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To quote a popular film, I have part of a plan! Sadly, though, the plan fell apart, and so I turn to the Great Collective Brain of Dakka for help.

And as you might have guessed from the title, the plan involves chalk! I've used chalks over the years as poor-man's weathering powders, grinding them up and using them to apply dust/dirt/OSL to minis with a good deal of success; the chalk leaves enough of a tint over the paintwork and doesn't rub off.


However, thias morning I had the crazy idea to 'paint' a whole mini in chalks over primer. It gave a nice translucent effect, blended well, and looked, for the minimal time it took, pretty good to my eye. However, the chalk did rub straight off to the touch, and while I think applying a wash or varnish over it would seal it on well enough, I obviously can't do that without the brush taking off the chalk.

So, can the creative minds of Dakka think of a way in which I could get the chalk to stick while also keeping the softer, more translucent effect it had over paint? I guess spraying a sealer might do it, but I'm not sure if that is the best way, or if it would even work!

It's a rather odd request I admit, but any response is welcome and appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Spray sealer is the only method that springs to mind. You may run into the issue of the colors being dulled down or darkened, though, which is why many wargame modelers overdo weathering with powders, knowing that varnish will knock back the effect to where they actually want it. Artists' fixative sprays are usually pretty forgiving, in that respect, but are only meant to keep ground-in dust on paper. The amount of varnish needed to form a complete protective shell requires total saturation of the pigments...

IIRC, all-pigment 'painting' is relatively common among horse figurine painters, which is apparently a bigger deal than you might expect. May be worth trying to find some resources for them to see if you can glean applicable advice.

[edit:] Had some time and started searching. Couldn't find nearly as much info as I seemed to remember being available, but I did find this video (should be linked directly to proper time point, just after the 8 minute mark), which I think is the one I was originally remembering. She recommends either Testors Dullcote or Vallejo matte (aerosol). There are more pigment-painting videos on her channel, but I didn't bother watching them all.