? screech owl

[blackbeard]

hi i would like to start a screech is there some online instruchions out there i need some help on the band saw if anyone has a link where i can go?

can someone give me any pointers on drawning the pattern on? how to? Thanks Leo

[blackbeard]

updated help

[Paul_Guraedy]

Leo, I am not sure what you need. If that is the piece you are working on, you are way past the band saw stage.

Paul

[blackbeard]

i am having a hard time laying out the feater pattern and wings getting them the same on both side

[Paul_Guraedy]

About the biggest mistake in bird carving is "soldiering" or "fish scaling" the feathers. Both sides of anything are not symmetrical.

When I lay out my feathers, the first thing I do is to roughly define the feather groups. Look at the indvidual wing..not the other one. They can't be way off, but they should not be in exactly the same place either. I then draw in the feathers of a group without looking at those on the other side. This way the feathers are not drawn in a definite pattern. This is true of all feathers. Take a look at some bird pictures and you will see that the feathers are not all in rows and all of the same size.

Maybe it is just me, but when I finish laying in my feathers there are about as many erasure marks as there are feathers. This is not from comparing with the other side, it is to keep them from symmetry. Invariably when I look over the first layout, nearly every feather will end in almost exactly the same place and in a near perfect row. What I wonder is, when I want to draw a nice even line, why can't I?

Attached is a little snowy I did a few years ago. I have cropped it to try and show the feather layout. Ignore the yellow coloration, the object in this project was not the carving itself, it was to try and improve my painting ability. I did not put a front photo in here that would show that the early morning sunlight is reflecting on only one side of the owl.

[blackbeard]

Thanks Paul this is a help

[Hugh-P]

Never thought of posting a photo to help, good idea Paul. Hope this helps

[Donna_T]

Paul and Leo--and Hugh.
I glad to hear you say you erase that much when drawing feather (feather groups) on a bird. I sometimes redraw so much I have to go back and clean up the wood again. The "similar" but not "exactly the same" in placement and overlap and even shape of feathers was one of the hardest things I had to overcome when I started doing birds. But the same things goes for flowers and pretty much all things in nature, doesn't it.

I carved a western screech last year but when I started painting it, I didn't like the colors, so I stopped and haven't gone back and finished it. One of these days....I'll figure out what I did wrong and do it!

Donna T

[blackbeard]

i penceled in some feathers now what do i burn them in stone , carve this will be my first detailed carving Thanks Leo

[Paul_Guraedy]

Leo, that's a nice looking layout. Now, here is the procedure that I use from this point. But, realize that this is not the only way of doing it.

Once laid out, I like to go around the feathers, lightly with a V tool, then I use a knife to do a little more definition starting with the lowest feathers and working toward the head. I then take a flame shaped diamond burr and go around the feathers to get them laying properly on one another. Again, start at the bottom because there should be almost no step up/down between the feathers. I like to cup my feathers slightly, put your hand out and cup your fingers, note how the you get a boat keel effect from the knuckles to the finger tips.

You showed the feathers on the back of your owl. These I tend to do with a burning pen to get the vanes. The breast feathers are where I use the stone.