Okay Cardeer; now your talking my language.( Art ) You dont need an artist, you can do it yourself, have confidence in yourself. I started doing horse skulls painted and decorated in high school and then went on to steer and texas long horn skulls and then stated doing varies critter skulls from coyote to coons and then started doing buck skulls the last couple of years. I taught myself so you can to! Before you do any paintings on the skull paint the skull completly white with a acrylic craft paint. Use a pencil with light presure lightly draw your design on the skull that you want to paint on the skull. Once you have your design drawn on the skull start by painting the basics of your design dont worry about the intricate parts until the end. For designs that need small lines or outlining they make acrylic paint pens that work great, its like drawing a fine line with a pencil that dispenses paint. If you make a mistake dont panic, just paint over it.I seal all my skulls with a coat of clear polyurethane( Defthane ) semi gloss, for ( indoor/outdoor)use, this will make the skull protected from smoke and airborne grease etc and easy to dust and clean. I also use it on the antlers. I dont care to much for decals, but some people like them, just depends on the persons preference. I would paint the flag over the intire skull, with the blue with the stars located on the forehead under the left antler with the red and white stripes going verticaly on the skull. (Like the flag is hanging downward from the antlers )Now I am sure you are familiar with the picture of the indian sitting atop the horse whose head is drooping dowm painted in black with the sunset behind him, I think that would look great painted as a black silouette painted on the center of the forehead over the flag, and add a bow to the indians hand raised in triumph ,instead of spear. Use a some red white and blue thin leather strips( or black thin leather strips, to wrap the base of the arrowhead and tie one to the base of each antler in the front. Or try to find a art student in your area that YOU LIKE THEIR WORK AND WOULD TRUST TO DO IT THE WAY YOU WOULD LIKE. Sorry i live so far or I would be happy to help you do it. Good Luck with your project and show us pics when you finish.