Beyond 7 Degrees..An Extreme Turn

It seems when a duck turns its head, there is a lot that goes on with those 17 vertebrae compared with the 5 vertebrae we humans have.  Early in my carving journey I was told that if you limited the amount of head turning you did with a pose to + or - 7 degrees, you didn't need to worry about the changes to the neck, head and breast that go on compared with if you go beyond 7 degrees.  

Over the past few years, I have found that 7 degrees has been pretty restrictive when it comes to trying to do more lifelike poses.  The opportunity then and before I do the carving of the pair, was to learn more about anatomy and about what happens to the head, neck and breast of a bird when you step over the 7 degree line.

My good friend and carving buddy Tom, who is a part time taxidermist,  has been encouraging me to learn more about this as well.  A couple of weeks ago he showed up with a huge book on duck taxidermy and several articles on the subject that he had clipped from some taxidermy magazines.  (Amazing isn't it...in America you can find books and magazines on darn near anything!)

A page from one of Tom's clippings.

I put them on my table next to my collection of Canvasback reference pictures.  Recall, in an early post I showed some reference pictures of Canvasback hens.  One of those showed a group of Canvasbacks sleeping and that photo has been pulling on me for some time.   I've only ever carved one sleeper in 2003 and luck was on my side because I certainly had no anatomical knowledge of what I was doing.

This lead me to addressing two problems.  The first was to do a quick sleeper Canvasback Hen to see if I could forget this tug of if this pose and if it might prevail over the relaxed mid height head one that I was heading towards.  The second, was to study and learn about twisting the head beyond 7 degrees.  Certainly, doing a sleeper was an extreme turn and that I had better learn what really happens to be able to pull this off.  

After reading and re reading the articles and making some sketches from photos, I modified a pattern to create a sleeper.

Pattern for Sleeper Hen.  The coffe was spilled shortly after I started the bird.  Think of that as an authentication...provenance of sorts.  The red markings on the pattern were made after the bird was complete reflecting changes that need to be made if I make this bird and pose again

Side view.  The back of the head needed to be made longer than the pattern to accommodate the neck that accumulated at the back of the head.  The more the degree of turn, the greater the amount of neck that bulges from the back of the head.  The body needed to be a bit longer than a high head...again, to accommodate the neck.

Front view.. Check out how the front on the bird is rounded  with the left side ( right side of bird) being slightly higher than the other side.  This is where the neck accumulates as well.

After looking at the bird, I felt like this was a reasonably well executed sleeper and  that I had learned what I needed about what happens to the head, neck and breast to the point that I had some general rules that I could apply to any duck's head turned beyond 7 degrees.  I will take these and apply them to the medium high relaxed bird pattern of the pairs since the turn on those heads  will be about 35 degrees.

In addition, I concluded that a sleeper in the pair competition was not to be for me.  While the bird is pretty, a bird that is semi asleep (and a bit bored looking) will not fare as well with the judges as one that is more alert and has her shaped eyes fully open.

3D Concept to 2D Pattern

The process of converting a drawing to a pattern requires;

-converting every view to a "straight on" view so that the pattern can be used to cut out the block.  Any view that isn't converted and used as is will result in heads and bodies being too short, bills being drooped and lopsidedness of the original carving block. All of these spell one word..FIREWOOD.

To help this process I use as many photos of similar to the selected pose that I can find.  The subtle angle differences among the poses helps to fill in the detail required to convert angled shots to straight on views.  In addition, I enlist the support of a mount or two that I can use to cross reference my measurements to ensure that I am getting as close to a straight on view as I can

-leaving enough room on the profile of the patter ( side, top and head) to ensure that you have room to adjust the carving to give it the lifelike appearance when the carving is refined....BUT not too much for fear of losing the profile and thus the essence of the bird specie.

Photo study board of poses similar to the desired pose.

A couple of mounts ready to be measured.  These are not completely accurate but help get me in the ballpark for the pattern.  One of these is larger than the other, but the smaller one is more proportionally correct and is almost in the desired pose.

First edition of pattern of body and head.  Note how at this stage it does not seem to resemble the desired pose...3D/perspective to 2D/isometric or flat

Final patterns...head, top and side view with notes.  Note the hash marks on the head and the extended area of wood at the breast of the bird...INSURANCE for later as I carve this twisted head.

Draw What You See....See What You Draw

I blew the dust off of the art pencil box, found some charcoal, chalk, conte and newsprint and started...

This is the first round of drawings.  It is obvious that it has been a while since I have taken pen to paper to draw.

Later the same day, this emerged as the second round of drawings.  Observations are being noted on each for future reference.

After some evaluation, this pose caught my eye as being the most pleasant and I refined and developed it more.

Front view of the same pose.  I am really liking this pose a lot.  It has lots of "s"curves and the hen especially is very princess like in her appearance.  Most carvers carve then too large and clunky as opposed to sleek and graceful.

I then modified the pose slightly for the drake so he would have a different pose from the hen and so that his pose would accent his bull like features and puffy , fluffy, downy looking side feathers.  

 This combination is making a nice looking pair in harmony. So time to record observations and move to the quickly carved bird...ladies first.

Here are some of the observations of the key physical features of the hen.

1. unique shape to head profile that is peaked at the center top and puffy at the back
2. long sloping thin and slender bill
3. neck that is wider than the cheeks  when relaxed...opposite from almost every other duck.
4. short wings for the size of the duck ...more so on the hen.
5. in b&w, the exposed wing seems to add more range of color value to the bird than a tucked wing and it accents the sleekness of the bird while making the short wings appear longer.
6. nice  large "s" curved tertial feathers on both sexes that need to be accentuated.
7. large(ish) rump in height and girth.
8. beautiful almond shaped eyes especially on the hen...when done well on a carving, and with carving and paint done to draw the viewer to the eye, you might be able to actually see into the soul of this bird which will really bring it to life.
9. the breasts on Canvasbacks are much smaller than you would think for the size of the bird and certainly smaller than those of the Redhead.  Most carvers get this wrong!
10, the neck is quite long and when the head is pulled back or tucked, the the head looks much longer because of the vertebrae of the neck accumulating and piling up.

I Can See Clearly now...Better in Black and White!

I usually start the process of carving each bird by studying color photos and making notes of the unique characteristics of the specific specie that I am going to attempt.  Over the years I found that I missed certain of these unique features and discovered them too late at the later stages of carving, or texturing or worst of all painting.

Last year, with the Gadwalls, I got some input from a close friend who suggested that I model the poses and birds in clay as a second step so that I could pick up those nuances that I might have missed through the observation of photos.  When I attempted this, I had an epiphany of sorts, and learned that if I converted the color photos to black and white, I could "see" the physical characteristics and unique features more readily.  However, I had to learn yet another skill, clay modeling, in addition to trying to stay on top of my game on the host of other skills required for this craft. As a result the process of modeling 2 birds took the better part of 6 weeks.  I did learn a lot from this and as a result the anatomy of the pair was the best yet thanks to two former world champions who looked at and critiqued photos of the clay models. But I didn't develop any muscle memory/approaches for when I took the carving to wood and it didn't leave me with anything to practice painting.

This year, I decided to use what I learned to change the carving process yet again.  I decided that I would;

1. convert relevant photos to black and white (NEW)
2. make a list of photo observations
3. draw multiple images of the bird in various poses forcing me to study the details and nuances (NEW)
4. adjust my observation notes
5.  chose the pose and make a pattern for the bird from the most appealing drawing (NEW)
6.  instead of a clay model, carve a quick, smoothie, simple wooden gunner style model (that will never compete) in the desired pose, knowing that I can patch it up with "bondo" in areas that I removed too much wood (NEW)  This will help develop muscle memory and will generate a painting practice blank,
7. refine observations of characteristics and modify the pattern
8.  begin the final bird.

Here are a few of the photos that I worked from.

First post of the NEW Blog....so here goes.

Over the past 20 years of carving, I have dreamed of entering and winning the pairs competition at the Ward's World Decoy Competition.  On several occasions, I started down the pathway to doing this and regretfully have fallen short.  My first attempt at Buffleheads resulted in only the drake being hastily finished.  My second attempt at Barrow's Goldeneye resulted on only a drake smoothie being finished.  My third attempt at Greenwinged Teals resulted in a beautifully finished hen that won second best of show in the Advanced category but alas, she had no mate. My forth attempt, was with a pair of Redheads, one of which was finished in time and the other, the hen, was finished a whole year later.  She went on to win second best of show in the Advanced Decorative Group.   Last year, for the April 2012 Show, I built clay models for the first time that in turn exhausted my available time,  and modelled them to carve and texture two beautiful Gadwalls that would have been very competitive.  The clock ran out during painting so the drake is still in drab primer and the hen is 1/2 painted! ! ! ! !

So here it is...20 years since I began carving and 5 missed attempts at the World's Pairs, and I am going to try again with a pair of Canvasbacks.

This time, I am going to record the journey and make it available to a small circle of friends and family to follow.  There will ups, downs, successes, failures, high and certainly lows as I work may way through this pair.  I am not looking for complements rather comments on what you think and how you  see things that can be improved.