May, "What's on your Workbench?"

man, i know jode.

i almost went with tacks (b/c i forgot......well, like i said, i almost went w/ tacks), but got to the end and proclaimed, "these are my decoys, i need to get to carving more, so i can paint more, and hopefully learn more........they shall be blind!"

or, something like that, bwahahahaah

that progress thing has more to do w/ good people being helpful.......i got a LONG way to go which is cool by me, but i appreciate you man, and the help and advice!

there are a lot of folks on here posting up some unreal work......starting with john and heading on down through the posts.....you guys are what keep me carving, giving me something to shoot for.....

justin
 
Hi Frank,

Eugene Connett was a contemporary of Shang Wheeler and Joel Barber as well as a lot of other carvers. He wrote a number of books. I think every carver should have a copy of

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=4736744048&searchurl=an%3Deugene%2Bconnett%26sts%3Dt%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

I like the book and its cheap. One thing I like is he spends a lot of time discussing decoys from the standpoint of its hunting utility such as weight rigging and considerations for floating etc not just how to use tools, shape paint etc.
 
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Justin,

The teal look very nice. What I like best is that it obvious that you have made want you want. Now move on and make more.
 
It's all good, just busting your chops, I know you can take it..........lol..........
 
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Paul, my desire is to make good gunning decoys that could be eventually retired to the shelf. I very glad to receive such a compliment and will look for the book. Thanks for the info. Frank
 
thanks mr. john! have a couple days off so i figure i'll get some patterns down....

jode, i'm gonna put braids on their head, some black glasses and a keyboard and call them the "stevie wonder rig".....hehehehe

justin
 
Nice work this month folks. Glad to finally see Justin's decoys. I can see a few familiar elements there. Good work!

Here's a start on a Redhead for Grant Werdick. I'm practicing a little for a rig I'll be working on for my North Dakota trip this year. This one is Jelutong.

Hope you like it so far Grant....

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"[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Those are the biggest bowsanders I have ever seen!"

You know what they say about guys with big bowsanders!
[/font]
 
Some in progress decoys.

I've been painting these last couple of days. I do a lot of experimenting when I paint looking for something new. The thought came to me a day or two ago that what I've been trying to do is paint movement in the feathers. With that in mind I thought that I might show you where I've gone with this.

This is scapulars or back of the current Labrador Drake I'm working on. I painted these whites last week. This decoy turned out a little darker than the two I used in my rig. Initially when I did this I thought that I might have to redo it. But after letting it sit for a couple of days I saw the movement in the paint I was looking for. I'm not sure the camera captures the whole look but it gets pretty close.

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I still have to add the gray and black edging on the tertials but the rest of the back is done.
 
I've also been painting a couple of hens, a gadwall and a shoveler that I've been documenting on the blog attached to my web page.

I originally painted the lower rump of the hen gadwall last week but as soon as I finished it I wasn't happy with the outcome. While at work this morning a plan to use the same technique I used for the whites on the Labrador clarified in my mind. The only thing that had to be different was to reverse the color scheme. Instead of the imaginary "valleys" between the "hills" of the feather tracts being darker they would be lighter. The body of the feather tracts would be the darker inside hen colors.

This was all done as a "wet to wet" technique in which I tried not to concentrate so much on the individual feather shapes but more on the flow from front to rear.

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I took these photographs right after I finished painting this evening so you are looking at fresh wet paint. The sheen will tone down over the next few days.
 
Nice work everyone! Making a Roseate Spoonbill for a guy down in Florida . Its life size and hollow.

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Click to expand...


That is great looking - a glossy ibis would be a perfect companion piece for that bird.

T
 
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