No matter what it costs, have the right kind of brushes, and a good assortment of coloring materials. Do not try to "get along" with whatever you happen to have, if it happens to be not the right thing. Don't try to paint fish scales with a sash tool, or delicate fin-rays with a fitch. Use for such purposes delicate, little sable pencils (flat), Nos. 1 to 4. Take good care of them after use, wash them out with soap and water, or benzine, and keep them in good working order by keeping them clean and soft. Do not let the colors on your palette get in a nasty mess, fit to turn an artist's stomach inside out, but keep your palette clean and in good order. Take from the tubes only as much color as you are likely to use. Keep the centre of your palette free from masses of color, so that you can have that space for mixing.
Only those who have first been taught the slipshod ways of the slouch, and afterward learned the methods of the artist, can realize the advantages in favor of the latter as revealed in results.
General Principles.—The skins and fleshy parts of all mammals and birds become shrunken, mummified and colorless when dry, and if not covered with hair or feathers require to be painted with the colors which have disappeared. As to what the colors should be, the taxidermist must learn by observation from living specimens, or those freshly killed, or from good colored illustrations.
Surface.—Whatever the subject to be painted, the first care is to see that the surface is properly prepared to receive the color. If it be skin, it must be perfectly clean, and free from dirt, dust, or loose scales. If a skin has any sort of powdery deposit upon it, it must be scraped clean with a knife. Holes and seams must be filled up with papier-maché, long enough in advance that it will have time to dry. Papier-maché which is to be painted should always be given two coats of white shellac, mixed rather thin, before putting on any paint. If this is not done, the maché will absorb two or three coats of paint, like a sponge, and the surface will dry perfectly dead.
Gloss.—The colors on terrestrial mammals and birds (except the mouth parts and noses of the former) are very seldom, if ever, what may be called glossy. The mouth parts of mammals, or at least such as are wet by the animal's saliva, are always glossy, as also are the edges of the eyelids, and the bare end of the nose in ruminants.
To give paint a perpetual gloss, like varnish, use colors ground in oil, and mixed with boiled linseed oil only when applied.
To give paint a faint gloss, use colors ground in oil, and mix with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine, equal parts.
To have paint dry without gloss, mix with turpentine only when it is applied.
To have paint dry flat and dead, use dry colors, and mix with turpentine.
To make paint dry quickly and be very hard, mix with it a little sugar of lead (ground in oil) fresh from the tube.