Hand painted Caretta Caretta turtle skull

Hi, this caretta skull design is painted by me with using acrylic paint.

I found this caretta skull when i was walking on the beach of my summer house.It was beaten by wild animals and standing on the ground.I'm very interested in nature and animals so i decided to take it for evaluating as a piece of an art material.

I like tribal tattoo designs and i'm interested in Mexican death festival. So i decided to merge these two concept on this skull.

I planned to paint it with acrylic paint because it is water based and long lasting. But here was a small problem; skull was smelling like water drain and this was so disgusting.And touching to it by hand could be harmfull for health .
I found a two steps solution to solve this problem:Bleach and White lime!

Bleach was necessarry for killing and cleaning the microorganisms which would be harmfull.So i prepared a mixture of 1/3 bleach and water mixture.I put the shull inside of it and waited for a day.Next day i put it out and washed with water and soapy water.Than i put it for a dry and passed to step 2.

A few days ago i was painted my house wall with white lime.I used it as undercoat level before painting my design.So it cleaned the surface and absorbed the bad smell as an extra protection layer.When lime dried the skull was looking more clean and alive.

So the cleaning and sanitation steps were finished.It was time to paint my design on to the skull. I chose blue color because blue color on white surface fits more elegant than the other colors.But first of all i was have to draw my design template on to the skull with pencil.So i would paint it with a brush easily.

After finished my drawing I used a tiny tip gouache brush for drawing tribal designs. It was improvisation of my imagination,i didn't copied from anywhere or any design. All the process done by me.
When it is finished i exhibited it inside of my house hall.

Every time i see this skull it makes me feel happy and relaxed.I'm not afraid of death anymore.