Painting delay for the wings

      The next step in painting the wings of the osprey carving involves the used of a dark sable color, almost black, for the banding and shading on the tail and flight feathers.  Unfortunately, when I sat down at the bench today, I learned that the sable color had I ordered is not dark at all, but almost like the nutmeg brown.  I tried darkening it with several different possible complementary blue shades that I have, but couldn’t match the color swatch in Al Jordan’s book.  I tried using black to darken the sable brown, which produced something much closer to the published color, nut just a little dead-looking.  It might work in a pinch, since the color it produced was close to the color in the workbook, but I want the colors to be the same as used by the original carver/artist. 

     I then had an insight - Al Jordan used an airbrush to paint much of his carving, so I looked into airbrush acrylic colors.  Bingo!  On a carving supplies website I found the very dark sable he used, manufactured by Chroma, and ordered some.  I checked first to see if airbrush colors can be used with a brush, and they can.  The only difference between airbrush acrylics and those from a bottle or tube is that the airbrush colors are diluted in order to pass easily through the airbrush nozzle.  This actually helps, because I would not have to dilute it much or at all to use it as a wash over other colors.  I will see when it arrives, whenever that is.

  In the meantime, I may do some painting today on other parts of the carving, such as the feet, just to get something done and not lose momentum.

Painting has begun

    I added a second coat of gesso last night, to prepare for today's painting session.  I am following the painting guidelines in Al Jordan's half-size osprey book, although not necessarily in the same order because of the difference in the poses of his carving and mine.

    I started by applying three coats of a dilute mixture of 90% warm white and 10% raw umber on the undersides of the tail and the primary and secondary feathers.  Once that was completely dry, I turned the carving over and applied three coats of a thin nutmeg brown color over the entire back of the body, tail, and wings.  Not much of this nutmeg color will show through at the end, but hints of it will still be there.  The back and upper side of the wings will be much darker when the painting is done.  Here are the photos:

    The colors and patterns don't look quite right at the moment, but I am trusting the professional's painting instructions.  The dark spot on the bird's breast between the extended legs is the hole where the clear acrylic rod will be inserted to support the bird on the stand.  Speaking of the stand:  I have decided to make the stand an oval, and I drew an oval shape on the practice stand using the old trick of three pins and some string.  Worked like a charm.  I will cut out the oval shape with my saber saw and set the bird on the stand to see if it is stable.

     Lona took some photos of me working, a couple of which are posted below.  The pages visible in the background are from the painting section of Al Jordan’s book.

    The next painting steps will be to add dark bands to the undersides and topsides of the tail feathers and to the primary and secondary feathers on the wings, which will be difficult for an amateur painter like myself.  these bands are visible in the pictures in the book in the background.  It will require some careful planning, matching of the bands on the upper and lower sides of the feathers, and some washes of a darker color over these feathers to blend the colors together and accentuate the leading edges of the feathers.  I will just follow the instructions and see what happens!

    Enough for now, the painting took about two hours, since I had to let each layer of paint dry before adding the next.  The reasons for using thin washes of color is to preserve the texturing of the feathers, which took such a long time to do.  One thick layer of paint would fill in all the burn lines representing the barbs of the stiff feathers; three thin washes will achieve the same color but preserve the feather details.

    Total time: 113 hours.

First coat of gesso

    This afternoon I applied the first coat of gesso to the fully sealed carving.  This first coat almost completely concealed the dark brown of the burned areas.  The second coat should provide the uniform white base coat for applying the different washes of color that will be the actual color of the bird.  Looks different, all white.

     I found a small area at the edge of one wing where I hadn't defined the feathers completely.  Don't know how I missed it.  I will have to to the detailing, and re-gesso the area before I continue.  I will let the carving dry completely before attempting that little repair job.

    I remembered from early in the carving process that the bird would stand up vertically on a tripod formed by its wingtips and tail.  It is pretty steady, but I won't leave it that way for too long, just until the gesso is dry.  A bump on the bench might cause it to fall over!

    Two more hours, for a total of 111.

Mock-up of base for carving

    I did two things today - apply the first coat of sanding sealer and put together a mock-up of the eventual base I will make for the carving.  Sanding sealer?  Not much to say about that, except that I didn't put any on the head and feet because that was where I had to hold the carving while I sealed the rest.  Later tonight I will apply sealer to the head and legs, and tomorrow I will put a second coat over the whole thing.

    I decided, after much thought, to simply support the carving on its base with a single rod extending from the belly of the bird down to the base.  I ordered some clear acrylic 3/36" diameter rods from an online acrylic products company, but for the time being I used a 3/36" wooden dowel in my trial run.  I carefully drilled a hole in the centerline of the belly at an angle that would support the bird in a diving pose.  I then drilled a hole in a 1.5" thick piece of pine board from the garage, and put the assembly together.  This is the result:

     The result is very close to the vision I had at the start.  I wish that the diving angle were a little steeper, but the hole in the belly is already drilled and I can't redo it without making a mess.  What I have done will suffice, for sure.  A small concern that I have is that the wooden dowel bends somewhat under the weight of the carving, which I didn't think it would do.  I didn't get the hole quite under the center of gravity of the carving, and it leans a little forward.  I am hoping that the clear acrylic rods will be a little stronger and support the carving without bending.

    By using the clear rod as an obvious support, I don't have to be too clever about making the support look like reeds or grass, which would have taken a lot of work.  I would also have had to make the flat part of the base look like water or else the realistic reeds would not look right.  I can now go back to making the flat part of the base an abstract form with a simple, rippled surface.  The plain base and the clear support will not call attention away from the carving.  Viewers will accept the base and support for what they are, and move their attention back to the carving itself.  That's my hope, anyway.

    The piece of scrap wood in the photos above is too big, but I will use it as a starting point for trimming down the rectangular shape or for possibly creating a more visually pleasing shape such as an oval.

    Maybe another hour today, for a running today of 109 hours invested so far. My first post on this blog was May 3, so I am coming up on three months of work.  I could have gotten to this point faster, but if you have to rush, it's not a hobby any more.

    

Lots of progress!

    I had a good day yesterday, working about 5 hours on the carving.  I finished the texturing/burning on the wings; put in the glass eyes; finished burning the feathers around the eyes and beak; and attached the feet.  The latter job involved putting a ring of epoxy clay around the wire protruding from the upper part of each foot, and pressing the foot into place against the wooden stump.  The epoxy squeezed out, which is what I wanted to happen, to make sure that the gap between the two parts was filled with epoxy.  It dried fast, and I removed the excess and worked a little with two different power carving tips to blend the texturing over the transition point and obscure it even more.  Below are some photos I took this morning out on the picnic table, in 88-degree heat.

    In preparation for the next step, I have begun reading once again the second half of Al Jordan's book on creating a half-size osprey carving.  Lots of info there on painting, with a complete color palette.  I have all the colors already.  One difficult part will be transferring his painting instructions for a sitting osprey with wings folded to a diving osprey with wings extended.  The sitting osprey has less of the undersides of the wings exposed than my carving, so I will just have to extrapolate his color schemes to the extended wings.  I have plenty of photos to rely on, as well.  My final choices will be a combination of what is in the book and what I see in my collection of osprey photographs.  The author makes a point for artistic license himself, since ospreys all look a little different.  No one can say I'm wrong.

    Next step: sealing the carving with sanding sealer, and applying several coats of thinned-out gesso.  This will produce a uniform white base all over the carving, in advance of applying the colors.

    Five hours yesterday brings my total to 107.5 hours, rounded off to 108.  I don't think the painting will take another 100 hours, so my initial estimate of 200 hours for this carving was way too high.

    BTW, I did a full mockup of my idea for mounting the carving, with a curved metal rod supporting the carving above a base.  Didn't work.  The carving was too heavy for the 1/8" steel rod, especially with the curve, and the carving would not stay up.  I feel that I must do what I didn't want to do, which is support the carving with a vertical rod from the belly down to the base.  Oh, well.

Wendell Gilley Museum visit

      We visited the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor yesterday, as part of my birthday trip up the coast.  It is a small museum, but one dedicated entirely to bird carving.  I get a lot of inspiration, and even some carving tips, by examining the carvings they have on display there.  There were three osprey carvings, two by Wendell Gilley himself and another by a carver whose name I forget.  I took photos of them for my reference file, and the three carvings are shown in the images below.

     The poses are all very similar, with the bird perched on a limb or piece of driftwood, with wings spread as if taking off or just landing. The bottom carving is life-size, and is all the more impressive because of that.  None of them have the level of feather detail that I am adding to my carving.  My pose is different, an “attack” pose with the wings partially folded as the osprey zeroes in on his prey fish.  Still not sure about the base yet.  I will have to experiment tomorrow.

     I will return to my osprey carving with renewed determination to do my best at representing a dramatic moment during an osprey attack dive!

Feather texturing progress

    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?