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Some refer to the coloring of leather murals and such as paintings. This is inaccurate as they are not painted.

When the adding of color is used, it is with leather dye, which requires more care in applying than does paint. Paint is a thick mixture, whereas leather dye is very thin (like water), and spreads very quickly, which necessiates that extra care must be taken in the use of the leather dye.

The coloring of leather is in itself an art.

Some leather artists prefer not to use dye on their carvings, for they believe it takes away from the natural beauty of the leather.

A leather picture is a carving, and is done in almost the same way that a wood carver would carve a wooden picture. But where a wood carver removes some of the wood to get a 3 dimensional picture, a leather carver works with a piece of leather, and has to carve into the leather, or raise up the leather (emboss), to get the effect that the artist is trying to put on the leather.

A leather picture is done by first tracing a design on a moist piece of leather, whereas the leather has then been "cased", ie: turns to its natural color. The design is then cut into the leather with a swivel knife. The leather artist, then using a combination of saddle stamps and modeling tools, works the design or picture into the leather until the desired effect has been achieved, which is a very slow process and requires a lot of care and patience.

If an artist tries to hurry and should make a mistake in working with leather, then he or she must start all over again from the beginning, with a new piece of leather, for it is almost impossible to correct a mistake on leather.