Painting Deer Ears

[Joe K.]

How many of you guys/girl paint you deer ears? What colors do you use? I haven't found the right colors for my ears. Just curious as to what everyone uses.

Thanks

[Todd K]

     Joe, dust the ears with white then a little pink or flesh, then some coco brown or similar color. Just keep trying til ya find something you like. Dont over-do it though. Then take an old tooth brush with some laquar thinner on it and clean the paint off the hair. I'm sure just about everybody paints the ears. The colors, everybody will have thier own preference!

[Michelle Nelson's Taxidermy]

I use Flesh and a mix of 1/2 Bass Belly White and 1/2 Superhide White.

First I lightly spray the inside of the ear with Flesh.  Let it dry while I move on to the Eye's and Nose.  Now using a tooth brush I brush all the over spray off of the hair on the inside of the ear.  Now Usung the 1/2 Bass Belly White and !/2 Super Hide White I lightly spray the inside of the ear.  Let that dry while i remove the eye protect and windex the eyes and install the hanger.  Once that is complete I take the tooth brush and brush the over spray off the hair on the inside of the ears. 

Here is a picture.....

[after the shot]

I dont paint the inside of my ears. what I do is, mix a little buckeye supreme w/ a few drops of flesh until I get the color that i want, apply it to the earliner, slide it in and when the deer is drying, the paint actually dyes the thin, transparent ear skin. No overspray to clean.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

Sorry after the shot, dont take me wrong, but I use to think tinted paste and red ear liners, or the red ear paste would show through, and it did. A year later the tanned ear skin turned leather brown and the color could not be seen. Just ask George. Tinting the paste is short term. I now paint white, dust with flesh, then a dusting of burnt unber or dark brown, Then after it is dry, take a paper towel and rub it all out, then take a tooth brush and work the hair over cleaning the paint off of the hair. A wire brush will scratch your paint job. You can take a rag of thinner and lightly go over the hair keeping away from the inside of the ear.

[Dean]

The inside of a deers ear is fairly dark. More of a rusty brown color in the fall. To many taxidermists paint them pink or white with a little pink tint. They are using a dead deer as reference. They are not that color. Like I said, light to medium  rusty brown color. I mist light layers of mars red and tie in brown mixed, then lightly tone it down with dark brown. I've pulled back the hair on the inside of my live deer many times to keep double checking my self. THEY ARN"T WHITE, PINK, OR FLESH COLOR!!!

[Joe K.]

After the shot.

I do the tiger hair bondo method so with that I need to paint the ears. I don't have a lot of confidence doing ear liners. I will keep at it but for now I will keep doing bondo. Thanks for all the tips I will try the other paint schedules and see.

Joe

[AndyO]

I don't paint them white, pink or brown. Of course, I mount mulies mostly. I used some Jonas "Deer ear" and I cut it with some natural flesh hydromist. Then I use a satin clearcoat to give it that waxey look. Mulie ears dry and turn brown which looks like dead flesh, not living flesh.

Try some polytranspar gold transparent toner instead of the satin clearcoat next time. You'll be impressed what it does for Mule deer ears.

[Michelle Nelson's Taxidermy]

They look like a light PINK and WHITE to me. Personal preferance.  If we were to use referances off of dead deer than their ears would be White due to loss of blood.... Same as the inside of a deers nose it would be white to a light grey color.

[L7]

Michelle, I believe Dean said Deer ear's in the FALL. Your shot's are in bust.

[Dean]

Michelle. The deer photos you have are of a summer deer still in velvet. You are seeing the light coming through the ear and also reflection. Photos are decieving and most times don't show true colors. My son is a photographer and design artist and he is always fixing bad colors and tones on photos for people.   I raise the real deal( deer) and they are not pink even in the summer. You may get an illusion of a pinkish look  once in a while from reflection and light angle etc. but you get up close and they are NOT PINK. ( I can get my fasce 2" away if I want and play around with their ears to see) Trust us it isn't a personal prefernce if you want to do it right. You can't trust photos for color.

[Glen Conley]

I'm sure this will view differently with different monitor settings.  I'm running 32 bit Tru color, and what displays on my monitor is awfully darn close to what I see with the eye.  One of the things I have seen with the eye is indeed a variation in inner ear color displayed.

This shot is from a number of web pages I have been working on for the past few months, some day I will make them all available.  I'm like Dean in that I tend to go with what "I" see.

This is a live deer, and he is in velvet.

Addition:
On the next page is a question asking what color is the ear that is photographed.  Here's the drill.  I used a computer program and made color swatches from the area of the inner ear skin between the two hair tracts.  If you study the color swatches, and then look up at the deer's ear, you should be able to see the various colors that make "the color".

Below the color swatches you will see what looks like a brass rod, and below that you will see what looks like a photograph of brass brazing rod.  In the first "brass" photo, once you look close you will see I did nothing but use brown to yellow to white lines for a total of four colors and white.  I took the same "brass" and shrunk it down with the computer, then copied and pasted enough of the little versions to create the brazing rod.

What I'm trying to get at here is a thing of what colors make a color?  Flat work artist deal with this all the time, and there is no reason not to apply the same principles in a three dimensional piece.

[Glen Conley]

One more thing, it is possible to color earliners and the color to come through the ear years later.  It all depends on the whole sum total combination used for the end results.  I have described proteins on here before as crystalline organic solids, that description was developed before any of us were born, so by their nature, the protein structures left in the ear skin will be transparent/translucent.  If they are not "colored" or oxidized, they will remain that way for quite some time.

Addition:
This photo is of an ear done with a liner made from cotton cloth and wood glue that was then painted in the same manner as a flat work piece.  The color is under the skin.

[Josh]

LISTEN TO DEAN.  I have seen several taxidermists take reference pictures of dead animals with their own cameras.  You've got to study GOOD reference photos of live animals during the season they were harvested.  And Dean is right on, the inside of the ears aren't white, pink or flesh.  I see so many deer ears that are a hot pinkish color.  I've never seen a deer with hot pink ears. 

[jcompton]

O.k so what color is that ear in the photograph that Glen posted?