Christmas Diversion 2

First, HAPPY NEW YEAR.   Second, my apologies for this entry.  I did it using an iPAD and had no idea how severe the limitations would be so I am taking this opportunity to fix it.

This year the adults in our family drew names with the requirement that the gifts had to hand made by the giver.  I drew my daughter Melanie's name.  She has been asking for an owl for many years so this year had to be the one....even if the owl was a little one to hold her until I can do the Horned.

Since this was my first ever owl! I followed carving and painting plans from Wildfowl Carving Magazine and an article by Al Jordan.

Carving took a day while painting took 2 days.

I am including some painting shots to show how this perfectly smooth bird was painted to look textured.

Base coat.

Back feather barbs done in dark brown with a fine paint brush.

Outside edges and shadows added with slightly lighter brown than previously and using an airbrush.

More airbrushing for the back feathers and barbs painted on the scapulars and secondaries.

Airbrushing over the painted barbs to give the bird color.

Close up view

Barbs brushed onto the tertials.

More airbrushing over the entire back to provide color yet leave the essence of the brushed barbs on the feathers.  This technique adds a painted texture to an otherwise perfectly smooth bird.

Time to work on the head.

Using a template and an airbrush, the outlines of the head feathers were softly painted on.  note subtle flow of teh feathers in groups

Close up view of the back of the head.

Dark feathers around face are airbrushed and the barbs of the head feathers are painted in using a fine bristle brush.

Face ring shadows are airbrushed using a warm grey.

Face is painted a brown/yellow cast using an airbrush and the eyes are cleaned off.

Beginning to look real.

Time to work on the breast.  Yes indeed, the owl's head is turned 180 degrees and it has the capacity to go even further giving it the ability to swivel its head for a full world view of things.

Shadows and valleys are airbrushed using a warm grey.

                            

Ahhhh.  Iwata Custom Micron Side Feeder. This is an instrument extra ordinaire.  $450 of magical bliss.

The centers of the breast feathers were painted with the carmel brown.

Under tail painted with brown and white....

....then oversprayed with white to give it the grey/silver color.

Back feather detail being added by spraying the light feather edges and then adding the splits using a thin bristle brush.

Finished Owl mounted on a piece of my neighbors pear tree that blew apart in a recent windstorm.

Cut and Rough Out the Body

With the head roughed out, it is now time to take the body to the same level so the head and body can be joined for the final refinement of the bird.

The top view of the body was marked out using the pattern and the all but 1/2" I each side of the body outline was cut out. This left the sides of the block attached on which the side view pattern was aligned and marked on the block.  The whole side outline was then cut out.  This photo shows the side profile being cut out.

This photo shows one  of the 1/2 " tabs on each side of the body being cut  to remove the  sides.

The beginning of the the body rough out.  This is about 1 hour in and already there are plenty of pencil lines marking out the feather groups and flow.

I've place the head on the body to ensure this is" headed in the right direction" in the neck area.  The side is beginning to take shape and as can be seen, I am have this bird show the wing on this side of the bird.  I generally start on the sides and then work toward the back and then fit the head before working on the breast of the bird.  i find this helps me keep the right shape and proportions.

As I move to the rear end, the first step is to get the butt "rounded".  To do this, I draw circles around the butt and then look at it from the rear to see if the circles are indeed circles and are concentric.  These lines are a clear roadmap of where to make adjustments.  

Once the rear end is rounded, I then move up to the tertials and to the primaries.  By having the sides done and the butt rounded, it becomes very evident where the placement of the feathers that go on top of these areas should be placed.

More roughing out  of the top and tail.  This is a great shot of the concentric circles of the butt of the bird.

The next step is to join the head to the body so that the refinement of both can be done with the two pieces together .

Making HEAD-way

The first step is to round out the head ensuring that both sides of the head are kept in symmetrical. On the right side of the had, the paper pattern that was glued on.  The widest part of the head is marked on this and the other side.

Additional rounding.  At this point, reference lines are added and kept on the bird to ensure the rounding "stays between the lines".  AS well, having these lines on both sides of the bird ensures that when you sight from the top, front or back of the head, you can easily determine if the had is symmetrical.  This head is coming along nicely.

The other side of the head.  The remaining paper shows how the head is being rounded and the required widest part is being retained.  At this point the eyes are marked and ready for drilling.

A 9mm tungsten carbide bit does the trick provided you can hold it within the marked circle.  Usually, the faster it rotates, (normally 15,000rpm)he easier it is to keep it on track.  However, this bit is not will balanced, so too much speed and vibration gets in the way so I slow it to about 8,500 rpm.  

COmpleted eye socket.

Plasticene placed in the eye socket to buffer and hold the glass eye in place.

Both eyes set and the distance between the eyes is confirmed with calipers.  Too narrow a set and the bird looks like a pin head.  Too wide and it will be nearly impossible to get the right amount of rounding of the head.

The eyes are just peeking out from the drilled holes...makes it perfect.

Putty to surround the eye and hold it in place has been applied.

The putty has been shaped to create the almond shaped eye (recall from an earlier post) and the tiny eye lid.  The head still needs a lot of fine tuning and the bill needs to be detailed, but that will be done as a later step in the process


 

Next step...the body.

Christmas Diversion

Every year for the past 7 years, I have made Elaine a "slice" or two as a Christmas present.  A slice is a side of duck's head that is 1/2 or less that the thickness of a real duck.

This year, the duck of choice was a Garganey Teal drake.

Crown and shadows airbrushed using Chroma Sable

Cheek airbrushed using mix of Burnt Umber and Gold

Two steps here...white streaks were added with Warm White and then airbrushed over with Burnt Umber and Gold, just enough to let the light streaks show through

Larger, longer light streaks added.  Each streak had 2 or 3 coats depending on location.

White side patch painted and paint cleaned off of the glass eye. The flash washed out the detail however.

Breast and back feathers outlined with Warm WHite

Feather bards added with detail brush.

Feather barbs redone, breast feather centers detail added and centers of breast, back darkened.  Light patch added to bill to get ready for nostril detail.  The bill is smooth and the nostril is not carved i.

Finished head with nostril detail complete.