Le Cheval de Bois (The Wooden Horse)

I always wonder if we could build a modern bicycle with wood. I love the wood veins of a rustic table. I always like wood furniture in general. So the thought of making my parts look like wood was very appealing to me. When I was young, I remember spending a lot of time on a wooden rocking horse, so much that my mom had to stop me from ruining the wood floor. This painting took me the longest time to make. I needed to use different wood stains to make it look like real wood and it was not working because stains are too liquid and it was spreading too much, just like a watery pancake. Then, I had an idea. I mixed it with some cooking starch to make the
stain thicker, and it worked! After that, I was able to see defined lines like real wood would have.