I mix a bit of what I like to think is vaguely arty photography with my WAM sometimes. Current idea is to shoot my wife with a glossy black coating against a white background - partly silhouette but partly making use of the reflected highlights from the coating to suggest her form. But I can't decide what to use!
I'm after an almost "black latex" look, so something a bit thicker and smoother than just oiling her skin and using black mehron powder would be ideal. Liquid latex itself?? But I've read (I've never used it) that you can't get it off hairy areas, and so for complete coverage it sounds as if both skin preparation and subsequent removal would be at best very time consuming and at worst potentially impossible from some areas. Treacle? But I think it will continue to drip off her during the shoot, and I don't really want a white background that has drips and small puddles of black on it. Same potential problem with black gunge... Wondered about pva glue with black paint added, but a quick experiment earlier tonight produced a rather thin grey liquid which didn't seem quite what I was hoping for! Maybe if I let it dry...?
Any other ideas or experiences would be most welcome.
Treacle will give an absolutely gorgeous "coated in liquid PVC" effect, but as you guessed it will continue to flow and drip, albeit slowly. But visually it's probably the best choice. Any way you can just not include the floor in the shots?
Black treacle would be the easiest to wash off but usually, undiluted ready mixed black tempera/poster paint has quite a bit of body to it already (artist quality 5 litre cans). If you want to blacken another medium like PVA or clay or bentonite (or oil!) add dry powdered black paint pigment to it - and keep adding it until it goes completely black. It will eventually go patent black - it just takes a lot more mixing time.
This stuff! Email me and I can send you what all it was! It was a mix of a lot of stuff I used during a scene but I think if you use just one thing I used? It will create this look!
Or check out the video in my store to see everything I used during the shoot. This was taken at the end on my way to the shower in a doorway.