Yesterday (Tuesday) I brought the osprey to my local carving group meeting, where it was seen by seven of my carving buddies. I borrowed an extension cord from the Rockler's back room and set up a wood burning station at one end of the long table that had been set up for us. I was a little worried that the smoke from my burning would set off a smoke alarm or sprinkler, but the Rockler's staff assured me that I was OK. It is wispy smoke, and didn't seem to bother either the smoke detectors or the others sitting around the table.
I spent the entire 2.5 hours of the meeting working on the underside of the left wing, but still had to wait to finish it up today. The job took 4.5 hours altogether, counting time spent this morning and yesterday afternoon. That is consistent with the time spent on the upper and lower surfaces. Four and a half hours on each surface of each wing means that 18 hours have been spent so far simply on the texturing of the wings with the wood burning pen. Below are photos of the undersides of the carving, with both wings done.
The sharp color contrast between the burned and untouched parts of the wing are only temporary. The burned portions represent the stiffer flight feathers and their coverts; the untouched portions of the wings represent the softer contour feathers that have been textured by various stone carving bits. Once the carving has been covered with several coats of primer, the brown color will disappear, and the two types of feathers will be distinguishable only by the shadows and textures left by burning and stoning. After priming, the feathers will be painted, further blending them into an overall representation of a fully feathered and functional wing (I hope).
Below are photos of the upper surface of each wing. revealing the next session's 4.5 hours of work! After the texturing of the wings has been completed, I will get back to my plan of setting the eyes in place and texturing the head feather detail around the eyes and bill. After that, the final "construction" piece will be attaching the feet and smoothing the transition zone between the epoxy feet and the wood of the lower leg.
I am looking forward to finishing up the carving and texturing part of this project, and moving on to the painting. I will follow the painting scheme outlined in Al Jordan's book on creating a half-size osprey, as well as the many images I now have of the undersides and topsides of the wings and body. I have all of the colors on Al Jordan's palette, and am ready to apply color to this carving!
The 4.5 hours total from yesterday and today puts me over the hundred-hour mark, at 102.5 hours. Where did the time go?
I'm glad you explained the difference in the 2 wing colors. I was a little worried about that, (foolishly).
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