« Molding and Casting a White Crappie the Final part (The Casting) | Main | Custom Eyes the windows to the soul. »
Painting a male White Crappie
By admin | August 1, 2008
Painting the male white crappie.
This is my method of reproducing the colors and pattern of this species . There are many ways to do this and this is only one of them.
Reference is KEY! Study your photos, study the live fish. Look close! when you think you have looked close enough, Look closer!
I use many brands of paint and mainly apply the color with a brush.
I am a firm believer that there is no magic bullet in painting, no brand that will cover all of the bases.
That said its time to horde paint, any time you see it! Cheap, expensive, flea markets, department stores, craft stores, art supply stores………………………….. You can never have enough.
in my experience the key to painting a crappie is in the layers. The subtle variation in the patterns of crappie come from the pigment on the skin under the clear scales and the thin flap of scale pocket on the top of the scale. this is VERY hard to reproduce, because we dont have the clear scales to refract the light, so we need to cheat.
this is done by painting in washes and layers using a subtle peppery brush strokes, and pearlesent paints.
The blank primed and ready to paint.
The fish is sprayed with a dark olive drab. I spray it darker on the bars, gill, cheek and throat.
This is the only time I will use an airbrush on the fish. From here on it is all done with a small hand brush.
The surface is buffed with fine steel wool to remove the color on the highlights.
While I buff the fish I keep in mind the color pattern of the bars.
The pattern is now detailed using a dark olive color, and black.
I am painting this fish as a spawning male, so I darken the scale bases on the throat and cheek.
I add a wash of yellow ocher below the lateral line blending in a green on the back.
I now paint every scale with a pearls and iridescent color.
Light pearl below the lateral line. Green on the back in front of the dorsal.
Blue below that and under the dorsal. And purple on the back under the soft dorsal and the top of the caudal peduncle.
Now I work in white over the soft membrane under the pectoral fin and on the soft tissue of the head.
I also tip the scales on the lower portion of the body in white.
The whole fish is then washed in pearl and iridescent colors. I follow the same basic pattern as before, but I do try to overlap the colors some. Also this is a very thin translucent wash.
I go back over the darker patterns on the fish. this time working closer to the edge of the scales.
White crappie tend to carry their color on the scale tips, more so then Black crappie.
I use a combination of blacks greens and browns to get the colors I need for this step.
The fins are also darkened at this stage.
The white patterning is painted on the fins.
I normally do this is two courses. The first is a thin translucent white and the second is a more intense white concentrated more on the center of the spots. This gives the spots a soft edge.
A blend of black and yellow ocher is washed over the fins to tone down the colors.
The back is also darkened with this color.
The scales are again tipped with pearl and iridescent colors. Staying with the same basic pattern.
The white spots were retouched again and a very thin wash of yellow ocher was applied, and it was given a coat of gloss.
Finally the fins were painted and attached.
I then gave the whole fish a good looking at and touched up details here in there.
After that a good coat of gloss was applied.
Here is the fish finished and on its wall base.
Thank you for taking the time and looking through this pictorial tutorial.
If anyone has any questions fell free to ask.
~Josh
Topics: taxidermy |