halfeye's going back to carving, painting done now, a little finish work left

[burchett.donald]

Rich,
           When I first seen this project in the beginning I never dreamed their was this much work involved in wooden carving until I seen each step you've posted and the many hours you've spent in the making of your art piece... Enjoying each step Sir and can't wait to see the final outcome...Excellent work and detail

                                                                                                                                        Don
                                                                                                                             

[Badly Bent]

I'm with Don, I had no idea how involved wood carving was, very impressed with the process and attention to detail.
Looking great Rich.

[half eye]

Thank you fellas, it is a long process. Like eating the proverbial elephant....one bite at a time. I'm not up to the standard I used to be, and every night I get to pay the piper for the hand work, and one eye doesn't help with the depth perception much. I'm really glad to know though, it looks like the work is up to acceptable standards, we will see when it's done.

Again thank you for the nice comments
rich

[Stringman]

Don, this piece is really coming together! I'm enjoying watchin your process and progress.

[half eye]

Today was work on the rocks day. Basically it involves priming the wooden rocks, when that's dry I add glue or thickened paint and then sawdust.....this mixture starts to develop a granular texture. Repeat until you are satisfied with the results. So here are the pictures.

I have not decided what to do with the area between the rocks. maybe smaller rock pile, or sandy-mud, or some moss. Needs to dry till tomorrow so I can sand it and make sure it's ready to paint.
rich

forgot to say the shorter rock is going to have a mossy, lichen surface on part of it.

[beetlebailey1977]

Rich your work is exceptional as always.......awesome stuff.

[half eye]

Was stuck today waiting on the Gesso I ordered, so I detailed the feet and found a job thats as bad as fish scales....but did get them done. Hopefully tomorrow will see that Gesso so the feet and fish can get their paint jobs.

In some of the feet photos you can see that the rocks have their texture and ground coloring. Still deciding on what kind of rocks. I included some rock pics so ya can see what some of our rock looks like here....there is a lot of iron oxides in local rock so I'm debating to do these like in rock pic one.
rich

[half eye]

Got to the rocks today. Decided on a sort of granite look for the eagle perch, and a bluish type for the smaller one. Notice the lichens on the blue rock....they are modeled after the ones in the last photo which was supplied by JWHalverson. I am not happy with the middle portion so it's going to get what looks like a pile of smaller (fist sized) stones.
rich

[Danzn Bar]

Look'in real cool Rich....Keep them coming...
DBar

[Gsulfridge]

If that gets much more realistic, you're gonna have to leave the door open so it can fly off!  Nice.

[half eye]

Fellas, managed to get the feet and pike painted, but not finished. By that I mean the feet need to have 2 coats of matt clear finish, and the fish needs to have the eyes cleaned and a heavy clear coat so it looks wet and the under colors come out. But you can get a rough idea.

The feet are painted with brushes and acrylics and washes, the fish are painted with lacquer and an air brush. The thin lacquer allows the fish to change colors as you walk around it.

So her's the pics, see what ya think....by the way the fish needs to be coated and then permanently mounted then the feet can be mounted and the talons finally installed. Also the "bite needs to be painted prior to the clear coat.....but it's gettin there.
rich

[JW_Halverson]

Up until now I have been enjoying this....but now I feel bad for the poor little snot rocket pike!  Waaaaah!   

DON'T STOP POSTING!

[chamookman]

All I can say, is wow ! Bob

[lesken2011]

That is amazing, Rich! Keep em coming!

[PatM]

It's like Michelangelo ran out of marble.