THE PROCESS
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Click an image below to see the process from start to finish.
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What’s My Process? It’s all planned, but unplanned.
I’m not a trained artist, but I have figured out that creating sculptures of wood requires me to not only be an artist, but to also be a detail researcher and an engineer. There is no book or instructor that can cover all of the decision points that occur while turning a piece of wood into a beautiful sculpture. Making the right decisions come from making the wrong ones…and I’ve done a lot of those!!
My start-to-finish process for creating a sculpture technically has at least 11 inter-dependent phases. However, since I tend to tweak the result of every phase I may have already completed, that tweak can drive changes in other areas. To support the process descriptions, I’ve included a few pictures in each phase that depict a few examples of my on-efforts during that phase. Note that I am being brief in the steps I explain. If not, this writeup would be dozens of pages long! Brevity is good…but hard for me! By the way, the photos don’t follow any particular project from start to finish. As I progress in my sculptures, my focus is on the piece I’m working on, not on taking photos, so very few of my pieces have photos available of all steps.
Because I’m dependent upon references for everything from shape to color, I have a lot of reference books and photos gleaned from the Internet. Thank goodness people like sharing their photos! Doing the initial picture research, drafting the pose with possible habitat, creating a clay model, then creating the pattern and cutting out the wood block is sometimes as long a process as actually carving and painting the bird and habitat. I admit, I’m definitely a detail person. I have enough bird research (books and photos) to start my own library! And no, I have not read all, or even 1 percent, of the books.
Phase 01 – Creating the idea and the clay model
Phase 1 starts with the idea for the sculpture. I’m not very good at drawing flat art, but after spending dozens of hours researching the bird’s anatomy, poses, preferred environment/habitat, and coloration, I usually start the design process by making preliminary sketches of the bird’s pose and possible mount/habitat. I will occasionally draw possible poses with habitat in order to get different ideas, but I don’t do that very often. I usually create drawings if someone would like me to create a carving, but wants to have input into the pose and habitat.
I don’t have access to actual birds, so I have to create an entire set of dimensions and proportions based upon what may only be one or two known measurements, most often the culmen and/or the eye. From there, I use proportions from pictures found on the Internet to create best measurements for length, width, height, etc. The pose of the bird may cause a measurement to be shorter or longer, so it’s a creative challenge.
Once that’s done, I create a clay model of the bird in the desired pose, inserting glass eyes into the clay head to ensure I have the intended “look.” I use Paramelt J-Mac Classic Clay (soft). It doesn’t harden or need to be fired and holds tooling detail very well. I also cut out and insert brass shim, heavy card stock, or mylar shapes to represent wing, tail, and/or other loose feather configurations in the model to give it a more realistic look. I have discovered that creating a 3-dimensional wooden sculpture by first modeling a 3-dimentional clay model to use for pattern creation is much more effective than trying to draw a 2-dimensional view on paper and creating a pattern from that.
I model with clay because it allows me to see the effect of a head turn or a wing position from all sides. If I don’t like the way the head looks, or the way it’s turned, I can just cut it off and modify it to a way that suits me better. If the bird is very large, like the full-size Bald Eagle, I create a scale model. I mold the clay around a wooden armature so I can use screws to hold wings (if necessary) in place and save clay. I may use mylar, brass shim, or aluminum web to shape the wings, tail, and additional feathers. That gives me a better visual than trying to create them out of clay.
During this phase, I also consider how I’m going to mount and display the bird. What will the habitat be? Will I need to build a branch structure, include flower, vines, leaves, or grass? Will it be a wall or shelf display? The mount/habitat should complement the bird’s pose.
Phase 02 – Creating the pattern
Phase 2 is creating the pattern from the clay model. After the clay model is done, I trace the front and side views onto heavy card stock, creating clean top and side views. If the wings or tail will be inserted, they are created separately. After cutting the pattern pieces out, I trace them onto tupelo wood. The right tupelo is a dense, but light wood that enables very fine detail to be created with power tools and wood burners. I previously used basswood, but tupelo is much better because the wood doesn’t have resin in it. A sharp burning pen is able to make a narrower cut in it than it can in basswood, which has resin. The resin in basswood results in a wider cut than the same one in tupelo, which translates into less fine detail, less barbs per inch.
There are some carvings that are too large to be modeled in clay, such as my full-size Bald Eagle, so I created the scaled down clay model that helped me visualize body posture and wing position. However, it couldn’t be used for a cutout pattern, so I had to design/draw my pattern using the proportion method I mentioned earlier as well as ornithology reference sites for the wing and tail feather dimensions.
There are some extremely beneficial reference sites that provide measurements I use for the sculptures. They include: 1) Cornell’s (https://www. birdsoftheworld.org). Their “Tables and Appendices” often have specific measurements for bill, wing chord, tail, tarsus, and toes. Now, of course, the measurements include ranges, so don’t get carried away with the numbers. Every bird has variances. And 2) The U.S, Fish & Wildlife Service Feather Atlas (https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas). They have recorded scans of wing and tail flight feathers that help not only with measurements, but also coloration during the painting phase. If available, the scans may show individual female, male, and juvenile feather differences.
Once the silhouettes are traced onto the wood, it’s time to cut out the body, and possibly wing and tail blocks.
Phase 03 – Roughing out the bird
Phase 3 brings in the power tools. Once the pattern is traced onto the wood, I use one of two bandsaws to cut out the pattern. Because of the different size wood blocks I may be working on, I use one bandsaw with a wide blade for large birds (owls, hawks, etc) and another bandsaw with a thinner blade for small birds (wrens, hummingbirds, etc). Is it necessary to have two bandsaws? No, but it keeps me from having to change blades often since the bandsaws are also used for other projects in my shop.
Then it’s time for the hand power tools. My first tool is usually the Foredom. It’s a beast. It’s only 1.6HP and 15K RPM, but I usually use carbide Kutzall burs that are extremely aggressive, effective, and sometimes scary. I cannot allow myself to be distracted or careless when using the Foredom, because I could very quickly lose hand parts. For the smaller birds, I often use my high-speed Gesswein with steel cutters to create the rough shape.
The focus of this phase is to rough out the bird’s shape and the major feather groups (primaries, secondaries, head, tail, chest, belly, and coverts). The bird is very blocky at this stage, but it’s just the foundation.
There are no set burs or bits for any bird or part of the process. I am constantly experimenting with different tools and burs/bits. I also do what I can to minimize the amount of sawdust I inhale. I installed two overhead Jet Air Filtration Systems in my studio to remove the very fine wood dust the Foredom often creates. I also attached a hose to a jet Vortex Cone system at my work station to suck the air and sawdust away from the piece while I’m working on the wood. It keeps most of the dust out of my throat and lungs. But if the bird is very large and I’m creating a lot of fine sawdust, I tend to also wear a mask during this phase. A little discomfort is a small price to pay for (hopefully) clean lungs.
Time for a clean air break so I can start working on the mounting and habitat.
Phase 04 – Engineering the Bird Mount and Habitat
Before I get too far into the carving process, I need to decide the mount and habitat that will complement the bird’s pose/attitude. Sticking a bird on a stick is boring. I try to create a bit of a story, or an item of interest in the way the bird is mounted. Sometimes I have to scale the habitat elements down to match the scale of the bird, or find branches and plant life that I can recreate out of wood, copper wire, brass tubing, brass shim, etc.
For instance, for the 1/3 scale Snowy Owl, I wanted to show rusted barbed wire fencing attached to the fence post, but I couldn’t just use existing barbed wire because that wire would look much too large, too unrealistic. I had to thin the wire and make smaller barbs so the scale would be appropriate. I did that by “pulling” the copper wire to thin it, then experimented with different solutions to give me the best patina on the wire. Once assembled and painted, the wire was to scale and looked quite rusted and real.
Because birds are most often perched on branches or plant stems, I often walk the beaches of the Chesapeake Bay or Potomac River looking for good driftwood, or through my flower beds and woods looking for good branch and plant specimens. I don’t usually draw the proposed mount and habitat because I seem to work better in 3-D than in 2-D. The natural plant life provides not only the shapes, but also the coloration I want to recreate during the painting process. If I want to use a particular flower and stem, tree leaf and branches, or weeds in the habitat, I collect samples to give me shape and color ideas. The leaves are usually made from thin brass shim, while the stems and branches are usually copper or brass wires or tubes. For one sculpture, I shaped ninety half-inch weed heads out of square tooth picks, then burned each one into sections to mimic the natural weed pods. Each of those “pods” was then attached to a thin piece of piano wire before being attached to a brass stem. Each stem had approximately 40 pods attached to it.
Because the driftwood I find is usually covered with algae and other matter, I need to bleach it before I can use it in the sculpture. The brass plant and branch leaves are soldered to the stems using oxy/acetylene and a Little Torch. On the occasion when I accidentally burn a hole in a leaf while soldering it to the stem, I don’t stress since I can paint the leaf so the hole looks like insect or plant damage. Branches aren’t always shaped the way I need them to be, so I often have to create a branch using multiple pieces of wood. Once they’re detailed and painted, no one can tell the difference.
I may modify the mount and habitat dozens of times before I actually attach the bird, but this is the point where I usually start designing and shaping it.
If the bird is in flight, the challenge is to create a connection point between the mount and the bird that can be hidden or minimized, but still safely support the weight of the bird. Counterbalance is critical; I don’t want a bird falling flat on its beak because it’s too front or top heavy for the base. If the bird is standing or sitting on a branch, the feet need to be positioned in a way that seems natural for the pose and prevents the bird from moving on the branch.
Phase 05 – Shaping body and flight feather definition
Now that the rough shaping is completed, a LOT goes on in Phase 5. It starts with refining the block of wood by rounding the body. I use either the Foredom with a Kutzall bit, or my 35K or 55K RPM Gesswein micromotors with miscellaneous bits to refine the body shape and the head. Once the body is rounded, if the wings are attached to the body, I pencil in the feather groups for the flight feathers (primaries, secondaries, coverts, and marginals) and the tail feathers because feather groups have specific shapes. I then define the group with the bit appropriate for the size bird (full-size raptors might require the Foredom with a carbide Kutzall, while a songbird only needs the Gesswein with a Scholz Stump Cutter).
Once I’m satisfied with the groups, I pencil individual feathers onto the wood, then carve them in. (Note, while feather tracks on each side of the bird are symmetric, creating random shorter feathers within a track creates interest in that area. After all, birds are constantly molting, so irregularity is natural.)
If the wings and/or tail are separate and will be inserted into the body, I follow the same process mentioned above: draw and carve the group shape, then draw and carve the individual feathers. Inserts provide a lot of opportunity for motion in individual feathers.
I then refine the head so I can insert the glass eyes and start creating the “look” I want the bird to have. I use clay to hold the eye in the socket, but use AB Epoxy putty to create the eye ring, which secures the eye in place. If the wings and/or tail will be inserted, this is also the time to shape the scapular and body areas to accept the inserts. By the way, I use clay in the socket because it makes it easier and less messy if I have to remove the eyes after the epoxy has set. That has occurred more than once!
Phase 06 – Body Contouring and Feather Definition
By Phase 6 the flight feathers are well defined, so now it’s time to focus on the body (all the way to the tail) and do the final shaping of the head and beak. Like wing and tail feathers, body feathers are not randomly placed, they have specific tracks, so one of my first efforts is to draw flow lines on the breast, belly, and sides that will help guide contouring and feathering.
Once I’ve drawn the flow lines that differentiate the different feather groups and flow, I use a stump cutter or ruby flame to deepen the lines and round over the edges. Within each raised area, I create loose curved shapes that will be the basis for creating soft rolling humps on the body. After the curves are drawn, I use a ruby ball to define each shape, then use the same ruby ball to relieve the wood around the curves, creating transitional steps down from one shape to the next. These are not meant to be feathers, but rather body contours. Depending upon the bird, some flow lines and contouring are also created around the head and neck.
Phase 07 – Sanding the surface
Phase 7 is all about creating a smooth, not flat, surface on the wood to prepare it for burning and stoning. I use 220 grit sandpaper in a split mandrel in the Gesswein run at 8K – 11K RPM to smooth down and around the contour bumps. I do not sand away all of the ruby ball marks. The mandrel is lightly moved around the carved area to reduce the high ridges caused by the ruby ball. The intent is to have a soft transition between the lumps, so that it gives the impression of snow covering a field, not a slick surface.
I also use the same grit sandpaper and mandrel to smooth the flight feathers, then create ripples in some of them to show wear and use. Once all of the sanding is done, I use 000 or 0000 steel wool to burnish the wood, concentrating on rubbing against the edges of the flight feathers to smooth them and provide soft transitions without high ridges.
Phase 08 – Feathering, Burning, and Feet
Once the sanding is completed, Phase 8 starts the feathering process. This is where it pays to have a lot of patience. I use the term “feathering” because feathers can be defined using either a burning pen or a micromotor with a stoning bit run at high speed.
I usually start by burning the “hard” feathers on the wings, tail, nape, scapulars, and back first, commonly called the “flight feathers.” I start by burning in all of the feather shafts. Not every feather needs to have a shaft shown, but it is critical to the primaries, secondaries, scapulars, coverts, and tail. After the shafts are done, I start burning the barbs into each feather. Note, there are multiple ways to burn the feathers. Wing and tail feathers can be burned from shaft to edge, or edge to shaft. Smaller feathers can be burned from top edge to bottom edge, or bottom edge up to the top edge. Each creates a different surface effect.
After the flights are done, and the body is sufficiently contoured and sanded, I draw individual feathers into the pre-established feather groups and around the head and neck. A bird’s softest feathers are usually on the breast, belly, and under tail coverts, so instead of creating sharp lines by burning, I use my micromotor at high speed and special stone bits to create the feather barbss. Stoned feathers are much softer and more random looking than burned feathers. The head and neck area could be either burned or stoned, depending upon the type of bird.
Burning and stoning can also be used to soften transitions between burned and stoned areas.
At some point, the bird’s feet have to be created. Sometimes it’s during the blocking in process, sometimes after the bird is completely carved and painted. There is no specific timeline for their creation. It’s whatever fits the sculpture’s creation.
Sometimes they’re carved into the body, other times, they’re shaped from epoxy or wood and attached to the body with rods. The toes may be carved from wood, shaped from epoxy, or shaped from copper or brass wire with epoxy simulating the skin and muscle. Regardless, when they are created is not as important as the fact they fit the bird and its’ pose.
Phase 09 – Finalizing the Habitat
Once all of the burning and stoning is done, I work on finalizing the mount and the habitat in Phase 9. The bird may be attached to the mount using a rod through the foot, wing, or other point on the body. I also finish creating the habitat that will complement the sculpture. Sometimes the mount is a simple branch, but I like the challenge of more complex habitats, which includes leaves, weed stems and pods, or vines and flowers, so I do a lot of experimenting with copper wire, brass tubes, epoxies, soldering, brass shim, etc.
After I’m satisfied with the bird and the habitat, it’s time to seal the complete sculpture…bird and habitat. I had been using a wonderful sealer that is no longer available because it contained PCBs, so I’m still experimenting with Teekays and other sealers. It’s important to have good sealer that doesn’t clog the burn lines or allow water from acrylic paints to soak through and raise the grain. Once everything is sealed and dry, it’s time to start applying paints.
Phase 10 – Painting the Sculpture
Phase 10 is all about the painting, starting with the first primer coat. I use gesso that may be tinted with base colors to prime the bird and habitat in preparation for subsequent acrylic applications. Gesso gives the surfaces more “teeth” to hold the acrylic paint.
My painting techniques are evolving. I don’t struggle as much as in the past to create the colors I need and to control the airbrush, which is a valuable tool for creating shadows, feather edges, and shading, but it’s still an ongoing education. I use a combination of multiple thin wash coats and brush stroking for most areas of the bird and the habitat to create the base colors before starting the detail work.
Once the primer and base colors are applied, I use the airbrush to create shadows in the contour valleys and, if it’s a large bird, establish feather shapes that will help create a sense of feather depth as I apply top coats. Because every bird has it’s own color scheme, it’s impossible for me to state what the specific sequence steps are to actually paint a bird. Let’s just say, practice and mistakes are great experience.
Sometimes I have the habitat completely painted before I even start on the bird. There are no hard and fast rules. It’s all part of the creative art process.
One thing that I have found very valuable for me is to create paint boards, which track the paint combinations I use to achieve a certain color on the different parts of the bird and the habitat. It is a tremendous help when I have to redo an area for some reason.
I have discovered that painting is one of those tasks that is hard to stop. There always seems to be something else that can/should be tweaked. Stop!!
Phase 11 – Creation Wrap Up
Throughout the carving and painting process, mistakes can happen at any time. Beak tips can break off, I can burn a hole through a wing or tail, or I’ll see something about the bird that I don’t really like, so repairs and modifications during any phase in the creation process are to be expected. When creating art, no processes are linear or rigid, so while I talked about phases, in reality, I jump around a lot. I sometimes work on finalizing the habitat well before I even finish carving or burning the bird, so the stated process sequence is not a hard “Do this before that.” Regardless, I love the art form and the challenges it presents me. It keeps me young thinking!!
There are times when I don’t like the way certain parts of the bird, or habitat look, so I modify them. On the barn owl, the gap between the left scapular set and the wing was too large, so I shaved part of it down, shaped the new scap edge with QuikWood (I placed parchment paper between the QuikWood and the wing so they would not stick together), then used my micromotor and bits to shape the new edges.
The right tertials also didn’t look right, so I shaped an insert from Tupelo, shaved off the bad feathers, used Titewood to adhere the new tertial group to the bird, used QuikWood to rebuild the coverts, shaped the barbs with a grinding stone, then painted both modifications to look like the original work.
Beak cracks and breaks occur, so it’s good to have options on how to repair them. The pictures show three possibilities: 1) Using AB epoxy putty, 2) using super glue and baking soda and 3) gluing a new block onto the beak, then recarving it.
The miniature eagle’ beak tip was just barely off center, but it bugged me, so I supplemented the beak with AB Epoxy putty, which allowed me to redefine the center line and to increase the beak by 2mm, which actually looked more proportional to the head. After it was dry, I shaped it with my metal-working bits. The epoxy doesn’t clog the bits like it would if I used normal cutters.
For the super glue/baking soda method, just put a drop of super glue onto the tip of the beak (holding the bird upside down) then immediately dip it into baking soda. Continue that process until the blob is large enough, then recarve.
The wood block option takes longer, but done properly, no one should be able to tell the beak had been broken. Just create a clean cut/surface on the beak and the block. Use Titebond or similar wood glue and clamp or apply weighted pressure for at least 24 hours. It should be ready to recarve.
Once I’m satisfied with what I’ve done, I finalize the sculpture assembly. The problem is, the more I look at one of my sculptures, the more I want to tweak or change, so I have to quit looking. I did my best. That’s all I can offer.
