but if you don’t and Dick Blick won’t ship, you could have someone in the US receive the package in the US and then ship internationally to you. Dick Blick also usually has decent prices (I go to them if I can’t get something locally).
I am the one who uses ink on the pyo.(others may have used them too for a full piece stain, sorry if I have not yet discovered you) I have never used copic markers, but I have seen them around. Aa to light fade, the number one most important think is to find a UVLA spray finish. They are kind of like a sunblock for artwork and can be found in a few different finishes. I use a golden brand one.
Also, I do not know how much this may affect your markers, but my ink is water based. I have yet to try an alcohol based. I think Laundry2011 (a good friend of mine) may have some that are, but we haven’t used them on a pyo yet. I notice with my water based inks that yellow orange red and blue fade the quickest (in that order I do believe) . Green seeps in the deepest and violet seems to hang around the longest. I also like mixing different brands that use different pigments. Sometimes I get fun pigment reactions, my favorite was mixing a forest green of one kind with a night blue of another. The pigments reacted and created a florescent green hue that soaked in and blended different than any I have used before. That is a few things I have learned with ink, but again, i have never used alcohol based or copic so I am not sure how much of this applies.
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Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comPersonally I would not recommend using Copics. The Gypsum absorbs anything liquid rather quickly so your copics would be used up in no time. Even only using copics on normal paper instead of the special copic paper drains them really quick. 🙂
I use acrylics only with brushes and I think it is rather difficult to use so much paint, that the details get lost.
I´ve lived in Kyoto for some time and there was a great artist shop called “Backs Gazai”(http://www.backsgazai.com) as far as I can see you can order nearly anything there. I also found different types of Acrylic paint at the larger 100yen shops. There is also a shop called Shimojima that has artist equipment in nearly any price range: http://www.shimojima.co.jp/eng/stores/index.htmlWow, thanks for the responses everyone. 🙂 I’ll try to quickly go through and respond to everyone.
@Jennifer : The more I thought about it last night, the more I realized I was at best probably looking at using a mixed media approach as, like you say, I can’t go backward. I’m also not sure I am that confident in my skill as to not make errors… so something more forgiving would be better anyway. It’s good to hear/see some reassurances that hand painting is more than okay. (Your PYOs are gorgeous, by the way. Seriously. Now I just want to paint even more!!)
It’s not so much that *all* paints are hard to find, I can usually find really cheap paint at the Japanese version of the dollar store, and there are online services I can order fine artist type materials from online. But the paints in Japan usually cost 2-3 times what they would in America and never seem to go on sale here, or in the case of the ones I can get from the dollar store I’m not sure I really trust them for going on a relatively expensive statuette.
@siberarkh1 – IIRC Dick Blick does ship to Japan. I placed an order with them last year to get some newspaper print, nice papers, and soft pastels (I had the worst time ever trying to find the last thing here; all I could find were hard and oil). It was either that, or I had family in the US ship me the items from their place because I wanted to avoid customs fees, which (especially when you combine already expensive shipping) are just absurd. I can seriously be easily looking at 70 dollars worth in shipping and tax duties on top of the costs of supplies.
@96037 – This is all really interesting information. The more I read the more it seems like my safest bet is to just go ahead and find some acrylics, but if I ordered something really small, like a foo puppy, perhaps I would experiment with the copics just to see how it goes.
@ moonbeam – My response to you will probably the longest, sorry for that. You hit the tail on the head with my concerns: the inks get absorbed so quickly, I wonder if it would really even be workable or not turn out all streaky, for one, and then the cost of those inks even here where they’re produced is NOT cheap; like you say, they’ll run out fast enough as is. I think I will take your advice and not use them for anything big, although if I bought, say, a PYO Foo puppy or Tadpoad, I might experiment with them just because it’s such a small thing.
Thank you SO MUCH for that website. Seriously. Unfortunately, I don’t live in someplace really nice and convenient like Tokyo or Kyoto; I am waaaaaay out in the country-side boonies, and to get to the nearest big city it’s a two hour limited express train and 55 dollars. The local shops around here have some really cheap stuff–if I went to the Daiso I could find paints for a dollar, but I’m not sure I’d trust them for a Windstone project. I’d be similarly leery of any of the young-student grade materials I could find in the stationary shop at the local department store.
I had tried scouring high and low for websites in Japan for art supplies, and even asked my fellow artist friends, and no one could help me. I think I finally managed to find some on Rakuten a while back, after I’d broken down and made my big Dick Blick order, but I think it had worked out that I had STILL managed to get my art supplies as cheaply or no more expensively from America. :/ So I’m going to need to do a price check before I buy anything, but at least this gives me options if I’m desperate.
I hope you are able to find your paints within Japan! I know how you feel about not having any suppliers locally… I have to mail order all of my art supplies as well, and though I am fortunate that I can order from US-shops, the shipping and taxes still add up quick. If you can order from within Japan I hope that shipping would not be too terrible for you!
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My art: featherdust.comGood luck!! I really hope that you can figure something out!
Check out my finished artwork at http://falcolf.deviantart.com/ and my sketch/studio blog at http://rosannapbrost.tumblr.com/
Excellent!
I´m glad I could help a little bit 🙂
Funny enough I ordered nearly all my acrylic paints in England, even though we have some very nice art stores here in Germany. But I love the liquitex soft body paints and they were way cheaper in the UK (even with shipping and all). I bought them at Ken Bromley art supplies (http://artsupplies.co.uk/) and they had very reasonable shipping charges to Germany and lots of sales throughout the year. Maybe this could be something for you as well?Silly idea possibly – but if you wanted to use the pens, maybe you could get a bottle of spray-primer to use as a base. That would help “seal” the gypsum a bit to keep the pens from absorbing as fast and might make the pens a more workable solution. Krylon makes a nice white and black primer.
Silly idea possibly – but if you wanted to use the pens, maybe you could get a bottle of spray-primer to use as a base. That would help “seal” the gypsum a bit to keep the pens from absorbing as fast and might make the pens a more workable solution. Krylon makes a nice white and black primer.
I haven’t had any luck getting marker inks to adhere to non-porous surfaces. I don’t know if blowing them on would work or not, in this case.
Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comThe primer is still porous (though not AS porous). I use it to prime pewter pieces so paint will stick to them. I also sometimes use ink and it sticks pretty well – though not marker ink so no idea how that would go!
I could give that a try, though I suspect Jennifer is right and it wouldn’t work; I know they slick off things really easy. I guess the question though would then be if that messed up, would the POY statue still be workable with acrylic after, or would I be out a statue for sure?
I think, even if it does not work with the marker, you can still paint the statue with acrylics.
But I would try all this on something small like the foo pup. So in case it goes completely wrong then you have not wastetd too much money 🙂
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