Color Process

[txlonghorn98]

Hello!

I am new to the trade and having a really hard time with color I bought "Fantastic Finshes" but it is limited to a few techniques it seems. I tooled a skull out and I want the background black and the skull white with gray outlines (black out eyes etc). First of all, do I just make gray by mixing acrylic paint? I suppose I need to do all this with paint but I did give it a coat of NFO and Resist. I don't know now if I should just start painting color..and I guess I put the resist thinking I would stain it antique dark to get the tooled lines and then paint...

[Bob Blea]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

In my experience with painting I have painted after applying Neatsfoot oil and letting it soak in thoroughly to the leather. I let it set for at least 24 hours. I've never put a resist layer down then painted, but I don't think that would hurt anything. I've also never tried painting after antiquing, so I can't speak to that. Your success would probably depend on the type of antique you are using. I think the Eco-flo products are based on acrylics, so I think you would be OK once they are completely dry, but I don't know anything about Feibings.

If you want to achieve the color white, I think you are limited to using acrylic paint. I don't know of a way to get a pure white from a dye. And yes I would make my shade of grey just from mixing a little black in with my white till I had the tone I wanted.

Hope this helps. Others here with more experience might have different and better recommendations.

Bob

[txlonghorn98]

Thanks so much for the response. I did a wallet that turned out great and it has a light tan stain (I think I used Feibings on it. And painted the flag in acrylics. Then I clear coated with Clear Lac. But I did not use the resist (I guess I was thinking the resist helped with coating the tooled outlines. So we will see. I plan to color it today!