Tricorn felt hats

[Gary D]

Hi. Anyone have any ideas on how to replicate the felt on a tricorn hat? I am trying to paint the Master and Commander bust and have kicked about the idea of somehow sprinkling and gluing some fine flock onto the hat and then painting it, or stippling on some Mr. Surfacer (used by armour modellers) and then painting it. I saw a picture of Steve Moore's version and was really blown away by it.

thanks,

Gary D

 

[Einion]

I think the best way of doing this is to just paint an illusory texture, with irregular brushstrokes and/or stippling of the lighter mixtures over a dark base.

If you want to actually create a nubby texture, I've had good results stippling with acrylic medium using a stiff brush. Acrylic paint works okay too sometimes, if it's viscous enough, but you can work thinner paint for a while and as it dries out it'll thicken. For this it would be best to keep any actual texture subtle, in miniature any physical texture like this is generally overscale and it's worth checking photos to see just how subtle the texture on felted wool is, this is about the most you'd see.

Einion

 

[Jeff]

I have had good luck doing his with oil paint. What i have done is when you get to light high lights and dark areas you blend with a big brush the more surface area the better. I have used makeup brushes for this in the past and just bounce the brush on the wet paint and blends the colors and leaves a nice texture that really looks like felt. The key is to get a really soft brush with a lot of hair and it works really well.

 

[Gary D]

thanks guys for the help. Both methods sound good. As I am an oil over acrylics painter, perhaps i should paint my shadows and highlights and then with a stippling motion using the make up brush, create the faint felt texture. I will have to experiment with this first though.

Gary D

 

[renarts]

Gary,
Try mixing some talcum powder in with your acrylic. It leaves a textured finish.

 

[Gary D]

Thanks Mike. I'll try it on a test peice first, as it sounds good.

Gary D

 

[herbwf]

A little late in reply but have been off line for a bit.
His seagoing gear would be stuff that was well worn and would really not be approved of ashore. I think that Einion is closest with the idea of replicating the base color of the felt showing through the black dye. I'm not sure that you see the texture of the felt as it would be fine when new and worn finer by constant use.
Hope this helps.
Herb

 

[housecarl]

Gary, I know Figure Mad applies texture using 3m spraymount. http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31526&highlight=spraymount&page=4

Hope this helps,
Carl.

 

[Gary D]

Thanks for the input Herb. You have a good point as they were at sea 90% of the time and he would have worn his hat outside during battle etc. I would imagine the felt would have been worn almost flat.

Thanks Carl. I looked at Dave's method. No guts no glory i guess! It certainly gives food for thought.


Gary D