A Black Crappie Painting Essay

[Rick Krane]

A Black Crappie Painting Essay

I have been asked by a few of the good folks on the Taxidermy .Net to share a bit of Mr., Randy Kittles of Athens Georgia Crappie experience with you all. So I hope you learn a bit from this and at least it may help you with a question or 2 you may have had. Enjoy!

Your Friend
Rick Krane
Lets first take a look at some of the work that went into the Crappie before the paint work is applied.
Ready to cast!

Casting the head!

The template!

First foam cut!

Carving basics!

Head fitting!

the Grid work!

Final carve!

The skin... Perfect!

Taxi Time!

The final fit!

A great fish for sure!!!


Darken the head for detail steelwooling

Randy hand paints any molded areas to match skin tones.

The head is ready as well as the body for some color.

The lower jaw and the lower belly are misted white.

Sliver pearl is appled to the face and the upper head also misting the lower to mid section of the body.

Randy applies Trans Amber oxide to the upper 1/2 of the fish including the fins on the body.

Light Bass green is misted on the face and head and selectively on the center of the body

Some red and Violet shimmers are applied to the scales with brushes

Face shimmers are also applie, slivers, blues and golds. All Crappie are diffrent so use reference

Randy rolls the fish in his hand to see if the colors are intens enough.

Hand painting the scales on the body to frame in the markings.

Randy airbrushes the markings.

Here is Randy with his finshed Fish.

This is the end results of a soft paint job.

[Jknuth]

Very nice!
Thanks for posting the essay
He sure does have a grin on his face, you can tell he is happy with the results.

The really funny thing to me is this picture



I have the same set of photos of crappies on my wall! Thank god for the interweb! LOL
I do have one question.
 How do you remove the fins without rays splitting?
Oh so help me don't answer with "Very carefully!"
  lol

[bear country]

hi rick        thanks for the  essay !  i still yet to do my first cast of a mammel .  that fish looks good !!!!

[Rick Krane]

Hey Josh!

Well.... OK I won't say it LOL!  What we done is carfully cut along the soft skin edge with a blade of choice and cut deep enough to remove the skin back then carefully snip the roots away exposing the fin cleanly. Pretty straight forward but a few times it is a bit of practice like any thing else we do!!

Have a great one!

Your friend Rick

[Jon S]

Great, thanks Rick. I like the way you guys blended in the head.  Brought it right in. Also like your fin carding method, LOL.

[fesekula]

Rick, You are truly a master and a teacher of fish taxidermy. Thank you for your time and wisdom.

[Jknuth]

Hey Josh!

Well.... OK I won't say it LOL!  What we done is carfully cut along the soft skin edge with a blade of choice and cut deep enough to remove the skin back then carefully snip the roots away exposing the fin cleanly. Pretty straight forward but a few times it is a bit of practice like any thing else we do!!

Have a great one!

Your friend Rick

Cool thats kind of what i figured. It looked like a nice clean cut.
Ive been removing fins more and more then reattaching them. It makes handling and painting so much easier.
Thanks for the good tips!

[rgkittle]

Josh , I was pleased with the results, but I was trying not to laugh at Rick , cracking jokes. Rick forgot to mention ,blending the fins seams with Fin Magic . It`s a great product for this area. Thanks Rick for sharing this step by step process with all our freinds on this website. Randy K.

[Bill_H]

what exactly is trans amber oxide ?(compared to life tone).

[rgkittle]

Bill , Transparent Amber Oxide is a transparent brownish yellow paint. It is a Lifetone color that is great for toning . WASCO sells it, as well as, many other suppliers. Randy K.

[Bill_H]

Thank you Randy.

[Stan N]

Mr. Kittle my son Stan also spent some time with Rick and he is only 16 and what he can do is remarkable. You have done beautiful work so I wanted to put my 2 cents in here. Welcome to the family he did tell you about the family. Well nice Crappie I'm sure your very pleased as you look!
Deb

[rnviper3]

very nice fish.  thanks for sharing the painting of it.  way better than a paint schedule.  thanks again

[sparkyf]

Man!!!  I have been away from this section for too long!!!!!!!!  What an aaawwwssooommee thread!! Just so happens I have two of these fish to do!  Thanks for sharing as always Rick!  Mark

[rgkittle]

Thank you Debbie !!! The Taxidermy family, as well as the Anglers Artistry family ,is a great group of people. Randy