halfeye's going back to carving, painting done now, a little finish work left

[half eye]

OK fellas, these are the money shots of the base section. (understand that the base will have a formal piece of polished wood under the rocks and about 2" larger all around) I can can now get after the eagle proper, there are 2 sets of 6 pictures and all close up shots so if anything aint clear please let me know. My customer wanted "dripping water" on some parts and realism as to the "feeding" part but not gory....it is going in a home after all.

Thank you fellas for the nice comments and let me know what ya all think?
rich

[half eye]

next 6

[danny f]

only one word from me WOW. that is art at its best well done i cant wait to see it finished.

[Lobo69ss]

   Half eye... I`ve just seen this post... Normally I sped mot of my time in the flintknapping area, ut in looking around the rest of the site this afternoon, I found your "build along".  May I just add my compliments to all those who have given theirs before me?  Your carvng is fantastically detailed & lifelike, I applaud you efforts. You might have a slight vision problem with your eyes, but I don`t see any problems in the vision of the (nearly)completed work you`re after here.  Beautiful work & great realism....  Thank you for taking the time to document your work allowing the rest of us to come along on your journey.
  I think we need a "like" button on here...

[JW_Halverson]

All I can say is that I now am craving shore lunch of fried pike filets and a cold Leinie!

[IdahoMatt]

Looking great Rich.  Can't wait for the next installment. 

[lesken2011]

Man oh man. I think she really looks great, Rich! I can't wait to see her all finished up!

[half eye]

Did a little work on the bird today. I start at the head and work down toward the tail. I got the beak sanded down to almost finished dimensions, drilled in eye holes (1/8 too small), and started refining the feather groups on the head and cape area.

The eye holes are drilled to set the location but arer 1/8 too small so there is room to carve them in any direction to make them perfectly symmetrical (one to another) The first pic is the head prior to working on the "groups" and the last pic shows that I need to open the eyehole up on the rear side .....the left eye needs to be open on the forward edge to make them perfect. The head is the most important part.....cant have a crooked beak, crooked eyes, or both crooked to the skull etc. etc. enjoy the pics.
rich
 

[JW_Halverson]

Excellent! The supraorbital ridge sticks out over the eye JUST like it should.  That brow ridge shields the eye from injuries, like ours does and has the added benefit of working like a ball cap to shade the eyes.  Lot of raptor carvings don't include this critical feature making the faces look bland, insipid, and characterless. 

It's that ridge over the eye that gives them that angry look!

[half eye]

Thanks JW....like I said, feed back from experts is really, really appreciated. The ridge on the skull casting is smaller of course so this was just my "best guess" on appearance once feathered.
rich

[JW_Halverson]

And there is also some artistic license where you may emphasize a feature in order to elicit a certain response.  For this carving, if I felt the brows were too large I would probably chalk it up to wanting to make the bird look more fierce.

But at some point, artistic license can slew sideways into caricature or cartoonish ridiculousness.  Kinda like a famous painting of a mule deer bounding thru badlands with his large white tail erect and hair fanned out....LIKE A WHITE TAIL!  Not mentioning the famous artist, but he's a hack!  LOL.

[wildman]

I cannot wait to see the finished piece. The detail is beyond belief , Rich again I say amazing!

[beetlebailey1977]

WOW

[half eye]

Had some weather related issues so been down for a few days. Here is what I been up to today.

Opened up the eye holes and got the eyes where they needed to be....and the eyes mounted. The next thing was the eye-lids (for lack of a better word), then put the first layer of sawdust for the cheek pin-feathers and the small exposed sections of eye skull flanges. Then started the "stoning" on the head feathers......that will need to be finished on the entire head, then gone over again with the wood burner before we get to move on.

2 sets of pics, close-up's
rich

[half eye]

next set