I apologize in advance for the rudimentary nature of my question. I’ve sifted through the archives to the best of my ability but could not find the information for the following question:
Can acrylic paints (brushed, not sprayed) be applied directly on the foam?
I’m excited to have found your forum—there seems to be many helpful people here. J I do not surf, but a friend who does surf (and shape) has asked me to paint one of his blank boards. I have been educating myself on the many layers of this process, but have yet to find a source that clearly states whether or not I can use the acrylics on foam. I’ll appreciate the sharing of any experiential knowledge.
Howzit MarlaKane, No problem, just don’t apply to thick. I did a tiger stripe board a while back and after spraying the yellow base color I decided to brush the stripes on to get a certain texture look and the board came out beatiful. I think I posted a picture here so it should be in the archives.Found it Aloha,Kokua
2002 Kokua Fiberglass 9’ 0" Tiger Stripe Year Built: 2002
Acrtlic directly on foam is no problem. One thing to be very careful about…make sure not to get the paint to thick on the foam.
If you can…always do test samples of the paint and the specific colors you are using to make sure there won’t be a problem. This you can coordinate with your friend. Have them supply a sample of the foam that they are using and do a small sample of colored design and then have them glass over it with whatever materials they will be using to glass. this way you could know for sure. Most likely not necessary to do this but in case you wanted to be sure.
Marla, I’m just finishing up a board that has lots of brushed-on acrylic applied to the foam. The process was to first lightly spray the bottom and rails with yellow, then after it dried, I used a brush to paint tea leaves all along the rails. The paint for the tea leaf pattern soaked in, even on top of the sprayed paint. I didn’t have trouble getting it too thick. It was just the opposite. After the brushed on paint dryed, I could see some of the foam trough the paint, but not enough to spoil the overall look. After laminating, it looked fine.
I think you have to accept some roughness or dilution of the color when you paint directly on the foam. Painting on the hotcoat will give intense, opaque color, but has its own set of problems when you sand. Doug
I checked out the photos you posted (and those posted by others on your threads) and was inspired. My favorite is the Irish, Alone (posted 10/22 at 8:14 PM)–It transported me and I have never surfed . . . OK, that’s not entirely true. Years ago, I caved under peer pressure (ahhh, the perils of living in Hawaii) and attempted to learn, going out maybe 4 times at most. If you don’t really want to learn, you’re not going to and I kept my feet grounded after that.
Now, I’d like to learn. I love the way a few people close to me talk about the experience and (on the practical side) I think it looks like good, fun exercise . . . hopefully easy on the joints–I gotta ask them about that. In the meantime, I start to paint my brother’s board tomorrow.
its all about not overwhelming the pores of the material… if the stuff used to color the foam doesn’t allow the resin to penatrate and lock into the foam the delamination will be greater… I hand painted india ink on one time and had lifting of the laminates,the test panel should include attempts to see what the fail point is- ie make one section intentionally too thick so you can see what it looks like wrong…my friend who knows everything on the topic that cant read uses tempra…yes grammer school eggshell and pigment and water tempra… grammer school flashback to tempra Just imagine your kindergarden teacher for the warm fuzzy feeling …ambrose…you are already successful
I checked out the photos you posted (and those posted by others on your threads) and was inspired. My favorite is the Irish, Alone (posted 10/22 at 8:14 PM)–It transported me and I have never surfed . . . OK, that’s not entirely true. Years ago, I caved under peer pressure (ahhh, the perils of living in Hawaii) and attempted to learn, going out maybe 4 times at most. If you don’t really want to learn, you’re not going to and I kept my feet grounded after that.
Now, I’d like to learn. I love the way a few people close to me talk about the experience and (on the practical side) I think it looks like good, fun exercise . . . hopefully easy on the joints–I gotta ask them about that. In the meantime, I start to paint my brother’s board tomorrow.
Marla
THANKS Marla !!
…if even one of my photos gets someone stoked enough to go surfing, or spray or handpaint boards, or pick up a camera and record a good day to stoke OTHERS, then mission accomplished !
I spent yesterday at Hicksy’s , watching him glass over the acrylic handpainted artwork he, his three daughters , and his wife did on his WOODEN 5’5 stubbie, and let me tell you it looks sweet !!
I hope when I get the photos developed, it does the colours justice ! [He used epoxy resin for that, by the way.]
This was after I had glassed my enamel car spray onto foam 5’9 pintail. Which looks nice, if I do say so myself…the colours came out alright. Photo later… once it’s filler coated, sanded, finned [single, boxed] …and, perhaps , glossed as well.
I’m so excited about this project and really do appreciate your information (and thanks for including the picture of your board)!