BD's muse in progress – Mambo #3 – DONE! :)

Ha! GB, wait till I start on the rope section. LOL!
Eleu, feel free to take in as much info as you want, but I expect to see some muses painted. 😉

OK, now for the green. I did the same with phthalo green, added white to lighten it and make it opaque. Although, I find it looked a little sickly/chalky so I added some yellow to brighten it up and make it more of a Mardi Gras color.

I hate the ugly stage… a big slab of bland green. I’m not starting the next section until I’ve done more to this. I added some paynes gray to the phthalo and antiqued the scales. I lightened the edges just like I did the feathers and then added some interference green (which doesn’t show in the pic). It was still a little too dark for my tastes so I lightly dry-brushed the edges with gold. It makes a really neat effect at a certain angle.

I could have fought the dark green and mixed up a whole new batch of paint and painted over it, but I just decided to work with it. The results paid off, and now I have something I like that I would not have considered adding in the first place. Sometimes, no strategy really is the best way to go. No plan is a good plan. 😈

Side note regarding antiquing: most of the time I actually just brush it into place, especially when it comes to small areas. It’s much easier to control where and how much. When I antique the feathers, it will be brushed into place.

For large areas, I apply it normally. Slather it on, then wipe off the excess… but I rarely use it that way. I will take a TINY brush and paint the antiquing into the cracks. This will be very important later when I do areas such as the feathers. It will only be applied near the feather bases and allow me to keep the tips of the feathers nice and bright. I apply it more like paint than antiquing.

I’ll post feather pics tonight. 🙂

I actually use all three methods, but what I use will depend on the situation.

For the antiquing gel, I use DecoArt’s staining medium and use it for larger areas. I cover the area and then just wipe off the excess with a little piece of paper towel. I often go back and add/touch up with a brush. This is how I antiqued the scales for this muse.

If I’m edging an area, I will often use a SMALL amount of straight paint. With a tiny brush I will apply the paint into a crack and then drag it into the surrounding cracks (with a moist brush or even a little gel). It’s a little tricky, as any overflow must be wiped away quickly before it dries… usually with my fingers. 😳

I do thin with water for antiquing tiny cracks (and feathers). I have fluid acrylics so I don’t have to worry about breaking down the binder and making a gooey, stringy mess. They can be thinned just like watercolors. I use this when I want more “flow”. Excess can be soaked up with a dry brush, paper towel, or anything absorbent. Be very careful though, I find even with fluid acrylics too much water (or repeated applications of such) will cause the paint to flake/peel! If I’m working on an area that I feel might be rubbed (any raised areas), I add some of Golden’s GAC 200 (to help with paint adhesion).

I also have Golden’s GAC 100 polymer (which can also be thinned with water), but I rarely use it. I find it’s not much use with fluid acrylics (that’s just me), but this could be used to thin regular acrylics paints instead of using water. If someone else uses this, please feel free to add any comments.

Here’s an example of an area where I used 2 techniques:
Gel was used to stain the area; I simply applied then wiped off. Straight paint was then applied to the edges of the big round scales then dragged into the nearby cracks.

I have more pics to upload. I will try to get them up tonight.

Eleu, I can’t wait to see your muse! Feel free to PM me with any questions. 🙂