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I like carving birds, but the thought of carving feather details makes me procrastinate, so I thought about doing a smooth finished loon since most of their detail is in their spotted pattern anyway. After I started, I saw some photos of baby chicks riding on the backs of their parents and thought that would add an interesting detail and its downy feathers would complement the smooth loon.
Here is the loon with chick. I used a course burr for the chick to replicate its downy feathers. After carving the general shape, I used a straight burr and lightly tapped it on the surface and also changed the orientation sort of like a herringbone pattern overlapping a little on each tap. I think it created a pretty good downy-like surface.
Next up is to finish smoothing the loon and then paint it. I'm beginning to think painting it might be as difficult as carving feathers after all.
Here is the loon with chick. I used a course burr for the chick to replicate its downy feathers. After carving the general shape, I used a straight burr and lightly tapped it on the surface and also changed the orientation sort of like a herringbone pattern overlapping a little on each tap. I think it created a pretty good downy-like surface.
Next up is to finish smoothing the loon and then paint it. I'm beginning to think painting it might be as difficult as carving feathers after all.
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