Barn Owl

[RobJ]

Re: Barn Owl

Very nice Owl. I am sure he will be a complete success. I like the idea of situating him in a (window) to frame him.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Re: Barn Owl

Do you have a site Paul? I would like to see more of your birds! And....where do you get the roughouts?

[Paul_Guraedy]

Re: Barn Owl

One step forward and two back. I sure am tired of plucking feathers on this barn owl!

Several weeks ago I was carving on this piece and my wife, Diana, heard me protest, "Why in the......world would an owl have a tail that is shorter than the wings?" Carve it down to the proper length.

Then a week ago she heard, "The feathers on that wing sure look more like those of a hawk! Carve out the offending feathers and reshape the wings.

Then yesterday she was out on the carving porch with me and heard me exclaim, "Barn owls have cleavage!" This called for some explanation...these owls have legs that reach almost to the throat. Carve out all of those feathers that I had taken so long to put in.

My friends, it does not do a lot of good to have many references if you are not using them. I had been carving this owl from basically one book, even though I have about 30 photos downloaded from the internet and about that many from other sources. My owl was the representative of one bird. Although anatomically correct, it was not typical.

When the house is finished, my next project will be to build a large bulletin board over my carving area. I will post all the pictures I can of the current subject where I will have to refer to them constantly as I carve.

Hi Ho, I had not noticed your posting until I revisited this thread. Sorry 'bout dat!

My son, a software engineer, has generously offered to assist me in using part of his website. You can find it at

www.guraedy.com

then click on Paul and Diana.

I have not posted very many carvings as I am a late comer to the world of digital cameras. In the ealry years of my carving efforts, I did not really want to record my feeble attempts. Fell into the habit of not doing photography....... before the wonderful acquisition of a digital camera.

I have found that most instructors have more roughouts than they need for whatever course they are teaching. I get them when I am at a seminar, when friends are taking classes and have even gotten them by mail when I am particularly interested in that species. Watch the upcoming events in the carving magazines for potential roughouts. Generally, the legs, wings and tail receive minimal detailing when a roughout is used for a class. This makes it fairly easy to "re do" them to whatever you might want. Heads are problematic and usually are left as roughed out. It does provide a quick source of getting down to the bird and still doing a lot of improvising.

[GILLY]

Re: Barn Owl

Paul, the best thing about the digital camera is that you can take as many photos as you want without the hassle of waiting for the film to come back to see what you shot. The one thing that I would amybe think about is some photo software. I use Photoshop Elements, you can manipulate your photos to be as creatiive as you want and it is reasonably inexpensive.

Plus you can take a hundred practice photos and delete what ever you don't want.

My two cents

[GeorgiaCarver]

Re: Barn Owl

Love the pictures in the photo gallery especially the relief carving of the two eagles. Nice work.

[squbrigg]

Re: Barn Owl

Hey Paul, did you finish that owl yet? We'd love to see the finished product, in place.

Bob

[Paul_Guraedy]

Re: Barn Owl

Bob, thanks for asking about the progress (or in this case the lack thereof) on the barn owl.

Took a while to put the breast feathers back in after carving them off and getting the "cleavage" (the legs cause a depression on these birds) in there. The housebuilding (mentioned somewhere else but don't remember where) is reaching the push for completion stage. With just the two of us working on it, I am not up to carving except on weekends.

I have managed to accomplish a little bit. The stoning par on the feathers is pretty well complete and I am ready to start burning the wing and tail feathers. Since the trailing edge of the flight feathers is soft, I am not sure how I am going to work this out. Maybe a combination of burning and stoning?

I spent quite a while making an armature for the legs and decided that this was just too much epoxy. So, I junked that and have cut two sets of legs out of poplar (shown) and tupelo and will use whichever works better. The feet and talons will still be two part epoxy and I have started the armature for them.

The sun just came up over the mountain and it will soon be time to return to house building.

[GILLY]

Re: Barn Owl

I think I slowed Paul down by pestering him for recipes....he he he

[squbrigg]

Re: Barn Owl

Progress is looking good Paul. I'll be curious how you accomplish the feet. The body looks great with the major feather groups well defined. Keep up the good work.

Bob

[jax]

Re: Barn Owl

Paul,

Have you thought of carving the legs and feet as part of the base and using dowels to connect the body to the feet?

Jax

[Paul_Guraedy]

Re: Barn Owl

Gilly, you did slow me down some. When I read over those sourdough recipes, I could not resist. Cooked instead of carved!

Jax, the method you suggested is the one that was recommended by Marlen Downing. It works well and helps in the final positioning of the bird and strenghtening the legs by running the grain correctly. However, I do not like this method for the feet.

I tried using a brass rod for the entire leg and was not happy with that. Now, I am playing with a modification. I have sawed pieces for the legs and will carve them and attach with dowel pins. I am making an armature for the feet using the brass rod, electrical wire, and two-part epoxy. I will extend the brass rod into the base, like a dowel pin, to help support the piece. This will allow me to easily place the toes and talons where I want them. The hardest part of carving a bird of prey is the talons. It is very difficult to get them to come to a fine point exactly against the base. Several years ago I started making inserts for my talons from epoxy. This has worked well for me. I can get them curved, and narrowing to a nice point and ending up looking, as they really are, separate from the base.

Now, I am going to try the entire foot. The photo is of an armature that I started last Sunday. I will use clay on this one to make sure it is what I want, then will do one in the two-part epoxy putty.

[Colin-Partridge]

Re: Barn Owl

Paul I am just getting back so I am catching up on the threads. Nice job on the barn owl very realistic. Hope the house is coming along well not long now until the move in date.
Colin