Dragon Repair - Colour Makeover

Last week - I showed you what a crafty and artistic person does when a favourite dragon statue gets smashed up.

This week, we'll carry on with the colour makeover. Formerly - he was a brick-red colour - antiqued with black to emphasis the shadows and texture. As the repairs where still visible due to lines and colour differences - I decided that I would repaint, and that maybe going for a antique bronze look would be cool.

Also - the epoxy glue and epoxy clay have issues with prolonged exposure to UV - they will degrade - and a lawn statue gets a significant amount of UV light - even in Canada. ;-)

I started by painting him a nice herb green - selecting a water resistant spray paint - for the verdigris and antique part. I applied several coats and covered him thoroughly.



When that was dry - I took a metallic copper spray paint, and sprayed, him again, more lightly and from more oblique angles, taking care not to put it on too thickly everywhere.

Then, when that was dry - I took him back into my studio and added highlights with the Gilders Paste.

I used multiple colours - mostly because I was fiddling around - seeing what they did and how they came out. In particular - the orb in his hind foot got lots of different colours because it was so much fun to just swipe them on and see how they looked.


Ultimately - I used Foundry Bronze, African Bronze (really like the green bronze of this colour), the Copper and the Inca Gold - you can really see the effect of the Inca gold in this next photo.

I had planned on using the black, diluting it and working it into the texture to really bring that out - but decided that he looked pretty darn good as is In this application - the Gilders Pastes really want to be used to emphasize highlights. If I were to do this again, I might make the first coat of paint black, for deeper shadows, then the green, then the copper.

Then I applied a spray coat of a Matte, UV-protecting layer. Matte - so he wouldn't be too shiny in the garden. UV protecting because the Gilders Paste is also not rated for extreme UV exposure.
Here he is - back in the garden with his brother - in the original colour.
And a bigger shot. Isn't he awesome? All handsome and bronzed! I'm quite pleased with how this repair project (using the recently added Apoxie clay and Gilders Paste) came out!



So - any damaged dragons out there needing a good home? ;-)