Materials

• You need acrylic paint, brushes, a palette and a surface material to use for a tole painting project. Select wood, tinware, glass, baskets or furniture on which to paint the cardinal design. You could even use a cardinal-shaped wood cut-out or a birdhouse. If you are comfortable working with the more slow drying oil paints, you can use that medium on most materials.
  
  

Stencil or Draw

• Use a stencil, transfer or free-hand drawing of the cardinal shape. Patterns for birds are available in tole painting and art books. You can also make a pattern transfer by tracing a line drawing or picture of the bird from a coloring book or magazine. It helps to refer to a photo of a cardinal when you are painting to get the proper coloring and shape.
  
  

Color

• A male cardinal is predominantly red, and the female is a combination of tan and gray shades. When painting the male cardinal you need more than a tube of red paint. Orange, scarlet, black, brown and red paints are needed. If the bird is perched on a branch with leaves, add green, blue, yellow and umber to the list. A tube or jar of white paint will be needed for highlights or to blend a color to a lighter shade.
  
  

Technique

• Fill in the bird shape with a solid color such as white or pink if it is being painted on a dark material. This will increase the visible line between the art and the surface when you begin to fill in the color. Paint the point where the beak touches the face by using the C-stroke. Use a series of comma strokes to fill in the chest area of the bird. Fill in the long tail feathers with the straight comma and S-stroke.You may choose to load two or three colors onto the brush at one time for a one-stroke technique.