Non-Toxic Sealant: Acrylic Matte Varnish

Awesome! Do you foresee any reaction to humidity with this type of sealant??

 

This is excellent, if this proves to be a viable alternative to MSC, etc I would be so stoked! I wonder, since the medium is meant to be mixed with paint to give it a matte finish, if it works sufficiently well by itself in terms of like... protecting the paint from damage, if the head stains, if it yellows, etc... I guess only time will tell!

 

That was really neat! o.o

I'll have to try my that sealant method on the new LUTS tan boy I'll be ordering soon.
I always have an issue with MSC really drowning out the tones of tan dolls.

 

Thanks for sharing! The respiratory problems brought on by MSC and the like really worry me too. I'd like to try this sealing method if and when I can get my hands on an affordable airbrush. ^^

 

Wow Andreja thank you so much for posting this! I have used matte medium before as a life-extender for acrylics in painting but would never have considered it for this use. Very innovative and a real service to the BJD community's collective respiratory systems! If anyone out there uses a spray bottle method for applying these fixatives I'd love to hear about the results as an airbrush and all that goes with it would be quite costly.

 

Very helpful! MSC is so toxic, and hard to find, and expensive and... you know XD

By the way... do you know how to remove this sealant? is this madium/varnish soluble with acetone free nails product or thinner?

Thanks for share your experience.

 

Just wondering if anyone out there has been brave enough to try the spray bottle test?

Andreja, this awesome post also got me thinking about other preexisting non-toxic fixatives, and I found this product called Spectrafix. It is made with milk casein and can be used with pastels and other media (that are typically used in faceups). Just wondering if this could potentially work for faceups as another alternative to MSC?

Spectrafix website:
http://www.spectrafix.com/about.html

 

I am actually wondering if anyone has tried spray bottling myself if I had some spare funds I'd grab some since I'm sitting two doors down from an art shop, but alas ;___;

I hope someone will try it soon! I don't think I can afford an airbrush anytime this year x)

 

I tried it out with this bottle http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NJG8B8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 and it didn't work. The 'fine' mist wasn't all that fine to begin with so when I sprayed my doll at a distance, I was pretty much splattering medium/varnish all over the head. It was not pretty.

I really think that it all depends on the bottle though, so maybe it could still work with some other type/brand of spray bottle?

 

Bummer, taixonay! Did you try watering down the matte medium at all, or were you just using it straight? I'm sorry it didn't work better. I too am really eager for a non-toxic and less expensive, easily available sealant. I think I may pick up one of those little spritz bottles that look like perfume bottles and see where that gets me. I have some resin pieces I can experiment on.

I'm hopeful, though, as Andreja's faceup with the Liquitex sealant looks just as gorgeous, smooth, and colorful as all her other work!

 

I watered down the medium, not the varnish and had them in two different bottles. I noticed when I sprayed just regular water, even then the 'mist' was a bit heavy, if you could even call it a mist. I've seen some bottles that spray an actual mist (I've seen them used on birds to give them light baths), so there *should* be some out there.

 

Well I tried using watered-down matte medium in two different fine spray bottles as well as with a Misto, which is a bottle you can use as an aerosol can where you pump air into it and it supposedly sprays a very fine mist...all three were an absolute no-go, sad to say. I had the same experience as taixonay with both bottles...lots of spatter, basically. Same with the Misto, which really bummed me out. Very messy and not a fine mist at all. Alas...an airbrush seems to be the only way. But at least it's possible!

 

Hi guys!
I've seen a video of Andreja's (Nicolle's dreams) in Youtube using this non-Toxic Liquitex Matte medium as a sealant for doing faceups on BJD. She diluted it with water then went on applying it using an airbrush.
i'm sure some of you have seen it already, if you havent yet here 's the link http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=mhee&v=dr8-tnUDKHc.
anyways, I want to use that for when I have my BJD (as I'm quite new to this hobby). I do not have an airbrush and I wouldn't really want to buy one as theyre quite pricey, so did anyone try out the alternative, using a spray bottle instead?
I would love to know how it turned out using the spray bottle, although I read Andreja's comment that other people who tried it found there were some droplets of it on the resin.
I wouldn't also want to use MSC (I didn't know they are so dangerous!), just because I don't have much space here and an outside area where I could do it. So hopefully someone tried it out and found it just fine

 

Most things like that are dangerous if you breath them in. Just make sure you wear the proper mask (not those cheap cloth type ones!) and you should be fine. Open a window if you cannot do it outside, or you can go in the bathroom and turn the fan on.

I have found another type of sealant that says right on the can that it is safe to use indoors. I have not had trouble with it yet. I can't remember the name off the top of my head though.

 

I would not recommend spray bottle as it do not have enough pressure to create nice even coat but im also curious if there are any other non toxic options.

I tried before acrylic based flat sealant but it do not turned out good as dolls face was too shiny and little bit sticky (as when you have acrylic color) so that is not the way as well.

 

I've seen pretty cheap hobby kit airbrushes on ebay for pretty dirt cheap. I'm going to be testing the Liquitex with my airbrush. I got lucky having a airbrush makeup kit and only needed a new gun to attach to my compressor. But yeah as far as I've seen with people trying the spray bottles I've not seen any instances where it was a good replacement.

 

It's sad to hear that everyone who tried it didn't find it a good replacement I really wanted it to work >.<

Can you tell me what sealant it is? thanks

 

Last night, I started experimenting with my Tiny Delf's blood type part (a magnetic letter A), and I got an even coat just watering down the matte medium and brushing it on. It was not sticky and had nice "tooth".

 

Yeah I think aside from being non-toxic Andreja likes it a lot for its tooth. If the brush-on works for you thats great, I'd still scour ebay for an airbrush though. I would be soo afraid of smudging something if I did brush-on. :P

 

For the brush-on method - I would worry that there would be brush streaks when applying the sealant to larger parts. I'm eager to try this method, but I need to have my old airbrush looked at (haven't used it in 10 years and wasn't sure what I was doing when I got it.)

 

I can see the brush-on method doing alright for dried pants, but all I'm seeing is pastel, watercolor pencil, and the meeess it would incur 0.0

 

Did it have visible brush strokes?

and I don't know what "tooth" is but Im starting to think the new sealant can work just fineeeee! I hope so xD

Yeah, she said she tried it with brush but there were some brush strokes visible.. But you never know with little bit of polishing or cleaning up here and there they wont be that visible teehee. Oh yes, the smudging >.< . The spray thingy has to work then!!

Lucky you have an airbrush. Hope it still works though after ten years of it in hiding xDD

 

Has anyone tried dabbing it on as opposed to brushing it for application? i would think that would cut down on the streaky-ness and help retain the tooth. i am also interested in switching sealants to something non-toxic due to the hassle to use a mask properly. i do own one, but the filter cartridge replacements look to be rather pricy and difficult for me to get a hold of without having to stock up or pay lots of shpping... i've sprayed without a mask on occasion but i'd like to try to avoid doingj so again if possible.

 

To address a question, no, there were no visible brush strokes when I brushed on the watered down matte medium. I watered it down to a milky/creamy consistency and it went down very smoothly .

I actually ended up doing my first face up with this today. I used acrylic paints because, as someone mentioned above I figured that watercolor pencils or soft pastels would smear terribly. The paint did leave some brush strokes, as did the varnish I used. I think if I had used matte medium over her face up and just applied gloss in a few areas, it would have been fine. I will post pictures later if anyone is interested.

 

I have also begun using this instead of msc and have experimented with different application methods. The spray bottle leaves big droplets and using a smaller type spray bottle (the kind for perfume etc) was better but still not a fine mist. Also I have been diluting mine with alcohol instead of water because I found that if the resin was too smooth, the water/medium kinda pooled up. Plus it dries faster that way! I have been using a sponge brush for application and found that if you just dab it over pastels, it doesn't seem to pick them up at all. The other plus I have found is with msc, I would have to apply a few coats of the gloss I was using to get the shine I wanted. With this varnish, I only had to apply one coat because it's a little smoother!

 

Oh yes please

 

You may be able to make this work with this sort of spray system: http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/model-car-spray-set-501759/

I'd still wear a proper mask with this, as the aerosol itself isn't good to breathe. Same with an aerosol powered airbrush, though.

 

Holy crap... I think I'm going to have to make a hobby lobby run today. Oh and it looks like you can get refills for this type of system which was my first concern. If I do end up getting this, I'll let everyone know the results.

 

Tooth is what holds like pastel color in place. Its a roughness. Too little tooth the surface wont hold much color at all and too much can make your doll feel a lil weird to the touch.

 

hmm this does make me wonder if you could do something similar with the UV protection acrylic matte varnishes instead of matte medium ?

 

Good to know! The alcohol doesn't harm resin, then? Also great to know that dabbing on matte medium doesn't mess with pastels too much. I think I will try this as well.

Here are a few pictures of the face-up I am working on (I decided I am not done with it), just to show you brush marks or lack thereof.


Brush marks from brush-on varnish. Yuck! They are mostly covered by her hair, but they are still annoying. These are NOT from the matte medium.



The next two pics show that her face is still mainly smooth. The first picture does show another brush stroke from varnish, but the matte medium underneath went on fairly smoothly.

 

I have to make a correction, I've been using the matte varnish, not the medium. Mine was going on and being really shiny and thick so I mixed it with alcohol and it goes on much smoother and less streaky. I still use a sponge brush to cut down on the grooves caused by a normal brush. I do have to say that you have to be careful not to get any blobs on there because it will be very obvious when it comes time to add pastels. orz

Here is my first victim with this method. It actually worked out well and the only time that any pastel smudging occurred was when I was going over the eyebrows but apparently you can't see it in photos.






This is my current head, the strokes are just barely there but apparently a few tiny blobs were caught in his eyelid area Dx I'll be painting over that anyway so it's not a huge deal. Also there's no need for lung protection and it's not weather dependent, I'll take it!

 

yours look actually quite good! I can barely notice any strokes. Wooohooohoo I think this varnish/medium is going to work

 

Yh, some visble strokes there. Did you try applying it with spray bottle? :>

 

I am excited by your result, Haruru! My doll's face is soaking in W&N Brush Cleaner to remove my failed face-up, and I bought some skin-tone watercolor pencils and soft pastels so I can try using those instead of acrylic paint. I will try dabbing on the medium on top and hopefully it will work.

 

please do update the thread with your result everyone!

 

Well, my poor girl is about to have her 4th or 5th face-up tomorrow. Nothing so far has really fit her, but I think I finally figured out how I want it to look.

Below are some cell phone pictures of the face-up that I just removed tonight. The pastel isn't really blotchy like in the photo. There is a bit of graininess near her nose (in the crevices) and on her upper lip, but the camera makes it look 1000 times worse. I am not sure if the graininess was due to the pastels I was using, my inexperience with them, or the sealant.

However, what you can see from these pictures is the smoothness of the sealant and lack of brush strokes in it. In fact, on her eye lids you can see some brush strokes from the acrylic paint that I laid on too thickly, but none from the watered down matte medium I have been able to dab on matte medium on top of pastel without any smearing, but watercolor pencil obviously is another story.

 

Wow, her face looks smooth!

 

It is indeed! I just brushed the final coat on the face-up I think I am keeping. The poor girl has been through at least 7 in the few weeks I have had her (most of them in the last few days), but I finally have one that is "her." I will post pictures when it is done drying.

The good thing about this is that I think I can give some tips about using brush-on matte medium, that hopefully others can build on

Disclaimer: I am a new BJD owner, and I have no idea how well this protects resin from staining or UV damage in the long run.

1. I water down the matte medium to a milky consistency using water. This pretty much eliminates brush strokes on the doll's face.

2. Matte medium is, for some reason, not completely matte. I don't know if it is the brand I'm using, but once I get more than one layer on the doll, it ends up having a sheen to it. Probably this is just the result of building up layers...?? I am not sure how to avoid this, though.

3. If pooling occurs on your doll while the matte medium is drying, as soon as possible, use a clean, dry brush to absorb some of it. Do not blot with a paper towel. Every time I blotted, I ended up with a nasty blemish on my doll's face because the blotted part held more pastel than other parts. You will be fine if you absorb some of the extra liquid with a brush (carefully!!) and then just let it dry.

4. When applying matte medium over pastel, do so extremely carefully, as if you were painting instead of applying sealant. Apply medium to one color area, wipe off the brush, then go to another color area, and so on. Dab with the brush instead of using strokes. I managed to not get any smudging at all by doing this

If anyone has any ideas about how to get a matte finish on my girl using brush-on means, I am all ears. Curiously enough, matte varnish also turned out having a sheen when I used it on one of my previous face-up attempts (and yet, it dries perfectly matte when I use it on my acrylic paintings, so I don't get it). Unless I went temporarily insane and put satin varnish on her instead. I will give that particular method another go tomorrow with my Tiny Delf's blood type part.

Edit: Here are some pictures to show my result. You can see a slight sheen along her cheeks. The gloss on her eyelids, lips, nose, and chin are from satin varnish. There is some graininess on her upper eyelid -- this is from an experiment of mine that I think we can call "fail", but it isn't that visible in real life: I mixed matte medium with some pastel to try to brush it on in a thin line. It was thin, sure...but yuck. There is also a smudge on her upper lip that isn't as visible in real life, which is from me failing epicly at using watercolor pencil.

BUT...hopefully even these crappy low light pictures will show that her face ended up fairly smooth.

 

Mine comes out very slightly shiny as well but not quite as much, perhaps it is layers? I try to restrict myself to only 3 layers of varnish because I'm afraid that too many layers might cause it to become sort of gummy like when acrylic is too thick >_>

I'm fairly sure the graininess is from an older layer of sealant that wasn't quite cleaned off, I had the same issue. It's also quite a pain because you can't tell until you start adding the pastels...

 

No, the graininess is from what I thought (the failed technique), otherwise it would be grainy everywhere since I alternated sealant-pastel-sealant.

I did discover what you mentioned though...if sealant isn't dry when you try to brush pastel over it, it looks awful. I did it accidentally a few times as well.

 

Wow those results are amazing. I'm liking what I'm seeing...I'm wondering though how the results would be if it wasn't a resin head...(Like an SD Obitsu head) Or a fantasy colored head like blue or green.

 

I was planning on using this method for my little obitsus, I imagine it'll work out fine. It should also be just as effective on fantasy colored skins because the varnish/medium dries clear.

 

wait..so this dabbing method won't work on watercolor pencils? D:!

 

I don't see why not, if it doesn't smudge around chalk pastels which is just powder, watercolor pencils should be fine. I personally haven't tried that but if everything else comes out fine then you should be good to go

 

one thing to be wary of with watercolor pencils is they can rub off sections of your sealant (in general). Also the grainy-ness issue I generally have with watercolor pencils. if you dip them in water, they draw on smoother. You can paint with soft pastels as well with water. This works rather well with heavy/high pigment pastels like my hard prismacolor set. It's kind of like watercolors.

Which sealant is which? It sounds like there's 2 and it's getting a bit confusing. Can someone clarify this please?

 

Haruru your method includes alcohol as part of the mixture, correct? Is this just plain rubbing alcohol? What ratio of matte varnish to alcohol did you use?

Also the sponge brush...something like this?
http://www.dovebrushes.com/assests/sbrush.jpg

Or this...
http://ravenmoonlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/a11.jpg

So many questions. XD

 

Yeah that's what I did (dipped a water color pencil's tip in a bit of water) when I was trying out face upping for the first time. It actually went on easier and turned out pretty good. I haven't sealed the head yet (due to the factoid of I have no sealer/money) but I like it. I wouldn't mind giving a shot at these sealents.

Especially if it means no fumes!

 

Nethernity, the problem with watercolor pencils is that they are, well, watercolor. Watercolor plus liquid equals paint. When I tried drawing eyelashes in watercolor pencil and then dabbed on sealant, it blurred together no matter how gentle I was. As long as you don't need fine detail, such as generally adding lip color, they work fine.

Biff, the two sealants being discussed are matte medium with water added, and matte varnish with alcohol added. Both are acrylic painting supplies.

 

Coppermoon: I generally went with a 1:2 ratio, you need more varnish in the mixture but it's not as shiny and a little thinner with some added alcohol. Also yeah, it's just plain rubbing alcohol, I think mine is 70%. I would say the second brush is a better option although I use something that looks more like what you would apply makeup with.

They came in different sizes and the one I use to apply sealant most of the time is one that's a little bigger and round but flat.

Also, I use pastel colored pencils instead of watercolor, I feel like I have better control with them and they're in the same price range, although they seem to be harder to find :/ but I guess because of the nature of pastels these don't have problems with sealant like watercolor do.

 

I wonder whether anyone has tried watered down acrylic gesso as a sealant? After all, gesso is made for priming surfaces for painting. I will try it on the inside of my doll's head cap and see how it goes. Gesso is very toothy and perfectly matte, so it may be a good option.

Haruru, I tried rubbing alcohol with matte varnish and found it to be quite shiny. What brand varnish did you use?

 

The thing with the dabbing and brushing methods is that you probably are applying too much sealant, just because the brush or sponge holds more and it's load can be inconsistent. That is likely what is causing the shininess and (IMO) the gummy/waxy look of having way too much sealant. An airbrush would create a much finer and more consistent coating. I've also found that (through the years of DIY faceups) that if the pastel shows up blotchy or grainy in a photograph, then it really is blotchy or grainy - the camera is picking up color variations that the eye does not see. Mind you... it may not be just because of the sealant or how it was applied - poor quality pastels can cause the same problem.

 

Hey - just chiming in! I started using the liquitex medium & varnish after watching Andreja's video too. I do have an airbrush that I use & can point out some of the major differences that you will see.

First off - it will truly be very matte- there is no shininess what so ever.

Second - the even spray coating will make your pastel application much easier & more even. The "tooth" or texture that holds the pastel when you apply it comes from the spray application - the more even the texture, the more even the coat of pastel. When you brush on the tooth doesn't form as much or as evenly, and so the pastel application will be streaky, splotchy and uneven.

It CAN be used as a brush on - people who repaint Barbies & fashion dolls use it all the time. The key difference it that they work almost entirely with paint, and use extremely, painstakingly thin coats of paint & sealer. And magnifying glasses. It's crazy.

If an actual air brush is cost prohibitive, Badger makes kits that run on aerosol propellants - like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Badger-Air-Brush-Co-250-3-Propel/dp/B003972JIW/ref=sr_1_5?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1356638213&sr=1-5&keywords=badger+airbrush+kit

While you should still be careful inside, its not nearly as toxic as MSC or Volks Powder Spray.

Speaking of - I find the finish of the liquitex to be just as nice as either MSC or the Powder Spray. You do want to be sure to seal with the liquitex varnish when you're all done- it has the UV cut, but the matte medium does not. I'm still waiting to see how it holds up in the long-term though.

And here's a picture of my Abbie, painted with liquitex:

Abigail by .: Suzume :., on Flickr

 

Kymera, I do have cheap pastels, that's for sure! The box was only $9.99. As far as graininess, if I can't see it in real life, then I won't worry about low light cell phone pictures not turning out right. I will try photographing her new face up with better lighting and a real camera, and see how it looks.

If you are right about the cause of the shininess, then I will just learn to live with it. To me, a bit of sheen it's a more than acceptable trade off for a product that is non-toxic and which I can buy locally whenever I need it.

 

@Zardi: I'm using the Liquitex matte varnish with alcohol and have no shiny problems, the difference might be in application though, I use really small amounts of the stuff. I keep spreading it around until it's practically dry so that I know I don't have any blobs anywhere. When I just used it straight, that's when it was too shiny :/

@Suzume: I haven't yet had any problems with brushed on varnish and pastels, sure there are some barely there streaks but it's never been picked up by my pastels and mine are a little higher end so they have plenty of pigment. I would much rather be able to spray the stuff though, it would be easier to get into the smaller areas Dx I miss using MSC for the quality but I don't miss the long-term effects ;D

 

Oh, awesome tip! I am going to try that! My girl is sick of having faceups (I've lost count...at least 10 since I got her a month ago), but I can mess around with her head cap and my Tiny Delf's blood type part. It didn't even occur to me to keep spreading it around as it dried. I did keep an eye out for huge blobs, but that's it.

Here are results from Spumoni's latest (and last...for now) faceup. I used Liquitex matte medium watered down to a milky consistency, and applied it with a sable fan brush. I had one layer under the pastel and paint, and one on top. Then I used satin varnish as a gloss on her nose, lips, and eyelids. The rest of her face is fairly matte -- about the same shininess as the resin itself, but no where near as matte as MSC. I will practice Haruru's technique, and then will probably give her a coat so she won't have that sheen on her cheeks.

This picture actually made me realize that she needs a cleaning already :P Also, please ignore her ears, as I did not clean them properly after a previous faceup. They are normally concealed by her wig so I got lazy.

 

Hehe, I also get lazy when it comes to the ears... most of the time they don't show so I don't care. From that picture it doesn't look really that shiny at all and the grain is very minimal so I don't think it would look bad in normal pictures.