John Lawrence
Active member
Here we are in July already, the year is half over and most of us are about two months from early goose season and then fall my favorite time of year. June turned out to be a little rough around the Lawrence household but things are looking up. I've found my focus again that went missing after I finished the Labrador Ducks. Hunting and Fishing Collectibles published an article I wrote about them in the the July/August issue that took up a lot of my time and concentration last month.
What I have to show to start the thread this month is a little different than anything I've shown you in the past. When I want to do something different I frequently will make a few shorebirds or in this case terns. Both of these are owned by Mama Volleyduck. The first is a Least Tern that had an interesting knot in it when I cut the block I decided to include that as part of the composition by darkening it. I was going for a weather worn look on both birds, something that had seen a lot of time by the surf. I'm not real into all of that rubbing off of paint I try instead to capture a softer aged look when I try to make a psuedo antique.
View attachment DSC02637.JPG
And here is another view wher you can better see the knot.
View attachment DSC02640.JPG
And the second bird is a Sandwich Tern that I made from a red cedar tree that was cut down from a neighbor's yard across the street from my house several years ago. In the drying process the wood checked and I used that as part of the composition.
View attachment DSC02642.JPG
And the other side. While I was making this tern I dropped it several times, unfortunately breaking off part of the bill, so it's a little shorter than I would have liked. An interesting point though is that just about everyone who has seen it likes it better because of the cracked wood, or so they tell me, as opposed to other shorebirds I've done that aren't cracked.
View attachment DSC02644.JPG
And here you have my contribution to start this months thread.
What's on you workbench this month?
What I have to show to start the thread this month is a little different than anything I've shown you in the past. When I want to do something different I frequently will make a few shorebirds or in this case terns. Both of these are owned by Mama Volleyduck. The first is a Least Tern that had an interesting knot in it when I cut the block I decided to include that as part of the composition by darkening it. I was going for a weather worn look on both birds, something that had seen a lot of time by the surf. I'm not real into all of that rubbing off of paint I try instead to capture a softer aged look when I try to make a psuedo antique.
View attachment DSC02637.JPG
And here is another view wher you can better see the knot.
View attachment DSC02640.JPG
And the second bird is a Sandwich Tern that I made from a red cedar tree that was cut down from a neighbor's yard across the street from my house several years ago. In the drying process the wood checked and I used that as part of the composition.
View attachment DSC02642.JPG
And the other side. While I was making this tern I dropped it several times, unfortunately breaking off part of the bill, so it's a little shorter than I would have liked. An interesting point though is that just about everyone who has seen it likes it better because of the cracked wood, or so they tell me, as opposed to other shorebirds I've done that aren't cracked.
View attachment DSC02644.JPG
And here you have my contribution to start this months thread.
What's on you workbench this month?
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3 hen mallards. These will be my first puddler hens! I have 4 teal to paints as well.
