[Claude]

Vic:
I've never been able to get the "paint while wood is wet" to work with my acrylics, as the color always spreads to where I don't want it; guess I should break down and buy a wood burner to "seal" the colors apart as Lynn suggests. What I've generally settled on is to seal the wood with either a 50% thinned water-based satin varnish, or some MinWax Sanding Sealer. Both work equally well for me, although the MinWax takes a week before I can paint, as I want it to out-gas first, and the MinWax also darkens the wood a couple of shades - ok on some carvings, but not on others. The water-based varnish will dry in a half hour and doesn't change the wood color. Both of these prevent much of the color soaking into the end grain and resulting unevenness. Multiple coats of paint, thinned greatly (I use one drop paint to ten drops of water, depending on the color), will slowly build up the color while still letting the wood grain show through.

Just an alternate idea...

Very nice elf, by the way!


Claude

[BRIAN D]

Vic, sounds like you don't like your finished job, but it does look good, & throughly enjoy the picture with the the cat. Needs a caption "Well 'am I gonna get eatan, or can I escape! Brian D.

[vic n]

Tony, Thanks for the compliment and the tip about mixing the waxes. I haven't put any type of finish on since painting, still trying to decide if there's any way to save it! Vic

[Merle Rice]

Hi Vic n, I think you are being a little hard on your self. A very good carving and paint looks good. Adding the Wax now would tone it down and give it a antique look , if you use the Watco Dark Satin Wax, if that is the look that you want. I still think it looks good. Merle

[vic n]

Claude, Thanks for the reply. I know Lynn doesn't seal his but I just didn't trust myself(rightly so, it would seem!), to do it correctly. I sure didn't realize that the wax would stain the wood that much. Probably if I had used the wax as a finish, rather than a sealer, the stain would have soaked into the wood less. I was hoping for almost no added color. Now that I say(print) that out loud, I realize how dumb it is to use anything that says "Dark" in it's name if I don't want dark! Vic

Brian, Thanks. I'm surprised I got any pix without the cat! Had to boot him a couple of times to get what I did. Vic

[vic n]

Merle, Thanks so much! I'm actually pretty proud of the carving, just disappointed in the paint job. Vic

[sccarnes]

vic,
someone maybe tucker , not sure , made the coment that he was never happy with the finished product, man i would jump on you carving in a buckeye mint, looks great to me , but then you should see my results, for sure i would never post mine, not yet , but hope to reach the stage where i would e proud to. nice job , just the llok i was trying for
sam
tucker , did not meant that coment about finished joe in a nasty way besides you look a ornery as me,

[xsailer]

Vic, I agree with the others....you are being hard on yourself when although you may not like the finish, the carving as it appears, is a nicely finished piece. If this is only your fourth carving in my opinion you're doing very well. One good thing is to look how much you've learned...not what to do.
Carving and painting cannot be learned without doing it.

The more you do,
the more you learn,
what not to do.

Maybe I should be a song writer instead of a carver.............nah.

[vic n]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the great tips! I did go ahead and add a little color to cheeks, nose, and ears. Then gave a couple of light coats of clear satin polyurethane. Here are some pix. Vic

[sccarnes]

vic , great job, not that there was anything wrong, the first, now what did you use , red, basecoat, what
sam