I am making a cake for a friend and I have an idea in my head of what I want it to look like but I would need to paint it. My friend does not really like fondant so I would rather just do it with buttercream. If I get the buttercream really smooth and let it crust over will I be able to paint it?

Here are a couple of good threads on painting BC:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-39034-paint.html+buttercream

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-30679-paint.html+buttercream

HTH's

. . . depending on what kind of artist you are . . . you can even paint "with" buttercream . . . http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=191513

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=36559

Thanks guys, you have been very helpful. I think that I am just going to paint on fondant this time but I will play around with painting on buttercream really soon. I'm not sure that I will ever be good enough to paint WITH buttercream. That is amazing. Thanks for the threads, I looked them up but I couldn't find any. This is my first time posting a question on here and I am so appreciative of the help. I am sure I will be using it again in the future.