While I seal the pelican carving I started a new painting. Here's a WIP photo from last night and today. I'm hoping to get this finished before next Tues. with the holiday coming up. I know that's going to cut into painting time. This is as usual, a miniature, done in acrylic. The reference was taken on our recent trip to Louisiana when we were out boating with friends. This fellow was one of the few who stayed put as we passed. We decided he was a "ham" and was posing for the camera. ;-)

Latest on mini WIP carving

Worked on it yesterday and today (around the piano lessons) and he's getting to not look so "naked" as a friend so delicately put it!!! Boy, those pelicans have "nasty" feathers on their backs- try to make sense out of those groups!!! It's taking me a lot of studying, and alot of "more reference, more reference" and "where WAS that other shot of that area" to get it!!! I think you can see the detail here and the lifting of the feathering...


By the way- the body from neck to tail is 1.75" in length. So that should give you an idea of how tiny the feathering is. You can also see I've undercut the one lifted wing on the top. I have more undercutting under the wings yet, but that waits until the last minute once all the rest is done.

Miniature Carving WIP

Well, quite a bit of time has been spent carving this fellow, although you may not think it looks like it! My carpal tunnel certainly does! Wrist is hurting big time from harp and carving... Yikes. My 2 loves. I can deal with the pain just as long as it doesn't make it impossible to work. The first photo here was from 2 days ago. May not look like much progress, but I put in quite a bit of time just getting that far.

Today was spent mostly working on the head area. The detail is very intricate and time consuming. I am looking forward to getting to the feathering soon I hope, altho there is still more to do on the underside and also to finish off the head and neck, plus detailing a bit on the wings. As I write this I realize I still have quite a bit left to go. Once you start to see a "face" it seems like you're getting somewhere I guess. It took me awhile to envision the bill but I finally was able to put it all together. Now if I only don't slip up when I'm sanding (I power sand)- one slip and it's all over. Bad enough on the full size pieces, these miniatures haven't a bit of error margine at all...