Rolling pins for Christmas 2018

I carved vintage rolling pins for this year's Christmas gifts. I covered carving them in a Woodcarving Illustrated article in the Holiday 2018 issue. Maybe I will post a more in depth tutorial here at a later date, if there is interest. However, this post covers my painting technique.

 For those of you who follow along, you know I don't like to paint my carvings. I prefer the natural grain of wood. Christmas is one exception. For that exception I use thinned acrylic paints. I thin to a stain consistency, that still allows for the most part, the grain to show.

Carved and ready for color.

I start by painting the eyes with titanium white. This paint is not thinned. 

I use a dark blue, slightly thinned, for the base of the iris.

I thin a lighter blue and paint the center of the iris, leaving a ring of dark blue around the edge.

Using a slightly thinned black, I paint the pupil.

I use lighted magnifiers to see what I'm doing. The old eyes ain't what they use to be.

I use  a toothpick to add details to the coloring of the iris. I switch between different shades of blue. Then add a white highlight for the gleam in the eye.

The result.

I've painted the bottom of the upper eye lid with raw umber, to add a lash line. I use a thinned tomato spice for the hats and Mrs. Claus' dress.

I paint the fur with thinned titanium white and a small amount of raw umber. I add a little more raw umber for the hair and beards.

Dry brush the fur and hair with titanium white. Dry brush the hats and dress with yellow & tomato spice mix.

The result.

I apply a water based polyurethane on the carved area.

I applied a coat of Howard's Feed N' Wax on the entire rolling pins. 

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for following along!