I've done 6 deerheads so far and can some one tell me the right colors to mix up to paint the eyes with. I use a airbrush.My work is getting better with each deer. but I can't get the right color on the eyes.It's eating me up,any help would be great.
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everybody has their own secret tricks on how to paint eyes. If you want to win ribbons, you paint it one way, if you want to just get'er done, you paint it another way. The trick is, less paint is better. You do not want it to look like it has makeup on, so you only want to highlight the eyes and color that the deer already has, you will have to mix browns and blacks, burt umber, and others to get it the way you want it. Using just one color wont cut it. All training videos of mounting whitetails show how to paint eyes. I have found that less is better, misting lightly is better than a heavy cover. Colors are a personal choice. John Matthews gave a demo at the MTA this past spring, I wish I could put it down in type for you, he used about 4 or 5 colors and made it look easy and great.
I'm still crappy at getting it right myself. At some point, however, redundancy will pay off for you. Guys like John Matthews are unfair to people like us. The have "magic" in their hands and sometimes, I don't think they appreciate that it's just not "easy" for people like us.
If you're doing this for commercial work, I like to use just Dark Brown Laquer based paint. You can build the color up as dark as you want. I agree with George, every one helps, and some people do have "magic". A friend attended the Piedmont Mini Course and told me he saw a seminar on finishing a deer. In my area the dark brown really finishes it nicely. If you want I can e-mail you a close up picture to see if you like it.
2 parts rich brown 1 part dark brown, I use water based.
this color is perfect,i use it on all deer. laerned this meathod at missouri taxidermy institute.