[Thor]

Hi,
This is not quite done, but two images of what I've been working on.
It's relief carved into pine on a board that is about 12" X 16". It will become the front of one of my boxes.
I've used boiled linseed oil on it, then painted the crow with an undercoat of blue oil paint to prep it for painting black over the blue. My husband says it looks good blue that he would stop here, but I'm not sure yet.

Thor

[mark yundt]

Black can be a tough color to paint,especially on birds. If you paint them all solid black,,the life goes out of them,,they look monotone,,and flat. If you look at a black feather it isn't really black at all. There is usually some irridesence in them showing ,at times ,many colors. These can range from blues,purples,greens.I have had some success painting a base of these colors,,and the piece looked REALLY garrish,,till I washed over with black,to build color,not out of the tube black but made using blue,brown,,a bit of black to actually make black.At some angles the piece looks black,,but as you view from different angles you can see variations of different colors helping the look of the bird.Nothing ever really looks good in my estimation painted using just one color.With the folds,,shadows,,highlights that occur naturally,,we sometimes have to paint them in to have it appear more lifelike and natural.

[tnartist05]

The Crow looks good Thor,anything black has shading in it plus it differs when the light hits black,I would use some grays plus blues to high light this crow,course I mix different colors together at times and create colors that I cant repeat. All in all,the old crow is looking ok. Thks for posting him. Tn~

[dicktilley20]

Big Black Bird looking good Christina, highlites of white on the feathers and eye and all of the above too!

How many are you doing? A Rookery?

dick

[Thor]

Hi and thanks to all of you for the encouragement and tips. I am not a painter! Oddly, my husband is a very fine painter, but his advice is hard to comprehend....
I'll try adding greens and purples to my under coat before I wash it with a mixed blackish in order to give the blue bird some crow colors. Tha'ts the beauty of using oil colors. The dry time is so long, you can really work it before you are done.

Yes, Dick, I think I'll carve a rookery. Crows are very cool birds. The oldest crow in captivity was documented as having lived 59 years!
http://www.ravensbeard.org/Ravensbea...TATAs-page.htm
I have a new appreciation for them after doing some research. We don't have ravens here, or I'd be facinated with them as well. They are also thought to be the smartest birds on the planet. Go figure?
Thor

[Lightningbolt]

Another nice carving! Wish that I could advise on the painting but after all these years I'm still a trial & error painter (and carver for that matter).

I can only suggest that you test paint several different places on the same wood before applying to the carving. So many times I haven't followed my own advice and after too much experimenting I have had to surface carve the entire piece over again after it didn't work out.

[Mottles]

Hey Thor, nice looking relief carving and painting. I love the crows and raven carvings and bronze sculptures that at so popular now.
Kathy

[dicktilley20]

59!!!! I hope I live that long Christina!!!

Its my b/day today, 51!!! Survived another year!!!!

Interesting story.

dick

[OldCrow]

Hello Thor;

I just followed your thread to this page showing the carving of the Crow on the box. Wow, it looks great. Nice Piece! I hope you'll post more pics when the piece is done.
I thought I'd show you a couple of pictures of the only Crow I ever carved (to date). As mentioned in some of the other posts, mine was underpainted with Purple, Pthalo Blue, Irridescent green, and then washed with a Linseed oil and Paynes gray mix after the other colours are dry. In the sun it really pops. I have also used that technique with loons. Real sunlight shows the colours better than artificial light does (same as the real bird)
OldCrow

[Nancy_G]

Thor ~ that's really great... thanks for showing us.

OldCrow I collect crows (and doves and ....well, I never met a bird I didn't like). If I could carve a crow like that, it wouldn't be the only one I carved.
That's a knock-out.