Creative Woodworks & crafts 2005-04, страница 54

continued hvm page 53

If you have burned the pupils solid black and have a nice dark sliadow just under the eyelid, great! If not, use black paint to coiTect it. If you leave the pupils too light, or worse yet, mottled, the finished eye will appear to have cataracts. Now, let's color the eyes.

The best way to brighten the eye is with Iridescent .Bright Gold, again by Licjuitex. Apply it to the lower 1/3 of the iris, dab it on and blend it into the copper. If you have a teen-aged daughter around, she may have some gold nail polish you can "borrow".

life' note: This shot docs not do justice to the amount of depth and rounding that Orchid has achieved in her burning. It is a little less than 1/16" deep and adds significant detail to the finished product.

Once you have completed the. eyes all you have lo do is start creating every individual hair on the animal. 1 burned every hair using a combination of stroke speed and pressure to give the cat dimension. The most important point is that there are NO STRAIGHT LINES Expert to spend tit. least 8 hours on tills step, so put your feet up, relax and do it in several phases, not all at once.

Finishing up

Once you have all tire fur burned you may be tempted to leave it at that. Since the eyes, especially cat eyes, add so much life to the animal, 1 strongly suggest that they be painted and glazed. Before you paint'anythmg - SEAL THE WOOD! In tins case J am using Delta Ceraincoat "All-Purpose Scaler" that comes in a handy 2 Oz. bottle that is just right for small jobs and touch-tips. For classes I buy "Last n' Last" Ultra Clear water-bome acrylic urethane wood scaler by Absolute Coalings. Inc. by the gallon. Both go on cloudy but dry clear and ready to paint in about 30 minutes.

'lo paint the iris I used an acrylic paint by Licjuitex called "Hooker's Green", and what's more, I painted it with a lip liner brush! Yon might, as well know right now that before this is over we are- going to be using glittery nail polish and maybe even some lip-gloss. So if you utacho guys out there think it is more than you can handle, you'd better bail out now. Those of you who decide to stay will have a lot of fun and leam how to save money besides.

Next, 1 added some iridescent copper highlights right over the green on both sides of the iris. Don't get any of this on the pupil or in the shadow cast by the upper lid - keep those dark and mysterious. Liquitex has a beautiful iridescent copper acrylic that costs about $7.00 a tube....I used a crrpper iridescent nail polish that I got at a discount store for 990.

54 • Creative Woodworks S- Ci-dfis April 2005