JiffyJones

Hello! I'm by no means an expert, but from personal experience Super-Shene works great for me on top of acrylic + dye. These masks were both dyed and painted, and I didn't get any adverse effects effects at all. Please let me know if your question was answered and you ended up using something else!

That is HILARIOUS! Were you able to create some interesting effects? Or did you use it for more practical purposes like re-hydrating? And I really appreciate that, thank you! It's been a really fun and rewarding learning process so far, and there's still so much to osmose

Thanks! And HAHA- I like the way you think!

I absolutely have not considered that!! This could definitely help! Thank you!!

You should tool everything!! It’s so fun, you can definitely get the hang of it if you give yourself time!! I personally think people overestimate "inherent ability" in artists. Most of the time what appears to be an innate “talent” is actually the result of hours upon months upon years of grueling study and practice and failure and practice and observation and more practice. Everyone starts out with stupid useless baby hands- translating your thoughts through your hands/body is a demanding skill developed over a long period of time. Not to mention say, someone that doesn’t practice a visual skill, but has a lot of experience in focused observation might have an faster time picking one up. Aaaaaand! A lot of core visual skills translate through mediums! So there are a lot of factors at play in any given human being. There is a quote that I find interesting (but don't necessarily agree with) by Louis Nizer: “He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” The term “art” is so complex and open for interpretation, that people can basically get degrees in theorizing about it! I am not educated enough to make any call on “art” vs “craft” or the implied worth of either title. It’s hard for me to consider myself an “artist” even though I’ve spent my entire life making anything I can get my scummy little mitts on. “Artist” also has a lot of baggage associated with it. I generally don’t interpret anything I make as “art”- as opposed to what it literally is, which is more like “a creepy drawing of a hairy nipple with teeth on a post it note” But draw enough hairy nipples with teeth on post it notes and almost certainly someone, somewhere will call you an artist…where was I going with this? I prefer forward and technical terms like “painter, illustrator, leatherworker, ect”. The “art” aspect is usually nebulous and problematic to define. I think "artistic value" is what most people interpret as the skill level combined with what individual choices the creator made with the medium. And those choices become better informed with experience (with the skill and in life)- so get to tooling, my friend! Go ahead and start making bad decisions today- they will get better! In fact, start your day off with a piping cup of bad decisions! If anyone questions you, stare at them intently and yell "ART" until they go away! Apologies for this long, rambling , pretentious response!! P.S. The value of a piece is determined by the observer and you’re all artists in my book please please keep making things this forum is so fun

Hey guys! Apologies for the delay, but as I've been sewing this I've realized that the back panel/top flap piece just isn't as malleable as I thought it was going to be. I got too excited thinking that I was going to have as few seams as possible, but the leather is just too thick to open the flap (even after oiling several times). Do you think it would be a wise choice to cut the top flap from the back panel and sew it back up, giving a more flexible joint for movement? Or is there another way? Also should I be posting this somewhere else? Please let me know your thoughts! Thanks for readin!

Here's some more progress on the face! It's movin along.

Hey guys!! Oh man, thanks Garypl for your experiment!! That's very interesting- the TanKote gives it a watercolor type effect, but agreed about your conclusion that it's too streaky for most uses. DJole- that looks really clean!! I think I would like to try that method as well as opposed to the incredibly tedious one of painting each wrinkle like I ended up doing hahahaha Mjolnir WELCOME BACK!! Here's a bit of progress on the face if anyone is curious! I'm trying not to go too thick with the acrylic but I feel like something is missing on the mostly done leftmost eye. Is there a way to remove the paint if say, it got out of hand or I left a streak somewhere it wasn't supposed to be (thankfully that hasn't happened yet)? Does anyone have any recommendations for cleaning the surface as well, say of fingerprints and general griminess that happens while painting but before sealing? What do you think I should do with the edges? I burnished them a bit with just water to get them to be flat, but I'm debating if I should bring them to more of a shine- and logically, I'd have to do that before I painted them because you can't burnish acrylic, right? That doesn't seem like it would make sense. Would it be dumb if in the end I painted the edges a really obnoxious color? Since I still need to worry about bending the flap to curve over the bag, I'm not super concerned about it right now, but I also just can not seem to get rid of some stubborn water stains. But maybe they're grease stains and they're just part of his skin now?

I would love to experiment with paint consistencies! Has anyone had any luck with something to thin leather paint or help it's transparency without just watering it down? I have some beautiful thin cova color, but I would also like to play with the opacity! Like with pouring medium, or maybe gouache? Do you have a particular antique finish you like or recommend?

Thank you! So, do you think if I hypothetically only wanted to harden the face and not the bendy part of the flap, that I could maybe cover the parts I want to remain somewhat malleable with like wet paper towels?

Yeah, I think if I have trouble getting it to stay in the strap thing I'll definitely do that haha!!

Thank you so much, guys!! I need the encouragement haha I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I also just started on a bag! I am in the process of tooling the flap, and the tongue is going to tuck into a strap on the front as the closure. Eventually the face will be painted- I'd like to try to use the natural tawny color that the leather is now as a base so it looks a bit fleshy. I was going to Super Shene the painted parts for sure, but what about the rest of it? I wanted it all to remain somewhat pale, like the creepy naked cat demon that it is (only the flap is probably going to be this detailed though!) but will it look awkward without some kind of dye/color? I am going to have to start sewing soon and I'm TERRIFIED! AHHHHH. I also don't know if the embossing of the eyeballs is going to remain, or if they will flatten over time. It feels pretty stiff. I'm currently working on the tongue- I keep hammering it into a form I like and it keeps popping back up haha! I think I need to make the cuts a little deeper or something? Paint might be the best solution though so I don't make the part that's probably going to get the most damage too brittle? Still terrified, though.

Thank you!! I have so much to learn, it's really overwhelming! Super glad you like the masks- I can never tell if I'm moving in a good direction! Do you have any recommendations for projects that lend themselves more to being tooled and painted/dyed? I guess things that are handled less frequently?

Thank you!! They are each one piece of leather and paint/stain No hardware or anything because I don't know how to use and don't have a snap setter hahaha! I think that should be my next purchase?

Oh wow, thank you so much! The first prototype was made out of paper towels and sharpie so I could bend it over their features and find a shape for each of their faces. After tooling, they were soaked and molded to their faces, with some exaggeration here and there. You should give masks a try!! I had a lot of fun, just squeezing and shaping and seeing what happens! I would love to learn more about it! Or about anything, for that matter haha