Personalizing a Linothorax

[Athena Areias]

My old white lino was painted (by the maker) with white flat housepaint (waterbase)! The first owner painted the trim with an unknown paint. When I did my shield, I looked into theatrical casein (milk-based) paint, Milk-Paint, and encaustic paint. I ended up using acrylics - but only colors that would have been available to the ancients - no Prussian blue! I also clear-coated the paint with a matte spray (shhhhh!) to give a bit of protection to the paint job. If you do use acrylics, base coat it with some thinned down gesso to give it something to bond to (and not soak in unevenly). Good luck!