Painting the stipple hen mallard WIP

[wwbirds]

Haven't posted anything since early December when I was finishing up on the molded mallard hen. I had the camera on the tripod and rolled my chair back suddenly knocking the D60 down breaking off the 18-55 lens. Seems it would still work but sent it back to Burnaby service depot to have plastic lip replaced so it would feel tight and secure on camera. So I had a good reason for not taking any pictures since waiting for the lens to come back until today when borrowed my sons lens.
The molded mallard hen was good practice for getting the feel for painting after a one year away from detailed painting but the practice was with a purpose for I had a roughed out wooden mallard hen that I wanted to practice for before painting the real thing. Of course if a wooden carving is not signed it is not mine so before applying the 3 coats of sealer to the wood and doing the texturing the mark is permanently burned in the base so it will still show after the keel is affixed.

The decoy is in three parts (head and neck, upper body and lower plate) with a hollow interior to float higher and you can see the hardwood dowels epoxied in place with marine epoxy for extra strength.

[IMG][/IMG]

Epoxy eye sculp is still wet and once dry a little trimming will be done to remove excess material.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

While waiting for epoxy to dry I always have something else to keep me busy so paint on a little screech owl in thin coats to build up depth of color.

Before:
[IMG][/IMG]

After 4 coats:
[IMG][/IMG]

Happy New Year!

[wwbirds]

Probably the least favorite part of preparing a working bird is the number of coats of Behr Marine Spar varnish they can absorb before it actually starts to build up as a waterpoof seal.
Think this is after about 6 coats drying between each one so about 4 days worth:
[IMG][/IMG]

One of the fun things to do that doesn't take very long but makes an amazing difference on a working bird is adding a stipple finish which in essence absorbs light so no shine and a very soft color is detected (like real feathers).
Messy but fun I add a bit of base color to the stipple which is 50% modeling paste and 50% gesso.
since the underside and sides are lighter I do them first with a course brush dabbing the paste on and roughly smootihing it to a consistent thickness of an 8th of an inch.
[IMG][/IMG]

of course it is rough looking:
[IMG][/IMG]

Dabbing it with a wet sponge creates an orange peel type of texture which reflects soft colors and absorbs shine.
[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

I then double the amount of burnt umber and raw umber to create a darker brown gray base coat for the back and breast:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Since the head generally looks better with some feather tracts combed into the texture paste and I have to handle the whole bird to do that detail I wil let the body of the bird dry completely tonight before etching feather tracts in the head and neck tomorrow

[Ken07AOVette]

Rob your work is just incredible, please don't ever stop putting pics up.

[wwbirds]

thought you would be on a beach in hawaii by now. I thoroughly enjoyed the garden island Kauai in October maybe if I sell everything I can carve on the beach!

[Ken07AOVette]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

thought you would be on a beach in hawaii by now. I thoroughly enjoyed the garden island Kauai in October maybe if I sell everything I can carve on the beach!

If you hang onto everything and sell it on the beach you could likely retire there!

The weather is just too nice here, not going for a couple weeks yet. How can you not love Alberta in January when it is +8 here? I know you guys down South are used to it, but it should be -25c with 4' of snow here.

[wwbirds]

When I moved here from Ontario they told me all winters were like that. didn't take long before I found out it wasn't always true .
I am enjoying the +13 today and just came in.
Not great for snow and coyote hunting though and I was loading .223 brass earlier today.
Have a good 600 22-250 SX loaded in 55 and a good 600 223 in 50 gr SX and no snow or coyotes! think my son and I are going through coyote withdrawal with this heat wave.
I never burn in Canada but with lots of SPX30 after 3 days I looked like a lobster in Kauai. Checked the regs there and think pig hunting was only for people with a deer draw in the winter. Found a Harley shop but no gun shops.
have fun!

[wwbirds]

Put some feather groups in head to make it look more realistic with a bit of texture rather than a smooth finish:
[IMG][/IMG]

With the many coats of spar varnish to seal it is inevitable to get some material on eye itself and although sealing the epoxy from water damage is good the glass eye itself must be clean in order to express "life". After cleaning eye with solvent it must be neutralized with water to avoid any residual solvent from eating away at the epoxy over time. Once clean and bright it is time to move on to the bill.
To get the final bright color we need to start with a consistent base coat and a couple coats of white gesso (contains ground up marble dust for opague coverage) gives us that base.

[IMG][/IMG]

[FishingMOM]

As usual your work is impressive

[silverdoctor]

You have alot of patience. Nice work!

[wwbirds]

Too cold to do much of anything else outside except bare minimum chores.
Can do a lot of painiting in 3 days when I don't stop to take step by step pictures. Better than half done.

Hal53 doesn't know it yet but he wants to buy this hen for his Father In Law! FIL got the drake for his birthday last spring so now needs a little hen to sit on the mantle with him.

[IMG][/IMG]

A little closer on other side lots of detail painted but stil lots of splits and detailed feather edging to add.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Ken07AOVette]

Why are you selling my drake?????

[wwbirds]

just haven't done one for a few years. hal53 bought the last one for his FIL last winter/spring. I might be doing pintails and mallards next by the looks of the orders. I go in spurts and do nothing but teal for a few months, then wood ducks and eventually come back to mallards. diversity is more fun than just doing the same bird everyone wants because they are familiar with them the most. i really enjoy doing the "strange ducks" like arctic eiders, harlequins and long tail (old squaw) but hardly anyone orders anything except teal, wood ducks and mallard/pintails.