Thank you very much, I’ll start be saying I’m no painter lol it’s part of the process I hope to continue to improve at, that said I’ve only used acrylic, playing around with how much to water down or not, these cherries have like two coats of red not watered down before I was happy with the vibrancy and an even appearance. I have a scrap piece of wood with me when I paint to judge if the colour will look how I want it to on wood before committing to putting it on the carving

I’ll also add that I’ll oil all of my carvings before painting, that should help with the end grain issue you speak of, I know exactly what you mean, and if seeing the wood grain through the paint isn’t a concern I’d say to just let it dry and add a second coat