Wood Duck Drake Bill Painting

Hi look in taxidermy today issue march/april 2007 good luck Scott.

 

I use all Lifetone laquer paints and like the finished product quite well. The key to any painting is slower is faster, maening let the color build up slowly instead of opening up the tip and just spraying it on, this will always leave you with a painted look instead of soft and natural. My paint schedule is as follows:
1. wipe off the artificial head with laquer thinner
2. seal the bill with Krylon matte finish (get this from Walmart)
3. Paint the entire bill Off White
4. Paint the fleshy part of the lower mandible flesh or dusty pink
5. spray the base of the upper mandible Golden Yellow (use reference to get a general idea of where each color goes) also lightly spray
along the lower edge of the nostril
6. spray gill red from the edge of the yellow on the sides to the tip of the bill tapering this to a point slightly back from the nail edges
7. lightly spray center area of the gill red with snow goose red to give a deeper tone and let this color fade out as you get to the edges
of the red area
8. spray shade brown(Don Holt African specialty color available through Van Dykes) on the nail, and on the upper center area of the
upper mandible and spray the lower mandible leaving some of the flesh color show through in the center
9. seal all of this with 2 or 3 light coats of Krylon matte finish. Make sure that the first coat is very light as the Krylon will react badly with the laquer if it is too heavy too soon but when done right will blend the paint and give a very soft fleshy look to finished product.

Good luck, Mark W.

p.s a little overspray on a woody bill isn't a bad thing as they are perfectly natural with the colors blending some with each other instead of crisp, sharp lines seperating each.