antiqued long-tailed duck

[markken5889]

Hi all,

I just finished up this antiqued long-tailed duck (oldsquaw) drake. Basswood with acrylics, antiqued with a carbon black/burnt umber wash and then amber shellac. 13" long.

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated!

Many thanks.

Mark

[jimmy joe]

Hi Mark , I think it looks great . I would like to try my hand at them as I love the old antique looking ducks . I have one done by a guy up in Adirondacks that is one of my favorite pieces . I just like the look of him . Maybe I will hit you up for some pointers ! Good job .Jim

[Orygoner]

He came out real good Mark. If you have some suggestions on the antiquing process I'd be all ears too. I have Tom Matus's book on doing an antique Woodduck and it's on my list of things to do...even have the carving roughed out. I love those antique birds!

[Merle Rice]

Beautiful job Mark. Merle

[Blackjaxe]

Nice job Mark, the bumps and scrapes really give the carving character. In the past I've had to replicate certain things and give them the antique look. I used a razor blade to scrape away paint layers to make it look aged and even took the item and threw it into a canvas sack with stones and nails in it and shook it around to get pits and gouges.....then used a satin varnish. Yours turned out great, nice work.

Ken

[markken5889]

Thanks Jim, Randy, Merle and Ken! I had carved the Wood Duck Drake and later hen too, from Tom Matus' book, which I still use as a reference regularly. The concept for this oldsquaw came from the cover of his book. Like the bood describes, I bang up the decoy both before and after painting. Some of my favorite techniques: since I don't hunt myself, I took some round fishing lead sinkers and put them on a piece of duct tape, then held it up against the decoy and smacked it a few times with a rubber mallet to simulate getting hit by shot. I also used the mallet (gently) against a rasp, and also scraped the deke a few times with the rasp, with a file and even raked the blade of a bow saw across the body a few times. A couple of odd hammer blows and even the long edge of a file for effect. Kind of fun, but kind of scarey after all the hard work of doing the actual carving.

Thanks for looking, and for your great comments guys!

Mark

[carver33]

Mark,

Very nice job. Looks like it's been around for ages.

[markken5889]

Thanks Bill,

It is amazing to watch the process unfold from when it's freshly carved and painted before the antiquing starts. That amber shellac sure works wonders to give it that patina like it's been around for 50 or so years.

Thanks for looking!

Mark

[RUssL.]

I think that it looks great!
Good job!

RussL.

[markken5889]

Thanks Russ!

Mark