What makes me such an expert at painting wood carvings? Nothing actually! I consider myself an amateur at painting, my dad coaxed me into painting his carvings and I'm still learning and picking up tips along the way.
Maybe tips from someone trying to still figure it all out are more useful to someone who's also still learning? To an experienced painter I'm sure all of this is common sense.
8 Share Worthy Tidbits I Picked Up:
1. Get some good brushes. Not those cheep crappy ones for kids, or you'll end up with bristles on your paint job.
Check out my post on
recommended tools here.
2. Make sure you have a smooth surface. Sand and use
wood filler and sand again if need be.
For your basecoat(s), paint in the direction of the wood grain. So let's say we're painting this lovely Dala Horse... If the horse is standing on it's legs, you'll paint up and down. Maybe this is common sense to you if you've ever painted a wooden fence or watched Karate Kid ("Paint up! Paint down!").
3. Do thin layers and let them dry in between so you don't get big globs of paint collecting at the belly or feet. With white, you will probably need to do a couple coats.
4. My system with the horses is to hold the horse by the head, paint the body then put it down on its feet and carefully paint the head. Or you might want to let it dry before you can paint the head so it doesn't topple over and ruin the paint on the body. Besides you won't be able to get under the chin if you've set him down on his feet.
5. The details are the difficult part. I can't really help you with the traditional kurbits stuff. I try, but I am nothing like the wizards that make the Dala horses over in Sweden. My solution has been to make my own zany details. Like painting zebra stripes. Or polka dots. Dots are very easy. You can even use the end of your paint brush to dab the spots on there. You could use stencils, too.
6. Don't worry about messing up with paint. If you do - just let it dry and paint right over it! If you do it too many times and the paint starts to build up, you could sand it off, but be careful sanding the chiseled face - you want to keep those angled features sharp, not rounded & dull.
7. For your details - sketch your design on paper before trying it on the horse. Also, after you've done your solid coat, you can plot your details out with some chalk or a pencil, then paint over that.
Practice makes perfect!
8. Also, youtube is a very resourceful place to look for how-to videos. I don't think they have anything about painting dala horses, but you could look up painting in general or they might have wood craft painting tutorials. Not sure. I hope this was of some help!
Have any tips to share with us? Feel free to comment below!
To try your hand at painting a horse like the one above, you can get an unfinished version on etsy here:
