Painting wooden decoy question

[Kevin Puls]

So I’m about to paint an all wood decoy for the first time. It is an urn I made for my recently deceased lab. It is smooth and sealed with spar varnish. Typically I prime cork decoys with a mixture of Gesso and Texture medium applied by a sponge for texture and false flocking.

I want these to be a little more old fashioned. I’ll still use acrylics. I am thinking I shouldn’t texture these decoys. Maybe I’ll just use gesso tinted with paint for a base.

What has everyone else done for painting wooden decoys?

 

[Vince Pagliaroli]

I seal all my wooden decoys with Smiths Custom Wood Epoxy. Then a coat or two of Rust-Oleum flat grey, white or black primer (of my mixture) depending on the decoy. Finish oil paint is a mixture of artist oils, Ronan, and Rust-Oleum.

my 2 cents

 

[Kevin Puls]

I decided to make some quick wooden “decoys” today to practice on. I even put some spar varnish on tgem. It’s pieces of an old log bed frame I kept because I’m a hoarder. Ripped in half and sanded to “shape”.

 

[JasonM]

So I’m about to paint an all wood decoy for the first time. It is an urn I made for my recently deceased lab. It is smooth and sealed with spar varnish. Typically I prime cork decoys with a mixture of Gesso and Texture medium applied by a sponge for texture and false flocking.

I want these to be a little more old fashioned. I’ll still use acrylics. I am thinking I shouldn’t texture these decoys. Maybe I’ll just use gesso tinted with paint for a base.

What has everyone else done for painting wooden decoys?

Do you seal your cork birds with spar too? If so I would think priming the wood birds would work just the same. If you want a smooth finish just use the gesso like you were thinking.

 

[Kevin Puls]

Do you seal your cork birds with spar too? If so I would think priming the wood birds would work just the same. If you want a smooth finish just use the gesso like you were thinking.

I do, but I intentionally texture cork decoys with Gesso and texture medium. I’m going to try to do a couple of things on these. Smooth gesso, gesso with combing, smooth gesso with combed paint, an what not.

 

[JasonM]

I do, but I intentionally texture cork decoys with Gesso and texture medium. I’m going to try to do a couple of things on these. Smooth gesso, gesso with combing, smooth gesso with combed paint, an what not.

I would think any of those would work fine just depends on the final outcome you are shooting for as to which one to go with.

 

[Kevin Puls]

I would think any of those would work fine just depends on the final outcome you are shooting for as to which one to go with.

Trying to go with an old school classic finish. Messing around a bit. I’m thinking combing the paint is the ticket.

 

[D. Hinton]

Kevin I have been studying old decoys alot lately.
If you really want to go old school finish why not really go old school? And use oil paints .
Even if you don’t want to use tube oils remember a lot of those old builders were using house and boat paint
Oil can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be .
A lot of the Illinois River carvers did comb and scratch their birds .. the North Carolina carvers used a lot of block painting methods .

 

[Kevin Puls]

I ended up saying heck with it and just going for it. Make it mine you know?

 

[Ronald Bock]

Spar varnish is awful hard to beat. Gray automotive primer over the lightly sanded varnish gives you a nice blank canvas ( so to speak). I use Behr house paint. I can get it in any color on their paint swatch display. After it's painted I spray on 3 coats of Behr flat clear to protect the paint.

 

[Kevin Puls]

Kevin I have been studying old decoys alot lately.
If you really want to go old school finish why not really go old school? And use oil paints .
Even if you don’t want to use tube oils remember a lot of those old builders were using house and boat paint
Oil can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be .
A lot of the Illinois River carvers did comb and scratch their birds .. the North Carolina carvers used a lot of

I might end up going that route. Painting acrylic on wood has not given me the results I expected. Mostly because I’ve gotten used to painting textured surfaces.

 

[Kevin Puls]

Spar varnish is awful hard to beat. Gray automotive primer over the lightly sanded varnish gives you a nice blank canvas ( so to speak). I use Behr house paint. I can get it in any color on their paint swatch display. After it's painted I spray on 3 coats of Behr flat clear to protect the paint.

Well I don’t know why I haven’t been scuffing the spar varnish before putting on the gesso I was using for primer. I have noticed the gesso and paint scratches off very easily. I’ll switch over to that method moving forward.

I didn’t know Behr made a clear spray I’ll have to look for it.

 

[JasonM]

Spar varnish is awful hard to beat. Gray automotive primer over the lightly sanded varnish gives you a nice blank canvas ( so to speak). I use Behr house paint. I can get it in any color on their paint swatch display. After it's painted I spray on 3 coats of Behr flat clear to protect the paint.

Any particular automotive primer you use?