Meet my new backyard companion

He didn't always look this handsome.  No siree.  And he wasn't always mine.  Our backyard neighbors just sold their house and didn't take him.  I met the new neighbors and said I was interested in him if they weren't.  Next thing I knew he was being handed over the fence and into my waiting hands.  Yay!

 

 

 

You see, he used to look like this all over...but worse.  Much, much worse.  Of course, I was so excited to make him all new that in my haste I forgot to take a picture.  Oh, the best of plans!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took him outside and gave him a healthy dose of indoor/outdoor flat black spray paint.  He has a few holes, cracks in his foundation, and broken feathers but they're much harder to detect now.

 

 



To the rescue came all my Ranger distress paints...over a dozen in all (yellows, oranges, reds, greens and browns).  Using my finger I swiped over all the raised areas applying the colors where I felt they would be naturally.  Once dry, I then applied various brown and gray archival inks to tone the vibrancy and to make him look a bit weathered. 

He's now standing proud out by the windmill in our backyard.  In time I'm sure I'll move him around, maybe have him watch over the hen & chicks that are planted in an old chicken feeder (another cast-off).

By the way, he's about the size he would be in real life.  But now he needs a name.  Any suggestions?