Legs and feathers

     After reviewing my progress on the carving and looking over reference photos, I decided to make some changes to the legs.  I had tried to finish drawing the feather patterns on the carving, but couldn't figure out the transition between body feathers and legs feathers, especially when the legs were extended. I had tried to draw a feather pattern that curved around from the body onto the legs, but this required the feather overlap to reverse direction.  It just didn't look right.  I looked through my reference photos, and found some that revealed how the legs simply stick out from under the contour feathers of the body, so no gradual change in feather overlaps would be necessary.  I drew a new feather pattern to accommodate this new finding, and recontoured the junction of the legs and body legs to reflect this change.  I made the wooden part of the legs a little thinner as well, to reflect what I saw in the photos.

    I have worked on the carving three times since my post, so I have come catching up to do in this post.  Today, I outlined and shaped most of the body feathers, excerpt for the narrow space between the outstretched legs.  A few days ago, I had outlined and shaped the feathers on the head, which are smaller than the body feathers and come to a sharper point.  I was able to suggest the presence of a crest, and will separate and lift the feathers of the crest in a future session.

    Now and then, while I am carving, I switch locations just to break things up a bit.  Today I used a diamond-shaped stone bit to clean up the feather overlaps on the wings.  I have found that the best way to do this is to let my eyes wander randomly around on the carving until I see something that needs cleaning up, fix that, and then look around some more.  I suppose this is not as methodical as working along a row of feathers, but it feels freer somehow. 

    After working on the body feathers around the belly area and doing some of this random touch-up work, I tried sanding the feathers with a medium grit sandpaper to round off all the edges and give them a softer look.  It worked, and the feathers look and feel softer.  Feathers have a curved surface, and the sanding took some wood off the edges to give the curved look. I am pleased with my progress so far.  Below are some photos I took after I finished up today.

    You can probably see that I have made some progress over the last week or so, especially around the head area.  I have added some details to the bill, relieved the head feathers, and drilled holes for the eyes.  I also did more work on the feet the other day.  Little bit here, little bit there, that's how this carving has been going.

    I may not have it finished by August 13, the date of the Maine Woodcarvers Show, but will certainly have it finished by late October for the New England Woodcarvers Spirit of Wood Show.  I got a ribbon for my Archaeopteryx carving at that show last year.  I also have my sights on the Rhode Island Audubon Society's Wildfowl Art and Carving Show, which will be in early November.  Not sure why, but we went to that show when it was last held in November 2019, and it was fantastic.  It would be nice to enter my osprey in that show and see what happens!

    I estimate eight hours of work over my last three sessions, for a total of 73 hours.  Closing in on 100 hours!