Painting/Coloring Practice

Acrylics

This pattern is from a Silva Fox painting course. You can find the course at her site or at Hide Crafters.	I tweaked the design just a bit on the childs shirt and used somewhat different colors.	This is the corner decoration in the second version.

First, let me make it perfectly clear that I am NOT a born painter. This just shows that anyone can learn to paint. As with other skills, the best way to improve is to practice, practice, and practice. (I have had much more practice at carving than coloring). If you are short on patience and want to speed your painting skills, I recommend acrylic paints to color leather. 1) They can be washed out of the leather if you screw up, 2) they are color fast and light does not fade them. (Most colors) and 3) you can practice on anything. Paint on brown paper sacks if you need to see what tan does as the base. Acrylic painting can be done on paper or leather. This gives you less expenditure of funds while practicing. When you get better, try it on leather. The above carvings are colored with acrylics.

Spirit/solvent based dyes

You do not color leather with dyes in the same manner as acrylics. You are also pretty limited to practicing on leather. Tandy Leather/The Leather Factory and Hide Crafters both sell excellent books by Al Stohlman and Peter Main to help you out.

The above images are items that have been colored with spirit based dyes. The yellow and pink roses in the center have a white acrylic base under the flowers. Dye has then been applied over them. The horses mane is white acrylic. Neat-lac has been used as a resist over the flowers and horse head prior to the application of antique. The last image shows the dyeing on the oak leaves. This is done with spirit dyes. First a yellow undercoat was applied and the green applied over it.