I am going to finish a few deer and antelope with some oil paints. I searched out the archives and couldn't really find anything that helped me.
My main question is that if you start say, with a coat white or flesh, and fade into a brown, how do you keep your colors from mixing together? Do you spray a coat of the matte finish between colors? Can you use oils in the ears? Thanks for the help.
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Yes,
You don't, blend & fade them,
No, just matte finish at the end,
I airbrush the ears
Good Luck
Oil Paints' workability (is that a word?) are very similar to acrylics. But, they take forever to dry. depending on the application, this may or may not be a plus.
Why are you using oils? Are you just trying to get rid of paint? I would think an air brush (except for some detail work where harsher edges are wanted) would be the way to go for what you're trying to do...
Yes oil paint can be dried almost as fast as acrylics.
Use lacquer thinner instead of Japan Drier.
Yes, you do blend them they are much easier to use than an airbrush.
Flesh is the first color for the nose, then a medium brown, fading into a dark gray on top of the nose then into black.
You are dealing with browns and blacks in fleshtones.
95% of the people on here will not understand these.
I do use lacquers in the ear and nostrial.
The eyes are best finish with oils, you will have natural tones instead of the wet looking area.
Anything that can be painted with an airbrush can be painted with artist oils. You can do manythings with artist oils that airbrushes cannot do.
Look into your local community college for some art classes.
I disagree. Oils are very soft looking around the eyes. I consider myself fairly decent with an airbrush, and I can not achieve the softness around the eyes. George can vouch for my airbrushing abilitites. Oils in the hands of a professional will produce one of the softest looks you can achieve. I agree with John on this one.
Yes you want the colors to blend. No I wouldn't recommend using them in the ears. I would recomend you use very little paint starting with light colors and move on to darker colors. I use only oil paints for finish work with very nice resaults. I only use the air brush in the ears. I also start with light to dark colors there too. White, flesh, burnt umber, ivory black...same colors for oil paint.
Again, a lot depends on what you're trying to achieve. Being able to blend softly with a consistent soft edge (for instance painting the side of a fish with it's base color, softly blending into the belly or back) the air brush would be a better weapon of choice than either acrylics or oils hand painted.
The beauty - or main advantage to oils IS their slow drying time. Manytimes the artist can work/blend the paints with oils right on the canvas and/or add or remove colors etc. with plenty of working time to change things.
I'll admit, I am ignorant to the application as I associate the usage of oil paints moreso with flat artistry.
I do use acrylics (along with my air brush paints) with a brush manytimes on my fish in tandem with the air brush and I believe I pull things off just fine. Whereas, my answer relates moreso to the ability level of most taxidermists. Most are NOT accomplished flat artists. Most cannot blend paint very well with a brush - it simply looks painted. In most cases it's quite obvious to me when a brush is used.
My answer is based on the probable ability level of the postee (No offense J). In which case I still say that an air brush (in most applications) would be a better choice (at least to help blend any brush strokes)...
...would be attempting to reproduce a photograph - which is very much what we are trying to achieve, realism.
A brush is used more so to convey "style". It is not necessarily the best tool to reproduce a photo. It is much easier to come close to reproducing a photo with an air brush than it is with a brush (imho).
Of course, both depend a lot on the talent level of the artist. (And this is where a high end air brush would be a necessity)...
I can't make my mind up. Marty is making a little more sense. In the hands of a new taxidermists, it may be easier to blend colors with an airbrush. In the hands of a master, oil paints are unbelievable. Marty, the next time Ben Mears is giving a whitetail finishing seminar at a convention, take time out to go watch him. It will look like it is living and breathing when he is finished.
...I make some sense!
I'll bet Sallie and Ben are (or could be) accomplished flat artists as well. It takes a lot of natural talent and a lot of practice (& mistakes!) to get to that level. I know, I'm STILL NOT THERE!
Have always used oils as i dont have an airbrush and wouldnt have a clue how to use one.
I find oils easier to blend than acrylics, prob because of the drying time. If i want a 'shiney' look, i just add a drop of linseed oil to the mix. If i want a 'dry' look, i dry paint. (dry brush + little paint)
J, I use an airbrush mostly but when I do special mounts I use oils on the eye work. I use oils that thin with water and apply them as washes. I apply the darker colors first and the results can be quite good. The nose pad also finishes well with oil but I airbrush in the ears. Enjoy, Aaron H.
Thanks everyone! I did airbrush the ears and used oils for the rest. I did find that blending the oils and adding a bit of lacquer worked awesome and it has turned out to be the best deer I've ever done. Thanks again to everyone that had some input! Cheers.
or i think issue 59 breakthruogh his paint scheme is in there. very easy to follow, very good paint schedual