The Painting Begins
Buford’s hat got a bit of paint last night.
I used Asphaltum brown in several washes ( light, watered-down coats ) to build up the colour in the hat. I followed that up with a black head-band and then some dry brushing with a colour of Butterscotch. Remember that the dry-brushing is basically loading up your paint brush with the desired colour and then removing most of the paint onto paper towels before lightly brushing the carving with a light back and forth motion…think of it as a feather soft brushing of the carving. If you use a fat enough brush and a light touch, this leaves only a hint of colour on the highest points of the carving and leaves a sense of dust or wear.
As a final touch, the acrylic paints were covered with an acrylic satin finish and wiped dry with a paper towel. Lynn Doughty gives several good examples of this process on his Outwestwoodcarving site. I tend to start first with a light coat of white gesso as a primer directly on the wood but will try Lynn’s method of painting with acrylics directly on the wood at some point.
I think that the hat is looking pretty good and will suit this little hound cowboy…not quite a villain type but, out on the range, he ain’t no push-over either.
tributesinwood 