[Aaron O'Keefe]

Heres a qiuck pic of my second ringer hen nearly finished. Can't seem to take an accurate picture of her so this is what I got. I haven't been able to take any classes yet so I've been going it alone from books and internet info. I've carved miniatures but nothing very good and painted basically straight out of the tube until this year. This one is the third full size bird i've done! Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Aaron

[William]

That's a good looking bird Aaron, I especially like the head carving and paint, nice job.

Bill
^v^

[Aaron O'Keefe]

Thanks Bill,

The orange is a little bright on the side and breast. Its a little more brown in person! I havent yet sealed the paint yet as I'm unsure if I want to do any more work on it yet.

Thanks for the comments,
Aaron

[Nancy-ID]

She is a good looking duck. Good job!

[Robert Cahill]

I think you did an excellent job. I've only done one miniature but it was no where near as nice as yours. The only reason mine was presentable was the fact my daughter painted it. I have never tried full size . Thanks for sharing

[Aaron O'Keefe]

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Robert.... Keep plugging away! I've done about 15 minis but spread out over the last 20 yrs. Last year I started to really LOOK at what I was doing and paying attention to what people were telling me and what I read in magazines and books. I've still got a long way to go as i'm still struggling with the airbrush thing but hopefully soon I'll be able to take a class!

Aaron

[mark yundt]

You're doing great.The exact same way I started,,just do it,, and figure it out as you go along.You've made more progress than many I have seen who have taken classes.A note of caution,,air brushes are a handy tool and can achieve neat effects.If leaned on too heavily they can take a great carving and turn it into a porcelain figurine.You can tell almost immediately which birds were airbrushed and which were actuall hand painted.Almost always the hand painted ones look much better and more realistic.Some seem to think they can paint the entire bird with an airbrush,,YOU CAN'T.Unless you want it to look like something you picked up in Walmart that was made in China.Airbrushed birds have a hazy,foggy look to them that a real bird doesn't have at all.Don't ruin your hard earned carving.As a base coat ,,shooting in shadows fine,,,stop there.The rest has to be brushed. You can't get the separation needed to make feathers look real with an airbrush. I don't care which model you have. I've got one that can actually spray a dot the size of a typewritten period.That's pretty small and accurate,,but ultimately it's useless for detailing a bird to look real.Like anything,,they have their limits.That's just my opinion ( and many judges) so do with it what you will.You'll never go wrong in learning how to handle a brush,,there are no shortcuts.But keep on doing what you're doing,,it's looking great.

[Aaron O'Keefe]

Thanks Mark,

I know what you mean about them looking porcelain! I've seen it at the last decoy show I went to. I basically used the airbrush to blend the trasition between the breast and side pockets then for the outlines of the feathers and lastly a very light highlite on the "lip" of the bill. Found that some colours are harder to spray than others but it could be just the way I was thining the paint.

Aaron

[mark yundt]

Yes..consistency in the paint can make or break how it goes on and covers.A handy brush for blending large areas is the fan.It can do a great job pulling one color into another seamlessly.One thing here though is it depends on which colors you are trying to blend.For example on the breast to side pocket on a male mallard. It's red into white basically.If you try blending wet into wet you'll get a pink transition,,,not good.The technique here as well as on other pieces you might be working on is to paint the one color,,let it dry and then wet it and use the second color to fan into the water.More control than an air brush and more natural looking than a cloud of color over everything where it doesn't belong.Not sure if this is any help,,might be to someone out there,,just thought I'd pass it along.
One other thing,,and I'm sure you're aware of this as well,,very thin washes are a handy way to adjust colors on a completed bird.I take it the photo doesn't show the true colors as you say it's more brown,,cameras and the computer don't always do justice to color and at times the carving itself.But this too can be a useful tip with the use of washes.....

[MDWine]

Saw your post on DCF, better picture there!! Nice bird!