help - painting a drum skin

Subject: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 02:37 AM

Advice and help required please. I have tried different types of materials acrylic, felt pen etc etc but with no success. What is the best "paint " with which to paint a logo and letters on a drum ? The drum gets a lot of stick during the course of the summer and as it seems to be a focal point (or at least the geezer that hits it is) long lasting decoration is important.
Any ideas gratefully received.
Alex

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 02:51 AM

According to this article, the author used commercial oil paints. The paragraph which says that is just before the first picture, a little over half way down the page. Good luck!

kat

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 04:10 AM

Thanks Kat, I wonder though what effect the oils would have on an imitation ie plastic skin, if that is what drum heads are made from nowadays.

Alex

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 04:44 AM

Good old traditional colouring medium (as handed down from father to son for generation upon generation) is still the best. I refer of course to the NIKKO Marker........ Huge range of colours and very hard wearing. Also kind to synthetic skins.

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 05:35 AM

Cheers Oz

Alex

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: smallpiper
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 06:15 AM

I've used indelible coloured indian inks to great effect in the past

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: PeteBoom
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 09:19 AM

Right - what kind of drum and what material is the skin? Calf, goat, elk, cow (adult, as opposed to calf), deer and sheep all react in different ways, depending on climate and the size of the head in question and what the purpose is. For most frame drums (e.g., bodhran) ozmacca's marker suggestion is pretty good - felt tip markers work wonderfully - if you are careful.

Cheers -

Pete

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 09:31 AM

If the drum has two skins on it, then there should be no problem painting the one on the back. Painting the for-skin is not however advisable.

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 10:21 AM

If the drum head is plastic, try this: Get some regular two-part epoxy cement from the hardware store. Be sure to not get the quick-drying five-minute kind. Mix one part of each of the two epoxy components and one part concentrated acrylic paint. (You want the artist quality acrylic that comes in a tube, not the thinned-down crafter's stuff in squeeze bottles.) Mix 'em up and paint it on. Let it cure a couple of days before banging in it. It should be as tough as the plastic the head is made of. As always with anything experimental, test it on cheap junk first.

Bruce

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 10:48 AM

Sorry, I assumed it was skin, rather than plastic. Looks like you've got some good ideas to work with, though! Most interesting.

kat

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: open mike
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 11:00 AM

my bodhran (goat skin head) has a decal on it but it is wearing out where the "drum-stick" (tripper or beater) hits it. it seems it would last the best if it (the color) sinks into the skin rather than sitting on top of it--I would think the epoxy thing might deaden the sound by thickening the surface. by "gets a lot of stick" do you mean this is adrum you play with drum sticks? good luck and let us know how it turns out..

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,alex
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 11:13 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions. The drum can be seen, in relatively good visual order, on the Dance page of freespace.virgin.net/slubbing.billys
sorry, can`t do the blue clicky even with the new links

cheers
Alex

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 03:03 PM

Slubbing Billy's Dance Page?

John

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: gnu
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 03:13 PM

Check out this site http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/bodhran/

There is a wealth of knowledge and contacts.

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Marc
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 04:14 PM

Oneshot Sign Painters Enamel, I've seen it used on various types of skin drum heads. You should find it in a good paint store.

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: GUEST,alex
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 04:29 PM

johninkansas yes, thats the page.Slubbing Billys

many thanks to you all.Alex

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: mack/misophist
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 11:06 AM

I don't know of any paint that would wear well at the point where the skin gets 'a lot of stick work'. However, I DO know that many, perhaps most of the painted leather jackets you see are done in good quality artist's acrylic pigments. That would surely do for the other areas.

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Dead Horse
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 12:47 PM

Hammerite?

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:56 AM

Ozmacca is right with his hint to markers. My friend, working in a drawing section at my university, strongly recommends permanent markers for this purpose; they stand even heavy blows he said.
In Germany we mostly use the products of Edding.
Americans could have easier access to Sanford.
Both products come with point or wedge in different colours.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: help - painting a drum skin
From: Bearheart
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:50 PM

We and our students paint our shamanic drums with a variety of substances. These are usually goat, cow or deer skin heads, usually using a soft beater (wood wrapped in tanned deer hide). I use a horse rib which is much harder. (Horse died of natural causes on a farm near here.) I have successfully used acrylic paint, others have used oil paint, and also high quality colored drawing inks. Thinning paint seems to work better than applying thickly. A soft beater is less hard on the finished product. And if your drum is subject to loosening in damp weather and having to be tightened with heat that will cause wear as well. If you want to be able to control the way the finished art looks you need to think about method of application (markers go on differently from paint or ink applied with brushes. Also if you make a mistake Acrylics are easier to clean off the surface and leave less trace that certain other colorants. Also paints can be painted over.

Bekki