Carving an Avocet: Part 11 (Final Body Shaping)

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In this chapter from Del Herbert’s bird carving series, learn how to complete the final shaping and preparation of a carved shorebird before painting. Del demonstrates attaching the head to the body, refining the neck and body contours, sanding the carving, and penciling in major feather groups to evaluate feather placement, size, and overall design before the carving is sealed. The lesson explores how to create natural-looking feather patterns without a repetitive, “fish scale” appearance, while paying close attention to the shape and arrangement of important flight feathers and wing groups. Finally, Del demonstrates sealing the finished carving with clear lacquer and applying acrylic gesso to create a prepared surface ready for painting.

Transcript

Once we’re satisfied with our pose and attitude, I will go ahead and epoxy the head onto the body, and then I’ll finish carve this area.

Again, we can’t carve this area until the head is attached in order that we have a smooth transition from the neck to the body.

Once I’m satisfied with that, I’ll go ahead and sand the whole bird with normally eighty then one hundred and fifty grit paper until I get the contours roughly the way I want them and get the major feather groups carved in the bird.

Now, as a final check, we’re going to have to paint feathers on the bird.

And as final check that I have my carving the way I want it, I normally take and pencil at least the major feathers onto the carved bird.

I’m going to pencil on the primaries.

And artistically, our eye likes odd numbers and does not like even numbers.

Even numbers are flat and boring, and odd numbers have a little bit of character and are interesting.

So I’m going to choose to put three primaries on this burb.

If my surface wasn’t correct, I’d go ahead and re carve it so that I could put three primaries on.

Then we’re going to come forward and I’m going pencil on the tertials.

There’s five tertials, like your five fingers.

Likewise, if I can’t get five tertials of the shape and size that I want, I would go ahead and re carve this area so that I can get the feathers that I want.

If we go ahead and seal and gesso our bird and go to paint the bird, and we can’t get the right number or right shape of feathers on, it’s almost too late. At this stage, I can still re carve this area and arrange the feathers the way I want them. I’m going go ahead and put some scapulars on here, proceeding forward to the scapulars.

On the avocet, these two scapulars are very important.

The inside of the feather is dark and the outside is white.

And this is a tremendous opportunity for us to show off our painting skills.

These two feathers are very important on the Avocet.

Okay, and forward of the tertials, we’re going to come up and we’re going to show some wing coverts. So I’m going to draw on some greater coverts.

Those of you that are not familiar with these feather groups, they are shown in the pattern book.

And come up to some median coverts.

Now as I proceed forward on the bird, it becomes less and less important. There’s more feathers forward, and they’re less distinct.

Where our flight feathers are, most people know what those feathers look like and can tell if you have the right number and right size and right shape. As we go forward, there are so many feathers up in our cape area, it’s very difficult to see them.

So, our accuracy becomes less critical.

But I’m going to go ahead and put some more scapulars on here. And basically, I spend a lot of time with my carving, penciling feathers on, recarving, penciling, carving, so that I get the contour of the bird to where I can end up with the right number and the right size of the feathers. And again, it’s more important aft than forward.

One other thing in penciling feathers on.

All of the feathers in one area of the bird are basically the same size and shape.

But we do not want to get a fish scale type effect.

So the way I’m going to do that is to show different areas of the feather. This feather I have a long inside edge and a shorter outside edge. Here I’m showing a very short inside edge and a little bit longer outside edge.

Here I’m showing a long inside edge.

Now you’ll see when we get to the templates that these feathers are about the same shape. They’re very close to the same shape and the same size, but I’ve shown more of this feather, less of this feather.

I’ve shown a different side of this feather than I have of this feather. That breaks the appearance of these feathers up, and that’s the way they appear on a bird. They do not appear in a scaly aligned, perfectly aligned attitude. This is what we want to stay away from.

Okay, once I’ve drawn feathers on a bird and I’m satisfied that I have my feather groups carved in the way I want them, I’m going to go ahead and seal the bird in preparation for painting.

I seal a bird with clear lacquer.

I happen to use this brand, but any brand of clear lacquer is fine.

The way I do it is I’ll spray I take the bird outside and spray it, and when you first spray the bird, you’ll notice right away that the lacquer is absorbed by the wood.

So, I keep spraying it, and I’ll spray over and over and over again, but only one time.

But I’ll keep spraying until I get a slight sheen on the edge of the bird. And that tells me that the Niacar has saturated into the bird, and if I put any more on it, it will run.

I keep doing that until I get that slight sheen and then I stop and let the lacquer dry for several hours.

After I’m satisfied that the lacquer has dried, we’re going to come in and coat the bird with several coats of gesso.

Again, this is a brand that I happen to be using now, but any brand of acrylic gesso works fine.

We’re going to end up with a bird that’s been sealed and primed with gesso, ready to paint.

I’ve cleaned off the eyes for the purpose of the CD. Normally, I’ll let the gesso cover the eyes until I’m finished painting the bird.

I’m very satisfied with the attitude and the pose of the bird.

I wanted a proud attitude with a very peaceful look in the eye.

And I’m satisfied that this bird is going to accomplish that for me.