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A 'berry' cute Chickadee (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter marcbarger
- Start date
I love it ! I love the holly leaf perch. I have been working on a house wren for about 2 years now. I am psyched to see a bird carver making a post ! I am going to take a photo of my house wren - and then I want some constructive critisism from you - if you will oblige. Might take a little time though. P.S. are you using a flex rotory tool ? I assume because it is tupelo. My wren is basswood - is tupelo better ?
Dave B Smith
Well-known member
Nice work!
]danehower said:
This is the House Wren I was talking about. I Know his beak is too short - I was thinking about doing the crazy glue and baking soda thing to rectify the problem. He looks a little boxy to me though - what do you folks think ?
Attachments
marcbarger
Marc
Thanks for the kind words!
Mary, If you click on my name and check out the threads I've started I have other pics of some of my work. Thanks for the interest!!
Dave, Lookin' good! A few things. I would say that the beak can be fixed by taking the feather area under the beak down and bringing it back. I looked at some pics of House Wrens and where the feathers stop under the beak is further back than where they stop on top of the beak. So fixing that will make the beak 'longer'. I've shown a pic of what I mean there. Not to say what I represented is perfect, but just an idea. Also if you bring the eye sockets in quite a bit further it's going to help a lot. I took the liberty of tweaking a copy of your pic to show you sort of what I mean. Also the eyes should be pretty much verticle. Not kicked out at the bottom.
The head/eyes/beak a lot of times are the most important things to get right to make a carving of a bird look realistic. I usually rough out the entire bird and then I start working on the head/eyes/beak and many times have to take the rest of the bird down some to get it to look 'right' to match those areas. Others may do it differently, but this is how I do it.
If you'd like any other tips or help I would be happy to do so. My e-mail address is [email protected] if you'd like to contact me that way. No matter what keep up the good work and finish that baby!!
Oh yeah and I use an EMax rotary tool for most of my carving. As you mentioned with tupelo it's pretty much the way to go. And also, I do something that I think is different from most carvers. I very seldom sand anything using the stoning process to do the same thing for me. Most sand and sand and sand. I haven't seen that it makes a carving look any better when it's finished. Just another thing I've learned. Works for me.
Mary, If you click on my name and check out the threads I've started I have other pics of some of my work. Thanks for the interest!!
Dave, Lookin' good! A few things. I would say that the beak can be fixed by taking the feather area under the beak down and bringing it back. I looked at some pics of House Wrens and where the feathers stop under the beak is further back than where they stop on top of the beak. So fixing that will make the beak 'longer'. I've shown a pic of what I mean there. Not to say what I represented is perfect, but just an idea. Also if you bring the eye sockets in quite a bit further it's going to help a lot. I took the liberty of tweaking a copy of your pic to show you sort of what I mean. Also the eyes should be pretty much verticle. Not kicked out at the bottom.
The head/eyes/beak a lot of times are the most important things to get right to make a carving of a bird look realistic. I usually rough out the entire bird and then I start working on the head/eyes/beak and many times have to take the rest of the bird down some to get it to look 'right' to match those areas. Others may do it differently, but this is how I do it.
If you'd like any other tips or help I would be happy to do so. My e-mail address is [email protected] if you'd like to contact me that way. No matter what keep up the good work and finish that baby!!
Oh yeah and I use an EMax rotary tool for most of my carving. As you mentioned with tupelo it's pretty much the way to go. And also, I do something that I think is different from most carvers. I very seldom sand anything using the stoning process to do the same thing for me. Most sand and sand and sand. I haven't seen that it makes a carving look any better when it's finished. Just another thing I've learned. Works for me.
Attachments
Marc - Thank you so much for the advice and encouragment. I can definately see what you are saying about the beak and eyes after you adjusted the photos. I really apriciate you extending your e-mail address as well. I am looking foward to getting back to this guy and I am sure I will need more advice when I get there. - Thanks again , dave :t:
