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Hi!
I’m finally starting my first PYO, a long-haired flap cat, and I’m feeling good about it. But I have a few questions, and hope someone can help.
First, do I need to do any surface prep to remove things like mold release?
Second, how well does the gypsum stand up to washes applied over a layer of acrylic base color? I don’t have an airbrush so this will all be by hand. I use a hair dryer to set washes so they’re only wet for the fairly short time it takes to work them in and blend them. I prefer to work fast so my ADHD can’t decide the project Is Homework Now and slap it out of my hands. 😆
And last, has anyone used powdered chalk pastels to do basic shading on a very furry PYO? I use them on dolls and Breyers, and would like to use it here to make those big shadows soft, but those lack the detailed FLOOF. Has anyone experimented with this, and was it any sort of improvement over just paint?
I was intending to buy another PYO to experiment on, but my laptop’s charging port has died and I now have to pay for a computer repair instead. I can’t afford a new PYO until next month, which doesn’t leave me time to get the second, play around, AND finish the kitty. So I appeal to your collective wisdom!
I would take this to Facebook as well but my boyfriend would see it, and this is a gift for him that I want to be a complete surprise.
Thank you all!
ADDITION:
Ohhh my lord has anyone ever tried to harden the gypsum, maybe with something like CA/superglue? I wasn’t expecting it to be so much softer than the regular pieces, which are like rock.
First; No. The most priming you need to do is a base coat of paint. You do not need to wash the statue.
Second; I cannot tell you how many layers I put on my pyos. I don’t count, but I use far too many and have never had issues with adherence.
Third; I almost exclusively use pastels to paint my pyos. My pyos are around 95% pastel, 5% acrylic. That 5% is basically the base coat and little details.
Addition; Never tried, but I’d say no. The gypsum needs to be able to breathe. It is not recommended to use oil paints for this reason, so I do not believe it would be a good idea to “seal” the base gypsum.Might you have a defective piece? I’ve never noticed that the gypsum of PYOs was softer than that of production pieces. Do you mean as blatant a difference as between greenware ceramics and fired pieces?
@kujacker Yours are gorgeous! What do you use between coats of pastels? And how many coats do you do? I’m having trouble getting mine to adhere. They’re Rembrandt pastels I ground up to a powder. I would love to be able to get that lovely soft shading.
@ everyone else, I have a PYO from a long time ago and an old, damaged cat gargoyle it’s safe for me to pick at. This new PYO is pretty much the same as the old PYO, maybe a bit softer but not too much. The cat is much, much harder than either.
Our PYOs are made with exactly the same material as the regular production pieces. There may be a slight variation in absorbancy of each piece, however. Gypsum is waterproof, but will dissolve in acid. Even rain water is acidic enough to dissolve it.
My phone has eaten my reply twice, but long story short I got really frustrated and decided to figure it out. The area I was poking at was a large filled area of damage from her second accident, which exposed a repair made after the first (my stone kitty has had a hard time). I literally couldn’t see the color difference until I got fed up and looked at it in full sun.
Mystery solved! Thank you Melody for the reassurance, I no longer feel like I’m imagining things, although I do feel like a bit of a jerk for questioning the quality control, which I know is good. Too good to let through two flawed pieces to the same person. In my defense, whatever this stuff is? It’s TOUGH.
I just use a matte spray clear coat between pastels. Using pastels is a very slow process; LOTS of layering and lots of downtime while waiting for the clear coat to dry. I’ve never had an issue with the pastels adhering to the pyo/set pastel layers. I’ve heard of a type of clear coat that applies tooth onto the surface… but I’ve never used them.
Oh good! Thank you! I was worried I was doing something wrong with the way I was applying them.
I think that people are probably referring to Mister Super Clear, which people use on dolls and Breyers. It seems to be working for me too. The Testors Dullcote wasn’t cutting it. It’s building up now, though!
The colors you’re getting…just SO beautiful. I’m inspired! 😍
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