Cape Color Woes

No pictures today, though I do have some of all of the color matching experimentation I've been doing over the past couple of days.

I've been spending literally ALL of my free time (which is not much, I might add) trying to match the color of the outer skin of the cape. Burman Industries was kind enough to ship me my balloon rubber and pigments quickly, and that was great. BUT, it's actually REALLY hard to nail down the proper color. One problem is that latex dries to be a VERY different color than what you mix. My first efforts were trying to mix the wet latex to be the color I want, which wasn't too hard. But it always dried a VERY dark brown. I kept experimenting, and got close a few times. The closest one looked like bright pink bubble gum when wet, but dried to a dark red/brown.

The bummer is that the outer cape is a deep shade of burgandy. Like a red/purple. Every time I start to get close, it just turns brown. I think the blue I'm using to deepen the color has some other color in it, which is effecting the tint.

I've grown very frustrated with this, and after three days, it's time to try something new. I recently discovered that you can use off the shelf "liquitex" brand paints to tint latex. I'm actually very familiar with those paints from my days as an aspiring graphic artist, and I know how they mix. So I'm going to make my way down to the art supply store and pick up a few tubes to experiment with. My hope is that the color I mix with the paints will translate pretty well when I add it to the latex. Latex itself dries a shade of ivory, so I really shouldn't be seeing SIGNIFICANT color changes caused by the latex itself. It's all in how the pigment dries. Well, that's my theory.

I'll keep you posted as I figure it out. My goal was to try to get a finished pull out of the mold before the end of the weekend. The only thing stopping me right now is the color. If I can nail that, I might be able to pull it off. But knowing my luck, I'll run out of rubber.