mourning dove -chest & belly feathers

[miket]

i am working on a full size in the round mourning dove. i am a little stumped on what i should do with the breast,belly and head as far as feathering. its in basswood.

i have shot many of these birds hunting. these feathers are soo fine ,almost impossible to see any individual feathers.
so should i try to fine burn them or texture with a white stone? or just fine sand and leave this area of the bird unfeathered?

i have a stiller pattern,but that only shows the feather types for the larger feathers.
any suggestions would be appreciated,including maybe a website.

[kenweybright]

I don't know if you have Roslyn Daisey's "upland gamebird carving" book or not. It shows good detail in the breast and belly. Typically I cave feather groups in lightly, but enough to show, in order that the light can pick up on it. Then I stone with a blue ceramic stone and then a white stone. Lori Corbett's website, Whispering Eagle Studio has a good demo on carving flowing feathers.

Hope this helps.

Ken
Website: Carvings-by-Ken.com Home Page

[kenweybright]

Mike,

Oh yeah, I forgot, I have a couple of mourning doves in the songbird gallery of my website. I'm not sure it will show the detail you are looking for or not. It's terrible to forget where your own work is at my age.

Ken
Website: Carvings-by-Ken.com Home Page

[torpidhummer]

Hey Mike,
Ken's suggestion on viewing Lori Corbett's site was great,I used Lori's demos on fine soft breast feather's and it's great,in her book on Carving Songbirds she has a whole chapter dedicated to to feathering detail. By the way Ken your gallery is great,I earmarked it for future reference,thanks.
Oscar

[kenweybright]

Oscar,

Thank you for stopping by. I am happy with the website and the number of hits it has generated over the last couple of years. Hopefully it has helped some bird carvers along the way. Thanks for the kind words.

Ken
Website: Carvings-by-Ken.com Home Page

[LCorbett]

Thanks for the recommendation, Ken...and thanks to you both for the compliments! Glad you found them useful!
Peace...

[kenweybright]

You're Welcome, Lori,

Just one of your greatest fans.

Ken
Website: Carvings-by-Ken.com Home Page

[miket]

thanks for the tips on texturing chest and belly feathers on the dove- i guess i will treat them as i would a songbird since they are soo fine.

miket

[idahobob]

Kenweybright, your California Quail is beautiful!!

[kenweybright]

Idahobob,

Thank you for your kind words.
Those birds are 6-7 years old and carved utilizing "Upland Game Bird Carving" by Roz Daisey, as heavy reference. If you have an interest in gamebird carving, it is a decent book to have in your reference library.

Good carving to you.

Ken
Website: Carvings-by-Ken.com Home Page