April what's on you workbench? No fooling

Here's one of three scoters that are currently on my bench, all are WW so i'll finish up all the carving before getting into some paint.

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I haven't posted lately as I have been out of touch because of too many projects and going in too many directions!! I once again want to extend my thanks to John for keeping this wonderful "feature" post alive!! This, like last months post is great. It is so exciting to see all the great work that is on everyones "bench"......it is truly inspirational!!

Wonderful work everyone, there is so much talent out there!!

Thanks again John!!

Keith
 
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Kieth, nice to find you again, John L gave me the link to here, glad he did.

All the best to all the carvers here.

Chris Hindley
 
Chris,

Nice to see that you found your way here. Whole different atmosphere. If you fellows don't know Chris Hindley is from England and does some wonderful interpretive waterfowl sculptures. I think everyone would like to see what you do, particularly that high tailed oldsquaw.
 
Hi Chris,

It's great that you are here!! As John mentioned; please post a few images of your art....especially that super "head throw" merganser!!! I just love that bird!!!

Glad you made it!

Best,

Keith
 
Great work by all. This remains a truly inspirational post each month to keep the juices flowing. Kyle has me doing a few shorebirds with him out of a pattern of an animated virginia rail by Gary Joe Bryan he got at Westlake. I'm looking forward to trying some new painting techniques from Keith's book on something a little smaller.

First pic is of a few rails Kyle is working on. Second is of a drake mallard I'm working on for a swap and carve with Jim Williams. Last is of my first two shorebirds with a little paint blending trial and error.

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Nice work guys!

Well, I just finished my first hen goldeneye. It's truly what I think a hen GE should look like since I didn't have good reference material. I just looked at 2 small pictures and filled in the rest:0 I had more fun painting this hen than those drakes. Thanks to Keith's book, I just started blending and experimenting at will. Because, what's the worst that could happen? Also, Rutger's gave me some tips on making gray. At first I had a steel-blue harli wantabe until I added some raw umber to the black and white mix. Thanks Paul.

Hey Scott O., recognize the eyes? They're working out great.

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Kind of decoy related, I'm sure just about everyone enjoys one while they're carving every once in a while and it was on my workbench.

Liquid malt extract

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Specialty grains for flavor and color

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Bittering and flavoring Hops

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Yeast

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Steeping the grains

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Fermenting for a week or so

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Siphoning to bottles

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After two weeks in the bottle, Irish Red Ale.

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How much for a couple dozen of those Charles ;-)

I would like to try some home brewing some time. My buddy used to do some don't remember what type he made, but three or four would do as much damage as a half a case of bottled beer.
 
Chris, good to see you on here I absolutely love your stuff, my apologies for some of the criticism you have taken in the past...totally unwarranted, and this is from a guy who loves to hunt and share pictures...respect is always appropriate on these kind of formats, IMO. Please post up some of your work past and present!

Kirby, nice hen, she's a beaut.

Charles, nice! Brewed ten gallons of pale ale and ten of stout last weekend. You gotta get settup for all grain...and grow your own hops! Just planted six new rhizomes yesterday.

cheers

abe
 
Hey abe, I'm looking to purchase a new house in the next couple months. When that happens I will be expanding my brewing setup for all grain brewing and higher capacity. Possibly getting in to kegs instead of bottles as well. The second fermenting bucket in my picture is an Irish stout that I really enjoy. I've also done Belgian White Ale, and Scotch ale in the past.

For anyone wanting to try, its not that hard, and is fairly inexpensive to start. $100 bucks will get you a quality starter kit with fermenter, bottling bucket, siphon, and misc. tools that you need to brew, ferment, and bottle. Cleanliness is key! You're either going to grow a Yeast colony(good) or a Bacteria colony(bad).
 
Charles: All grain!...kegs!...now you're talking!...get out there and plant some rhizomes! Now is the time...and they are easier to keep alive than to kill.

Cheers!

Abe
 
A friend of mine asked me to write a tutorial for him. What I decide to write about is my current project of carving and painting a pair of Labrador Ducks. I've taken lots of photos of the process and I will flesh it out with text including a discusion on my research, pattern drawing and paint.

Here are some of those photos of where I'm at currently in the process. This is the tail and one of the wings of the hen. You can see where I've used the grisaille method to approximate the colors of the bid in sections of the scapulars that I haven't painted yet. At this point what I have done is put down my basic blends along with some shadowing. I've also added feather splits. What will come next is to re-inforce the white secondaries.

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This is a photo of the tail of the drake. Again I'm in the same spot in the process of painting.

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And this last photo is of the drake. You can see the blocking in of the basic colors I do before I start my detail painting. I started painting the hen on Tuesday and the drake yesterday.

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Once done with my basic painting I'll start the process of adding addtional shadows and then warming and cooling certain areas. On these decoys I heated the pod oil before adding it to my paint. What I see is a definite warming in all of the paint which is something I feel is needed because the coloration on this species is kind of bland on the hen and very opposed on the drake.
 
Hi Kirby - I was just on a short ferry ride a couple days ago and got to spend it watching 2-300 old squaws feeding up close (forgotten camera was annoying). I have to say, you really nailed the character of that bird with your decoy and the painting is bang on. Nice job!
 
Nick thanks for the compliment, it must have been something to see all those OS feeding up close like that.
Here is the drake I did a few years back to go along with the hen.

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Jim Kirby
 
Great looking birds guys. I've got some free time this morning, so I may get to work a little on the wigeon heads that Tom Modin sent me. Pictures to follow.

Mike
 
Hello all,

just signed up and got done reading through everything and wow what great information that everyone is sharing. Been carving foam with wood heads for about four months and just started using cork. Here are number 3 and 4 one the bench and I am redoing a couple things on my first cork bird.

Thanks,

Kevin
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