which bird carving book?

[kev.b]

Hi if you had to recommend 1 bird carving book what would it be. I've carved a few wood cock head walking sticks, been "bitten" by the bug, and now would like to deepen my knowledge of the subject.
just checked on amazon and there are 905 books listed under bird carving.....so who best to ask than the experts on here.
as usual many thanks for your help.
kev

[Hugh-P]

Kevin, what part of bird carving would you want to deepen your knowledge about, and what kind of birds, decoys, shore birds, song birds, birds of prey. There are a lot of different areas to consider. General anatomy, Carving feathers, burning, texturing, painting. No one book has it all. Jim Sprankle, Pat Godin, Floyd Scholz, are a few of the names that comes to mind. Choose books that are written by credible artists. DVDs are great. A lot of different methods, you have to sort them out for the ones that work for you. Sorry I can't be more specific. the one thing I can warn you about, its habit forming, buy one good book, and it just leads to another good book and so on, grin. They have a lot of excellent books advertised right on this site.For a start, check out whats available right here.

[Neil A. Ward]

Kevin,

Hugh is spot on with his advice. I am also a new bird carver, if I could only have one bird-carving book to start with: it would be "Carving Award-winning Songbirds. This book would give you a basic understanding of "General anatomy, Carving feathers, burning, texturing, painting". The next books would be "Carving Songbird, and Carving Songbird II.

In addition to checking out info that is on this forum, review the reading list at this site: Whispering Eagle Studio - Demos .

Hugh, thank you again for sending me your excellent tutorial on carving a Saw Whet Owl!

Take care,
Neil

[torpidhummer]

Kevin,
Hugh just about covered the basis,there are dozens of books available.A few years back,I learned to carve many small projects to larger ones,then the bug to crave birds bit me pretty bad. I lived in an area very remote from any form of bird carving instructors and I had no knowledge a forum like the WIC existed. So one one of trips to the big city,I wondered into Borders Books sales and purchased every book the had on bird carving. Borders supplies on bird carving books was very limited,then so one suggested Amazon so then I invested a whole lot of money on bird carving books.
The bottom line,just as Hugh suggested think about the type of birds you want to
carve and go for it,however I would suggest that any book similar to the one Lori Corbett's book,Carving Songbirds will help you very much,.the book covers bird anatomy,feather grouping,making bird feet and painting. All birds' have similar skeletal structure,birds of prey, eagles,owls to hummingbirds.. The reason I recommend any bird carving book similar to Lori Corbett's book,will get you started and you do not have to spend a small fortune buying different books for different birds. Think about what type of bird you want carve,purchase your book of choice and learn to use what ever tools you choose to work with ,then carve and carve some more until you are satisfied with your projects.I hope I have not confused you but I have some books on bird carving that to me are not worth the paper they are printed. Stick with this forum ask questions you want about bird carving and someone will come out with the right answers or suggestions.
Oscar

[Paul_Guraedy]

Kevin, your post got me to thinking. I have been carving birds for years. What would I recommend? Basically, birds are feathers, bills, eyes and feet. I think I would recommend the two that Neil listed for beginning. Lori is a very talented carver and painter. She covers anatomy very well.

Song bird or bird of prey (my specialty)...it's really a matter of size (big difference), bill (very variable) and feet (more alike than you would think. Just put the right feathers in there and you have a wrentit or an eagle. Work through Lori's book slowly to learn anatomy, specifically the anatomy of feathers. How to do a good job of positioning groups and to carve individual feathers. To me that is the secret.
You must know this no matter what birds you desire to carve.

I have a huge library of bird carving books. Seldom refer to them and not just because I have been carving a long time. I refer constantly to my books on anatomy, painting, postures, habitat, eventually these will be the things that will make the difference in your carving.

[kev.b]

Thanks for all the advice.
I should have been more specific, at the moment i'm trying to learn to carve birds heads for walking sticks Woodcock, Mallard, Wood duck etc so mostly water birds i guess and mostly heads.
i have seen some of the wonderful birds that Lori has created and that ability is WAY beyond anything im capable of , though certainly a goal to try and acheive in years to coem.
in short water birds heads for now.

[Neil A. Ward]

Kev,

If the books Lori lists on her site on waterfowl are not what you are looking for perhaps Frank Russell's book would be "Carving Wildfowl Canes and Walking Sticks with Power".

Neil

[kenweybright]

Kev,
That is a good question, but I think it really depends on the specie you would like to carve. As I have been at a while it seems that my library continues to grow depending on where my carving interest takes me. Hugh Parks, who is on this forum, has an excellent power point demo for sawwhet owls. One of the best books I have for game birds is "Carving Game Birds" by Roslyn Daisey. It features a half dozen different game birds. "Carving , Song Birds" by Lori Corbett is an excellent song bird book, and features three birds- Mountain Blue bird, Cedar waxwing amd one other. If you are interesteed in carving antique style decoys there is a book by Tom Matus.

There are a great many books out there to help you as well as serve as excellent reference material. It is a difficult question because without additional information from you, it is ahard to help point you in a direction.

What kinds of birds do you like and what do you want to carve?

[kev.b]

Hi Ken, as i said in my 2nd post its mostly birds heads for walking sticks/canes.water fowl mainly. I'm in process of carving a Mallard at moment and would like to try a wood duck, mainly because of the colouring.
but id like to be able to carve what looks like a real mallard's head instead of something that loosely resembles a duck! if you know what i mean...ie. i'd like to be able to do a good job.
just wondering if there is such a book that concentrates mainly on walking stick heads?

[Hugh-P]

Kevin, the best article on carving a duck head was done by Jett Burnett, he carved a Mallard head, step by step. Wildfowl Carving and collecting, 1992 fall issue, page 59.
Just had a look at the article, it has good illustrations, but its mostly about carving the bill and setting the eye,