ESB flight suit weathering help

Hahaha! I love those frank red hot commercials :)

Flat black is definitely a must have. But I have also used charcoal (watered down). Only reason for this was to limit the "spray drops" and try to blend it in to more of a stain look.
 
I liked the look of dilluting down some dirty browny black acrylic washes and sort of rubbing that dirty wash into the seams and crevices on the suit. It gives it a nice grimy depth you dont get with misting. Also works great as a kind of dirty bath for the flakvest if its all white and shiny... =)
 
What's a good ratio of water to paint? Something you'd put in a cup or in a spray bottle? I'm quite the noob when it comes to this type of stuff
 
Think of a wash like a watercolour painting.

When using the acrylic paint, it will be at its most vibrant (brightest) out of the bottle. The more water you add to the acrylic, the more transparent it becomes. In watercolour painting this is used to create pretty spiffy backgrounds.

The amount of water.....hmm...it's really all to your taste, in my opinion, and it's really fun just spontaneously creating the marks. I used a wet on wet technique. This means you're applying watered down paint onto a damp surface (so i soaked the clothing a bit, this blends the paint better and gets rid of hard unnatural lines)

Couple of points:

1) Acrylics wash out better than spray paint or oils
2) Go light first and see what results you get. If you're happy, stop, if not, you can always add more
3) If you are doing wet on wet, understand that the dampness of the clothing will make the paint look darker initially. When it dries, it will look lighter.
 
I use that same technique, DeathProof. I just replace the paint with ground up soft artists pastels instead. That's how I did all my weathering. I really like the even blends you can get.
 
I use that same technique, DeathProof. I just replace the paint with ground up soft artists pastels instead. That's how I did all my weathering. I really like the even blends you can get.

Hey BobaFiend. I just wanted to confirm that you mix the ground up artist pastels in water and then use a spray bottle to apply the mix to a wet jumpsuit? Do you get those even blends right out of the bottle or do you do anything to the mixture when it's on your suit? Thanks.
 
There aren't any spraybottles involved. I brush on water with a clean paintbrush to dampen the fabric, then stipple the ground up pigment with a separate, dry brush, the go back with my water brush and brush and blend the pigment to fade it out. I do this quite roughly to spread the pigment around.
 
There aren't any spraybottles involved. I brush on water with a clean paintbrush to dampen the fabric, then stipple the ground up pigment with a separate, dry brush, the go back with my water brush and brush and blend the pigment to fade it out. I do this quite roughly to spread the pigment around.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll probably use that method and maybe some black primer for my weathering. I have the pastels already, so it's one less thing to buy.
 
Deathproof has the right idea. Start slow, do multiple layers if you must. I normally do the whole thing with brown, let it dry and see how it looks, and then go back with just a little bit of black. The black is very dark very quick so I go slow and use it sparingly.

I'd try on some scrap fabric before you attempt to weather your soft goods. There's a bit of strategy to the technique that it helps to practice.
 
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