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Description
It's bootiful. I love it.
Okay, yeah, so my previous deviation was basically the skull before the painting, now this one is my final edit.
Again, the skull is absolutely real. The colour scheme in this image, however, is not. It's colour is solely acrylic paint.
So after letting the thing dry (explained in last deviation), I realised I had to touch the skull up as it wasn't symmetrical due to half a missing upper nasal bone, decayed nostril tissue and a loose horn. The horn I didn't improve, but I ended up snapping off the remaining nasal bone so THAT GAP^ occurred, and although a less authentic piece, it looked better than it did with the bone piece and made it much easier to clear and paint the nostril cavity. It was gross, but yeah, anything in the name of art. To remove the bone I used my fingers and a bit of force. The piece was sharp though. The nostril cavity... I'll be frank, I found a pair of old scissors and wrenched the dried material out. It was flaky and messy, but by the end of it, the nostrils were spacious and easy to paint. From there, I found a plain acrylic white base paint, and coated the entire thing with a 15mm brush. Everywhere, inside the nostrils, over the teeth, into the nervous holes, around the eye sockets, into every space I could possibly reach. I also did the horns, removing the loose one to paint it's surface, but left the other intact. I didn't paint the inside of the horns. I let that dry for about 24 hours, although the paint would have probably dried properly in 4-6 hours. Then comes the second stage.
I had to shake the skull because there was some water left in it (because that thing has so many holes, you wouldn't believe it), but it no longer smelt and was very basic. From here, I selected 3 acrylic paint hues that I found decent to the colours of nature- Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre and a black base. By mixing a little of the Burnt Umber with the white base, you can get an off-white shade familiar to dried bone. I lightly brushed the bone over with this shade, using a 7mm brush. If done lightly, it can give it a sort of rough visual texture that does well on the bone. Too much paint should not be applied, or it will lose this texture and look too sleek to be mistaken as real bone. This was done everywhere, on all expanse of the bone, on the insides of the bone and roughly covering the horns. I followed this with a little Yellow Ochre, watered down the tiniest bit and flicked over the rougher edges of the bone. Here, I aimed to allow the yellow to seep into the natural creases in the bone. The BU-W hue should be the main tone, but the O-W should taint it and give it a worn, decaying look. This should be left to dry for about half an hour, then flicked over with black. You don't want streaks of black, just dirty flickers around the eye sockets and the rough edge of the nasal cavity. If done with care and in the right amounts, the bone should look weathered. Black may be concentrated more towards the horns and on the underside of the skull (around the edges for where the skull would connect to the vertebrate) for greater weathered effect. The teeth and insides of the naval cavity and eye sockets should imitate the outsides of the bone, but should be allowed a lighter tone as it will be more radiant under shadow. Black may be flecked into the creases of the bone for the decaying effect.
For the horns, the hues used are the same, but are not brightened or darkened by the bases. Using the 15 mm brush, I painted thick, careless streaks parallel to the curve of the horns in Yellow Ochre and black. It creates a delicious contrast that brings out the weathered look on the bone. White ridges may be left to maintain the weathered effect. The more white streaks, the more crude the effect. I tried to maintain the same amount of colouring on either side of the curve of the horns, and on both horns, though if not achieved, imbalance is not too great of an issue. Although the more dominant colours on horns are YO and B, streaks of Burnt Umber may darken the Yellow Ochre in light, sparing streaks and give it a more earthy look.
From here, it's easy to rely on the artist's eye and apply shades and touch up where necessary, but nothing drastic should be applied. Left to dry for another 24 hours and it's an awesome decor that I've been told, looks real by colour scheme. So it's something different that I'm proud of and something you guys could try if you happen to land your hands on a ram, goat, horse or bull skull. Best of luck with your animal remains! xx

Description
It's bootiful. I love it.
Okay, yeah, so my previous deviation was basically the skull before the painting, now this one is my final edit.
Again, the skull is absolutely real. The colour scheme in this image, however, is not. It's colour is solely acrylic paint.
So after letting the thing dry (explained in last deviation), I realised I had to touch the skull up as it wasn't symmetrical due to half a missing upper nasal bone, decayed nostril tissue and a loose horn. The horn I didn't improve, but I ended up snapping off the remaining nasal bone so THAT GAP^ occurred, and although a less authentic piece, it looked better than it did with the bone piece and made it much easier to clear and paint the nostril cavity. It was gross, but yeah, anything in the name of art. To remove the bone I used my fingers and a bit of force. The piece was sharp though. The nostril cavity... I'll be frank, I found a pair of old scissors and wrenched the dried material out. It was flaky and messy, but by the end of it, the nostrils were spacious and easy to paint. From there, I found a plain acrylic white base paint, and coated the entire thing with a 15mm brush. Everywhere, inside the nostrils, over the teeth, into the nervous holes, around the eye sockets, into every space I could possibly reach. I also did the horns, removing the loose one to paint it's surface, but left the other intact. I didn't paint the inside of the horns. I let that dry for about 24 hours, although the paint would have probably dried properly in 4-6 hours. Then comes the second stage.
I had to shake the skull because there was some water left in it (because that thing has so many holes, you wouldn't believe it), but it no longer smelt and was very basic. From here, I selected 3 acrylic paint hues that I found decent to the colours of nature- Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre and a black base. By mixing a little of the Burnt Umber with the white base, you can get an off-white shade familiar to dried bone. I lightly brushed the bone over with this shade, using a 7mm brush. If done lightly, it can give it a sort of rough visual texture that does well on the bone. Too much paint should not be applied, or it will lose this texture and look too sleek to be mistaken as real bone. This was done everywhere, on all expanse of the bone, on the insides of the bone and roughly covering the horns. I followed this with a little Yellow Ochre, watered down the tiniest bit and flicked over the rougher edges of the bone. Here, I aimed to allow the yellow to seep into the natural creases in the bone. The BU-W hue should be the main tone, but the O-W should taint it and give it a worn, decaying look. This should be left to dry for about half an hour, then flicked over with black. You don't want streaks of black, just dirty flickers around the eye sockets and the rough edge of the nasal cavity. If done with care and in the right amounts, the bone should look weathered. Black may be concentrated more towards the horns and on the underside of the skull (around the edges for where the skull would connect to the vertebrate) for greater weathered effect. The teeth and insides of the naval cavity and eye sockets should imitate the outsides of the bone, but should be allowed a lighter tone as it will be more radiant under shadow. Black may be flecked into the creases of the bone for the decaying effect.
For the horns, the hues used are the same, but are not brightened or darkened by the bases. Using the 15 mm brush, I painted thick, careless streaks parallel to the curve of the horns in Yellow Ochre and black. It creates a delicious contrast that brings out the weathered look on the bone. White ridges may be left to maintain the weathered effect. The more white streaks, the more crude the effect. I tried to maintain the same amount of colouring on either side of the curve of the horns, and on both horns, though if not achieved, imbalance is not too great of an issue. Although the more dominant colours on horns are YO and B, streaks of Burnt Umber may darken the Yellow Ochre in light, sparing streaks and give it a more earthy look.
From here, it's easy to rely on the artist's eye and apply shades and touch up where necessary, but nothing drastic should be applied. Left to dry for another 24 hours and it's an awesome decor that I've been told, looks real by colour scheme. So it's something different that I'm proud of and something you guys could try if you happen to land your hands on a ram, goat, horse or bull skull. Best of luck with your animal remains! xx