tributesinwood

All Prepped for Paint

Well, I think that I’ve done about as much as I need to before putting a bit of colour to this little hound.  Let me tell you what I’ve done since my last post.

The little handkerchief got a bit of checker-board paint.  The colours are barnyard red and butterscotch, with a bit of highlighting over the butterscotch with bright white.  Finally, the whole thing got a dry brushing of ivory to make it look a bit used.  I still need to put a coat of urethane on it to brighten up the colours further…but, I like the result so far.

I also carved in a hint of some claws on all of the paws and then epoxied all of the pieces in place…the ears and the one back paw that cuddles the banjo.  After that I gave the whole thing a coat of very thinned gesso.  Again, I like to use the gesso where many others like to paint directly onto the bare wood.  For me, the gesso serves to seal the wood and make a good base for the acrylics and it also tends to highlight any imperfections so that I can deal with them before the final paint.  Normally, the imperfections are little stray knife marks or some wood “fuzz” that I don’t like.  Normally.

This case wasn’t normal…once I put the gesso on I noticed for the first time that I forgot something…a tail!  I guess that the overalls threw me off…but I corrected that after I stopped laughing.  I made the tail in my typical fashion with some copper wire twisted together and coated with epoxy.  I wrapped it around the back of the chair and I like the way that it balances the handkerchief on the other side of the carving.  I’m still chuckling a bit because I have been accused in the past of omitting tails!

Hope you like the way that it’s turning out…I’m enjoying it.