This is how I paint a foam skull. Its a rather quick process that yields decent results.
What you need:
- White Glue
- Brushes
- Black spray paint
- A foam skull
- Acrylic paint of various colors
- Matte sealer
I start with a 2 part urethane foam skull I cast.
I coat it with white glue mixed with some water so I can easily brush it on the skull. Give it a good coating and let it dry. This helps hide the foam texture, seal it, and gives the acrylics something to adhere to.
After it is dry spray paint it with flat black spray paint.
Once the spray paint is dry use a bone colored acrylic paint and paint the high areas of the skull randomly, you don’t want total coverage (one way to do this is use a sponge and if the coverage is too much blot it off with a paper towel), leave some black showing in the deep recesses. I used an airbrush on this piece.
After this drys, go back and paint in the lines and cracks with a watered down black. Then using a watered down burnt umber blot on some filth here and there to add some antiquing near the eyes, jawline and mouth.
Let it dry for an hour.
Now taking the original bone color dry brush the entire skull with it very lightly.
Almost done, Paint the teeth. Using watered down acrylics, or inks.
After the teeth are done, I usually will go back and very lightly paint (very dry brush, so dry that you can hardly detect any paint in it) the highest points of the skull with the base bone color but I add a bit of titanium white to it to make it brighter, this brings out the contrast to the piece. I also go in with a small brush and paint in the details like the skull sutures and such in black or some other dark dirty color. Finally spray the whole thing with a matte sealer to reduce the shine.
And you are done
