paint before making a mold?

[FAL5E]

is it possible to paint a head sculpt before making a mold of it? I ask this because it's hard to tell what the final will look like without paint so I wanted to paint it before I waste more material making a mold for it. while the last few sculpts i did once i made a mold for them and casted it and painted it, and was not what i saw before. just trying to save myself some time and expenses, any suggestions?

 

[eczamurai]

Not sure because I don't have any skills or experience OR intelligence.. But I would assume you would get more details out of an unpainted mold than you would get of a painted one, since the paint might take away a little of the sculpts detail depending on how thick the paint is?

don't know if it makes any sense what I said, so I'd suggest waiting for someone else's advice lol.

 

[Station]

eczamurai is right. you could always paint it then strip it though.

 

[dwing]

I have w/o issues. I think for detail sake-cast unpainted.

 

[SovereignStudio]

I've that on a few occasions, and I would advise against it. There will always be brush strokes, even if not visible, and the mold will capture them. Also, depending on the rubber used for the mold, the paint almost always comes off in the mold, which ruins the first several casts until those casts have removed the paint. If you're using urethane for molds, definitely do NOT paint a clay sculpt!!

When I'm in doubt I usually just photoshop a quick color palette onto a photo of the sculpt.

Also, when painting clay, the paintbrush usually ruins very fine details in the sculpt; i.e. skin texture.