Antler Makeover

A couple friends of mine recently found a nice matched set of shed antlers - but one was found fresh in February and still had all its color while the other one wasn't found until it had been laying on the ground for about 9 months and had suffered the effects of being out in the elements. I was asked to try to paint the faded antler to make it match the fresh one. Here are a couple before pictures...

And here are the after pictures...

They aren't an exact match, but to the casual observer they look close enough. And my friends that found them like the way they turned out.

Antler Restoration

Earlier this spring I found a unique deer antler while I was shed hunting. It is a very non-typical and heavy antler with lots of character. But, it looked like it had been laying out in the weather for a couple years and it was bleached completely white.


While the antler looks pretty cool just the way it is, I decided I wanted to try to bring it back to life. I used my airbrush to give the antler a good base coat in an off-white bone color. Then I took a small paintbrush and some acrylic paints and went to work.

I used a fresh antler as reference and tried to make the base of the antler darker and fade it into a slightly lighter color toward the end.

After I got it all painted I removed the paint from the high spots on the antler to give it some highlights and make it look more realistic.

I kept removing paint until I got the desired look. Then I touched up some areas until I got it just right. Finally, I put a coat of flat clear sealer on it to protect the color and to add a little sheen to the finish. Here is the finished antler. I like the way it turned out and think it will look even better sitting on the coffee table.