Preparing a Carved Bird for Painting

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In this painting tutorial, learn how to prepare a carved bird for painting. The demonstration covers the materials, tools, and preparation techniques needed to create a smooth, clean surface before applying paint and finishing details.

Transcript

Before we begin pushing paint around the palette, I’d like to talk to you a little bit about surface preparation and your workspace.

Through the whole process, I’m going to be stressing to you to just keep things simple and just relax and have fun. And this should be fun. It should be something that brings you a lot of pleasure and there will be times when you’re frustrated by the whole process, but that’s how you learn. If you nailed it perfectly the first time every time, you wouldn’t be learning anything. So be prepared to be frustrated a little bit, but always strive to end the day on a positive note and feel as though you’ve accomplished something positive.

One of the main things to painting is a clean, well lit workspace. I like to, little ritual that I do is I like to go into my studio and vacuum all the dust where I’m gonna be painting, cover the table with a nice clean clear white covering, and then with palettes that I mix my paints on, I don’t get overly carried away. I keep things simple. I just use these basic Chinet plates, but nothing could be more frustrating than when you’re trying to paint and you’re pushing your palette all around your table. So take some of these little double stick foam scotch things you can buy at Staples Art Supply around, put them on the bottom of the palette and then press the palette down right onto your workplace and it holds it in place perfectly. That will prevent you from chasing it all over your table when you’re trying to get just the right amount of paint to put on your bird.

When we begin painting, we’ll be painting with acrylic paints. The reason I choose acrylic paints is because they’re water soluble, they dry quickly, and most importantly for me is that you can take your time applying them in layers.

It’s the magic of the application process which is really going to bring your bird to life. You’re going to be using the texturing that you’ve done on your bird surface in conjunction with that layering technique to give the illusion of depth in your carving. Now as important as getting the color correct in your carving, you have to also strive to give the feathers some density and some plumage depth that will really convey that sense of realism to the viewer.

That can only be accomplished through the use of layering techniques. And if you think of it as a clear white, beautiful white table and you’re you’re gonna start putting stained glass on top of it, say, nice translucent blue glass, With each successive layer, you’re gonna build up that illusion of depth and density and the intensity of the color. And that’s the same thought process that we’re gonna be using as we proceed with the painting of acrylics.

Another advantage to acrylic paints is that they dry quickly. Once they’re put down, with the use of a blow dryer or just ambient air, they’ll dry within seconds.

When it comes to acrylic paints, I’ve had very good luck with Liquitex. It’s just a brand that I’m comfortable working with, but there are lot of very good ones on the market. Golden, Hyplar, there are many, many. Holbein makes wonderful paints, so it’s a matter of personal preference. They’re all good and the key is to find something you’re comfortable with.

When you begin painting, you want two water jars. I always keep two clean water jars in front of me and one I call the dirty jar and one the clean jar. So as I begin painting and I get paint buildup on my brush, I will go back and I will clean it first in the smaller jar to get the majority of the pigments out of the bristles.

Then I will take it to the larger clean out jar. About every half hour or so, clean your jars and put fresh water in there. That’s very important. Another tip with your water prior to painting, take a drop of flow medium.

Flow medium, retarder, airbrush medium, they’re all basically chemically the same stuff and it just retards the drying process a little bit. But it also, a drop or two in your water also helps the brushes stay cleaner and it tends to lubricate the brush bristles a little bit better and keeps your brushes in more workable condition.

Another word about supplies and tools, when it comes to using acrylic paints, your brushes are going get wet. So, when you want to dry and control the density and the viscosity of the paint and the water on your brush, I always keep a paper towel folded just to my right. Being right handed, I tend to favor the right side of my work area much more than the left. Left is for holding material as I’m painting, right is the actual applicator arm. When I’m using paper towels, I tend to favor, not to promote anything here, but I found that Bounty paper towels have a lot less raglanet content in them. So if you were to take some of the other brands and tear them, you would see a cloud of this raglanet come up into the air and that can fall into your painting a little bit. I prefer Bounty paper towels that work quite well for painting with acrylic paints.

Just like when I’m painting, I keep my color selection at a minimum. I also my brush selection, I keep that at a minimum as well.

When I’m working, probably my most useful brush is my number six pointed sable. This happens to be a Scharf brush. They’re made in France. This is an eight thousand four hundred eight series Scharf.

Any of the good quality number six pointed brushes are going to work very well for you. I use a three quarter inch oval wash brush available at most art supply stores or online, and a half inch oval wash brush.

In my arsenal, I have many, many brushes, but these are my three go to brushes in addition to my airbrush, which we’ll cover later.