Embossed Eagle Buckle Kit

[WinterBear]

Cheryl managed to convince me that I should post this thing, so here goes nothing.

This is a pre-embossed Boy Scout buckle kit sold as a kit for around $8. (I think I got this one from Hobby Lobby). I bought this kit and finished it up in early summer of last year. As it was meant for an example for the Scouts for their leatherworking merit badge, and I already had a sewn buckle, I decided to lace this one. Lace is the imitation/bonded stuff, so not the best, plus it was my first lacing attempt and I made a mistake at the bottom.

You can see that there is just not a lot of physical depth to it (first picture). From the sky to the head, there is less relief than the thickness of a dime, and that is about as much depth as there is anywhere. But, I'm going to go ahead and explain how I colored it. I have no idea if this method is "right" or not, it was just me fooling around.

The first thing I did was dye the whole thing with Ecoflo saddle tan. If I had planned things out better, I would have resisted the area of the eagle's feathers and the clouds first, so those areas would have been paler to begin with. But I didn't, which means I did a lot of mixing of cova and dye throughout, and since I used thinned dyes and Covas, the colors seeped and blended together, which I think turned out rather well. Cova colors were mostly used for the white feathers, the highlighting on the sky, the outer portions of the bill, the clouds, and the eye, while dyes were used for everything else and to wash over the Covas to tint and blend.

I don't like coloring with Cova and acrylic so much that I lose the aspect of the leather--at this point, it's plastic looking, and I might have well just painted the whole thing with spray paint. So, I keep it thin enough that the leather shows through. Everywhere you see brown, that's the leather dyed saddle tan.

Dilute blues and purples were washed over the sky, the clouds, the trees, and the brown body feathers to recede them back. Cool shades were also washed into the back of the mouth and portions of the bill, within the gape, and face to move them back.

The eagle's brown feathers are left saddle tan, but thinned washes of Ecoflow java brown, which settled into the creases and "antiqued" the feathers, were used to bring out the detail.

The upper portions of the trees and the nearer portions of the head and bill were washed with yellows and oranges to bring the "nearer", as were the hump and tip of the bill, and the lower mandible. The crevices among the trees, the base of the clouds, and the sky nearest the ground was washed with a muddy purple to move them further back.

The bill was dyed yellow, while the gape and the nostril was dyed with tints of red, rose, and orange. Where the gape was tinted with cool colors, the reds and yellows were muted. The eye was dyed yellow.

The feathers were drybrushed with white in several layers so that the details of the feathers would show through, then washed with thinned dye in yellow and blue to help shade the head, and drybrushed once more with white. Some blue-grey dye mixed in with the Cova white was used to detail some of the edges and barbs of the feathers. Cova white and yellow were drybrushed onto the bill and the lower bill.

The trees were dyed green, and yellow dye was washed over the green to bring them slightly closer. The sky was highlighted with Cova blue, and white was also brushed onto the clouds.Yellow, black and white Cova were used to finish the eye, then the whole thing was sealed with two coats of Super Sheen before being laced together.

[DoubleC]

Cheryl managed to convince me that I should post this thing, so here goes nothing.

This is a pre-embossed Boy Scout buckle kit sold as a kit for around $8. (I think I got this one from Hobby Lobby). I bought this kit and finished it up in early summer of last year. As it was meant for an example for the Scouts for their leatherworking merit badge, and I already had a sewn buckle, I decided to lace this one. Lace is the imitation/bonded stuff, so not the best, plus it was my first lacing attempt and I made a mistake at the bottom.

You can see that there is just not a lot of physical depth to it (first picture). From the sky to the head, there is less relief than the thickness of a dime, and that is about as much depth as there is anywhere. But, I'm going to go ahead and explain how I colored it. I have no idea if this method is "right" or not, it was just me fooling around.

The first thing I did was dye the whole thing with Ecoflo saddle tan. If I had planned things out better, I would have resisted the area of the eagle's feathers and the clouds first, so those areas would have been paler to begin with. But I didn't, which means I did a lot of mixing of cova and dye throughout, and since I used thinned dyes and Covas, the colors seeped and blended together, which I think turned out rather well. Cova colors were mostly used for the white feathers, the highlighting on the sky, the outer portions of the bill, the clouds, and the eye, while dyes were used for everything else and to wash over the Covas to tint and blend.

I don't like coloring with Cova and acrylic so much that I lose the aspect of the leather--at this point, it's plastic looking, and I might have well just painted the whole thing with spray paint. So, I keep it thin enough that the leather shows through. Everywhere you see brown, that's the leather dyed saddle tan.

Dilute blues and purples were washed over the sky, the clouds, the trees, and the brown body feathers to recede them back. Cool shades were also washed into the back of the mouth and portions of the bill, within the gape, and face to move them back.

The eagle's brown feathers are left saddle tan, but thinned washes of Ecoflow java brown, which settled into the creases and "antiqued" the feathers, were used to bring out the detail.

The upper portions of the trees and the nearer portions of the head and bill were washed with yellows and oranges to bring the "nearer", as were the hump and tip of the bill, and the lower mandible. The crevices among the trees, the base of the clouds, and the sky nearest the ground was washed with a muddy purple to move them further back.

The bill was dyed yellow, while the gape and the nostril was dyed with tints of red, rose, and orange. Where the gape was tinted with cool colors, the reds and yellows were muted. The eye was dyed yellow.

The feathers were drybrushed with white in several layers so that the details of the feathers would show through, then washed with thinned dye in yellow and blue to help shade the head, and drybrushed once more with white. Some blue-grey dye mixed in with the Cova white was used to detail some of the edges and barbs of the feathers. Cova white and yellow were drybrushed onto the bill and the lower bill.

The trees were dyed green, and yellow dye was washed over the green to bring them slightly closer. The sky was highlighted with Cova blue, and white was also brushed onto the clouds.Yellow, black and white Cova were used to finish the eye, then the whole thing was sealed with two coats of Super Sheen before being laced together.

OMG you did it. I didn't mean for you to put up ALL your secrets you're sharing with me, LOL. I didn't know you put this up until now, but I already told you, your ability to 'move and make objects 3D' with color absolutely amazes me. And this buckle is gorgeous. Cheryl

[PL01]

And so you should post it.

That came out really well, nice one