[Woodcarver] Grizzley bear paint

[Mike Bloomquist]

Bo,
I've only done a couple caricature black bears, but here's my  two cents worth.  My vote would be for oil colors & linseed oil.  If you use acrylics, use them with an extender added to slow drying.  The reason for the slower drying time is to allow you to blend one color area into the next so there are no hard edges between different colors or even different shades of the same colors.  Also, if you aren't burning the fur in then pulling one color/shade into the next with a rough brush will give the illusion of hair.  

Also, never paint with pure white or pure black.  Try to stay with warm white and raw umber (for black).  Use pure white to kick the warm white up, and the black to darken the raw umber, but never by themselves with widlife.

Have a scrap or two of the wood you used to carve the bear handy, and use them to test the colors and practice the brush strokes before you lay them on the piece itself.

Before you ever wet a brush, gather as many reference photos as you can lay hands on.  I cover the bulletin board and cabinet doors in front of the area I'm painting at.  Thumb tacks, scotch tape.... whatever it takes until it looks like insane wallpaper.  Actually this happens before I carve, but black-n-whites are included at the carving stage.  You should study enough of them, long enough that you realize that no two grizzlies are exactly alike... then you're ready to paint your own.

If available, check back issues of your magazines or books by wildlife carvers, they'll have the complete treatment.  Hope this helps.

Keep on Carvin'

-Mike Bloomquist->
Rome, NY
m.bloomquist at verizon.net

Wooden Dreams Woodcarving
http://www.borg.com/~bloomqum
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Charley & Nancy Green 
  To: Woodcarver at six.pairlist.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 12:53 AM
  Subject: [Woodcarver] Grizzley bear paint


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  I'm carvin a grizzly bear and am getting to the point of thinking about pain.Any bear carvers out ther that can help me?  Not sure about the type acrilic or oil. i have done both on birds and 2 moose. Any help on the color and mixture  ?

  thanks
  Bo



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