Trust me... for this process, a handful of cheap spray cans of some select colors, and you'll be in business. Not necessary to own all the toys.

~michael

Doug, by Nimba I mean Nimba Creations, which allready was posted here:

http://www.nimbacreations.com/toms/default.htm

Sorry if I wasnt clear enough!

If you want an idea of what painting techniques can accomplish, check out the photos of contest entries at this site:

http://wonderfest.com/

Steve

If you are not in an area you can work with a theatre group- school, college, community etc., you might try taking an item with you to the drug store, tell the makeup lady (some are better than others) that you need help learning to apply some make up for an injury- have her show you how to use the sponges and stippling to apply the colors to get a blend for your skin tone. You should be able to get a sample of each color- not some will, like your skin, be a blend of more than one color if looked at under a microscope...
This will teach you the method, now you must find the colors and execute it, or just do the make up thing- though I admit to never having tried a clear coat over makeup to see if it will hold without smearing.
k

Excellent advice!

The home depot can do this for you.

I did this and it works great.

The store I used was Home Depot, but many stores have a machine like this now. It's and electric eye scanner. I placed the palm of my hand against the electric eye. The scanner determines the color it is looking at, determines the proper pigment mix to make that color, and then spits out the proper amount of each pigment.

It was a perfect match to my skin tone. Of course this is a flat color and does not show any variances for creases in the skin, but if you want that much detail you could add that later.

Here is a helpful hint if you want to apply this paint in a spray fashion. Home Depot also had, in the paint section, an aerosol can which came with a small plastic container below it. Put your paint in the small plastic container, connect it to the aerosol can, and start painting.

Break a Wand,
Kipp Sherry

But that really is the problem behind all of this:

None of us are the same colour!
Two "pink" people are never the same.
Two "black" people are never the same.
Two any race people are never the same.

So basically, you will never find one pot of paint that is going to be EVERYONE'S flesh colour.

You are going to have to blend paint until it is YOUR particular shade.

Also, your own skin is not all one colour as has been said. It's going to be a different shade around the nail part and different on the knuckle part.

The best thing to do is to find an artist friend who can help as they know all this stuff already.

That is why any one colour TP is never going to look that good and very unlikely to be YOUR shade of flesh colour.

Also you will have to get the right sort of paint that will stick to whatever your TP is made out of - If it's a rubber one and you just use normal paint, it will start cracking and flaking very soon.

Chris.

I don't want to be needlessly morbid (there's another forum for that), but there are a lot of artists working in the prosthetic limb business these days, and I have seen accounts of how they paint the prosthetic to match the missing limb of the (usually) soldier. One marine even got his former tattoo added. Look around for articles about this, maybe you can even find an artist like that at a nearby hospital (especially a VA hospital). The process is pretty much as described above. Maybe you can trade a show for a TT or something.

Yours,

Paul

Doug's original post was just looking for flesh colored paint, and I was not looking for perfect Hollywood makeup that would stand the scrutiny of a close up camera shot.

I was looking for something to paint a metal apparatus something closer to my skin color than the metals original blazing metallic silver.

This process worked fantastic and was much closer than any of the stock colors already in a spray can. The really neat thing I was trying to point out is that everyone can do this and get a paint that very closely resembles their own skin color. And there is no extra charge for the custom mix.

Break a Wand,
Kipp Sherry

I think that is an excellent idea, kipp (and others).

...And we also have such "colour matching" machines here in our UK DIY stores as I'm sure many countries do.

So a very good "international" solution to an age old problem.

Even if someone does wish to go for more "artistic" detail, getting a very near base coat is still a good starting point.

Depending on what you are "painting" for your tone, consider makeup.
You can apply many makeups onto plastic, latex, and other surfaces just fine. If you have a surface that will not hold the makeup, give it a light coating of latex first. Just be sure it is clean and dry first. go to the library and get a book on makeup for theater, and use the sponges to apply, not brushes! You will also be able to edge blend a bit with your own skin as needed. Be sure to powder down any makup that is heavy grease based, i.e. theater grease make up. go to the makeup counter, and have the nice lady there help you out. She can help match the colors you will need, and give you help in their application on your skin. Trust me, she has seen more than just women buying cosmetics so you will not need to explain anything! If you feel the need to, return later and perform a nice little effect that allows you to present her with a small monetary tip, or a fresh flower as a thank you!
You can give it a dulled clear coat for makeup applied to items, likt your TT or whatever. Heck, most makeup is just the pigments used in painting without the oil or acrylic carriers!
AND be sure to carefully observe the item you are painting as it is in place,for example, if a hand part- remember, fingers are usually lighter on the palm side, and darker on the top, skin over knuckles is a bit different, and fingernails, well that depends on your manicurist, or at least whether ot not you keep them trimmed, buffed, polished or what.
Kay

Kay, I've heard this advice before and always wondered, does the makeup adhere like a paint ? I mean, you'd have to reapply every once in a while wouldn't you ?
I realize that skin, unlike a prop, is living tissue that constantly regenerates itself, dying and flaking off, renewing from the bottom/inside out, which of course contributes to the makeup wearing off, but still, makeup never struck me as a particularly resiliient coloring medium, powder notwithstanding.
Just for sake of example, I imagine a magician doing the ol' vanishing hanky routine, but afterwards having to wash the hanky every time to get makeup stains out of it, caused by the TT.
I would love to hear I'm wrong though !

You have a good point there Mystician.

As you say, make up is a good idea but there may well be problems with having to reapply it and it constantly coming off on your props.

That is why I added the bit in one of my posts here about "make sure that you get the right sort of paint" - Fortunately, you can now get paint that goes onto latex, but having said that, the TT may be a metal one!

Latex paint was basically invented by the special movie effects people for doing exactly what is needed here: Painting prosthetics made of latex to make them look real.

Chris.