Ruby Throated Hummingbird
See the process from start to finish.
Phase 01
I recently completed a male Ruby Throated Hummingbird (RTH) commission. The buyer only had three requirements:
1) A male with tail and wings open, 2) The habitat had to include an Eastern Red Columbine, and 3) The sculpture had to come apart for shipping (Darn!!!)
I made a few drawings so the buyer could select the pose that most appealed to her. From her selection, I made a clay model of the bird using mylar to create the wings and tail. I use mylar for all of my patterns. It allows me to look "through" the wings/tail to see how the pattern fits on all sides.
From the clay/mylar model, I created the patterns for each piece. I used holly for the wings and tail and tupelo for the body (at least for the FIRST versions of each piece!). I proceeded to shape each piece. The tricky part was creating pieces that were proportional to the size of the bird. I knew I wanted the wings to have a nice convex shape, because the wings flex during the bird's continual "figure 8" wing motion. I wanted this bird to just be completing his forward sweep.
My references were all pictures. I have never held a Hummer, so most all measurements were taken off the 3mm eye and an average 17mm culmen length. By the way, the culmen is the top of the beak measurement taken from the tip of the beak to the point where the beak meets the forehead (on songbirds).
The pictures are from my first patterns/effort.
Phase 02
I put the body and wings of the bird aside for a while so I could work on the tail. Creating the wings and tail as inserts into the body allows me to maneuver the pieces in my hand without as much fear of breaking pieces off, or creating unintentional damage with my power tools.
I rough shaped the tail, then created the slot in the body for it to fit into. I temporarily held the tail in place with hot glue (that's the brown goop at the base of the tail).
During that process, I figured out I didn't like the bird's body, so I carved another on, this time out of holly. After I shaped it, I decided I had made it too thin, so the tan areas on the body are where I supplemented it with a product called QuikWood. (That won't be the last body).
RTHs have a different tail feather configuration than most songbirds. They have 10, not 12 retrices (tail feathers), and the center pair is much wider and shorter than the remaining 8. It's most noticeable on the male, because the outer 8 feathers are quite dark, while the inner two are yellow/green.
Phase 03
Before doing any more work on the bird, I needed to create the habitat. I decided to create a sculpture that incorporated both an open Columbine flower and unopened buds at different stages of development. I shaped each of the five flower cups (don't know the actual names) out of tupelo wood. I also shaped the five sepals of tupelo. Once I had them carved, I glued them together with a 5-minute epoxy. I decided to leave the stamen and pistils for later.
I made leaf patterns from Columbine plants in my yard. Unfortunately, they were past their bloom, but the plant base leaves were still actively growing, so they gave me good reference for shape, stem connection, and colors. I traced the leaves onto very thin brass shim then cut them out with a scissors.
I soldered the stems onto the leaves, then the stems together to create their tri-leaf configuations. For the stems, I used different gauges of brass rod. One thing I love about art, it doesn't have rules like the IT business I worked in for 45 years. For instance, because I solder with a Little Torch using acetylene/oxygen, I occasionally accidentally melt holes in parts of the leaves. Not a problem. When It's time to paint the leaves, I paint the hole to look like insect damage.
I then started creating the flower stem that would hold all the buds and the flower. I struggled here. The thickness of the brass rod prevented it from getting to sufficient heat for the solder to melt before the brass shim melted. So after wasting a lot of shim, I experimented with using QuikWood to attach the bud leaves. That worked well. I could then solder the bud stem onto the main stem.
Phase 04
For perspective, the work I had done to this point on the Hummer has taken more than 6 months. Not because it was difficult, but because I was too well trained as a child to do my work first before I could play. Between home, animal, and yard responsibilities, my days are really filled. I am able to commit anywhere between 0-4 hours a day on my art. Darn!!! One would think that after 70 years I would have grown out of that. NOPE!
The other cause of my slow progress is the fact I am an "artist in training." I am having to discover solutions to the different challenges I encounter, then I practice until I feel confident to try it on the bird.
For instance, the Ruby Throat has VERY TINY feather tufts surrounding its eye ring. I created imitation "eyes" on a piece of wood. I used a magic marker to put black dots on the board, then used small drops of 5-minute epoxy to simulate 3mm eyes (see the pictures below). I tried different products (A&B Epoxy, QuikWood, Apoxie Sculpt) to create the tiny tufts. I decided QuikWood worked the best, so I used it on the bird. I also used QuikWood to create the tiny disks on opposite sides of the upper bill, near the nostrils. I have no idea what their purpose is, but they needed to be added.
I also modified the #10 primary on each wing to separate them from the rest of the wing. If you look at a lot of reference pictures, you will notice that the top feather is often separated, almost like a pointing feather. I was trying to recreate that effect. I shaped tiny slivers of holly, then attached them to the wings.
By the way, after I had added the feather tufts around the eye, I didn't like look (angle) of the bird's head relative to the body, so I carved another one (body #3) before continuing.
Phase 05
As I mentioned above, I didn't like the head pose in the previous body, so I carved another body. After that, it was time to start burning feathers into the bird. However, these were going to be tiny, tiny feathers, so I needed to, of course, practice. Practice helps me find the right tools and tips to create the effect I want. If you look at the photo of the small wooden blocks, you'll see some of my practice strokes.
The only feathers that are burned are flights (wings and tail), head, and back, because they have a relatively stiff and coarse texture. The rest of the body is "stoned," which means I use a ceramic stone in the high speed tool to create a less defined barb structure on the feathers. I have attached a photo of a burning tip and a ceramic "stone" so you can see the tool tip difference.
In the previous post I mentioned the #10 Primary feathers on the wings having a different shape. The photo below shows the newly installed "fingers."
I had completely soldered the Columbine stem together and applied a coat of gesso primer on the brass, so everything was white. I "dry fit" the bird on it so I could check proportions and the overall configuration. I hated it! The stem was too long and the configuration of the bud stems was not pleasing to me, so I trashed that stem. I knew I had to make a new one. Darn it!
By this time, it was-mid Summer in Virginia, so I put all of my projects aside for about 4 months to focus on house and yard work. When I started up again in September, I had a fresh perspective and was motivated to finish the Hummer. I finished burning and stoning the bird, assembled all the pieces, then applied QuikWood to the transition areas between the tail and the coverts, and the wings to the body.
I've included a closeup of the "eye tufts" and the tiny disks near the base of the beak. I don't know what function the disks have, but they're part of the Hummer, so they had to be there.
Phase 06
As I mentioned above, I didn't like the columbine stem I had created, so I cut out the bud leaves for the new one out of brass shim and soldered the stems onto the main flower stem. It looked better, so I primed it with gesso paint, then applied the first coat of green paint. A Columbine plant has a base group of tri-leaves that stay clustered close to the ground. In the Spring, the flower stems grow up from the base cluster, so I tried to show that difference with two separate stems.
Once the stems and leaves had their preliminary coats, I soldered the toes, made of thin brass rod, onto the leg rod, then started shaping the tiny toes/feet. Hummingbirds cannot walk on their feet. They can perch, but if they are on a branch, they hop, using their wings to move. I had to wear 10x magnifiers on my glasses to be able to create the detail on the toes.
After dry fitting the stems onto the pedestal base, I shaped the 4 unopened Columbine buds, painted them, and fit them to the stems. From there it was time to finish the fully opened Columbine flower. After I painted to sepals and blades that were already attached, I created 27 stamen and pistils. I used fine piano wire for the pistils and formed tiny disks for the stamen that I adhered to each pistil. I then stuffed QuikWood epoxy into the open area between the blades and inserted the stamen/pistils, in groups of 3, into the epoxy and let it set overnight. After some touchup painting, I attached it to the stem.
Phase 07
After dry fitting the Hummer on the Columbine stem, I decided the proportions between the open flower and the largest unopened bud were too large, they overshadowed the Hummer, so I cut the flowers off the brass stems and remade the flower and stem about 15% smaller. The sculpture looked more proportional.
From there, it was just a matter of figuring out the paint scheme for the Hummer. I didn't want to bore you with all the layers and accents I used, so I'm only posting a few pictures from the painting process.
The bird is now done, ready for the buyer to pick up tomorrow.
The Final Piece
