Things to do under Lockdown.

[kvom]

As I sit in my office I can watch the birdlife at our feeders in the backyard.  The thrashers are around all the time, especially liking the suet/nut mix in a little gridwork cage.  At least one pair nested nearby as I've seen a couple of chicks pecking on the ground.  A bluebird nested in a box near the garage, and also like to go for the suet and seeds.  A pair of cowbirds is around most of the day as well.  Other random appearances are towhees, cardinals, jays, blackbirds, wrens, and once a woodpecker.

[crueby]

We get a lot of the same type birds here, most of the woodpeckers are the medium sized ones, but just the other day had a very large Piliated Woodpecker poking at some half-rotted tree stumps in my backyard. He must have seen me in the window as I came back with the camera and flew away though...

[crueby]

Got the bases of the ears/horns shaped down, and have started in on the woodburning. This is done with a small scalpel-shaped tip on the woodburning pen, attached to an adjustable power supply to control the amount of heat. With the Tupelo, it slices into the wood very easily. The goal is to get the texture/shape of the hair, I dont care much about the color it gives since this will be painted - some parts of the face are black, some white, some gray...
Here is one ear before woodburning:

and by contrast the other ear after:

The eye was burnished with the side of the hot tip, which will give it more gloss when painted, and the edges of the eyelids traced to give them more definition. This is a very slow process - the one ear was about an hour, but the results are well worth it.

[Craig DeShong]

Have you named it yet ?  How about “Will”, da beast?   

Nice Chris, you have a sculpting talent that is completely devoid in my genes.  Can’t draw either, unless you count stick figures. 

[awake]

Chris, lovely work on both the carving and the sub! Just don't get them mixed up, because then the carving would come out

...

wait for it ...

...

sub-standard.

Was it worth the wait??

On edit: having just read Craig's contribution, I'm going to blame him for inspiring mine!

[crueby]

 


 


 

[Alan Haisley]

Some say "in line", others say "on line". Now that we are using dotted lines, what should we say?

[crueby]

Bill Da Beasts bangs are growing in....

[Vixen]

Love the name and love the carving

Mike

[Roger B]

That is impressive       (still no cider emoticon  )

[crueby]

More on the face hair, longer strokes in the center, shorter to just stippled around the eyes. Starting to bring out the shapes more. When painted, the front of the face goes towards black, shades of grey and white down the sides.

[Flyboy Jim]

More on the face hair, longer strokes in the center, shorter to just stippled around the eyes. Starting to bring out the shapes more. When painted, the front of the face goes towards black, shades of grey and white down the sides.

Chris, It's amazing seeing this critter come alive right in front of us. Glad to see you're back at carving. Of course.......... I've always looked upon your machining projects as "metal carving". 

Jim

[crueby]

Thanks Jim! 


And, while cutting in more hair lines on Willy Da Beest, a stray thought wandered across the empty spaces.... When is it hair, when fur? Cats/dogs have fur, but a cat can lick its fur and cough up a hairball. On horses, we mention horse-hair, why not fur? I've been called (among many other things), furry...


This ought to get some good comments!
 

[cnr6400]

Well you went and raised a real hair ball issue on this one. I'd put it down to Angle-Saxon to Old Engrish language  transition. 

For example - why is the hair on a hare called fur and not phur?   

(the carving is looking great, BTW.) 

[crueby]

Woodburning is done (finally into summer weather here, so finished up with an extension cord run out to the rocker on the porch, much more pleasant than the basement bench! ). Here it is with first coat of sealer on - this wood is quite porous, so it needs to be sealed up so the paint goes on smooth. The painting will be done with Liquitex Acrylic artists paint, thinned down to watery consistancy so it can be applied with wash coats to build up the tones. Front of the face/nose/mouth are very dark grey to black, lighter bands under the neck, then medium greys back to the neck.