Plains Warrior-The Color Begins

With the carving finished it's on the paint table and getting some color.  I spent a few hours this afternoon painting the shield and attaching the feather.  The design comes from a combination of several shields I photographed while at the Prairie Edge store in Rapid City, SD last fall.  It really turned out nice.  On the breast plate it was kind of boring so I made a small decoration out of a carved circle and then, using wire and beads, added some flourish to hang from the bottom  That did the trick.  There is also a knife in a beaded sheaf that hangs from the belt.  Thats next on the list to be painted.  

Plains Warrior

Here's my progress so far.  I haven't attached the arms yet so there is still a lot of carving to do up in that area.  Naturally, the remainder of the hair needs to be added and there is still a lot of detailing that needs to be done....feathers, burning, etc.  Unfortunately, the head is out of scale with the body and the feet are too large.  I'm going to have to give those to things a lot of thought cause I started out for this to be a realistic piece.  What to do?

Anyway, I thought you might like to see it in the rough stage.

Fence Work 2 - Finished

Yahoo!  Finally got this one off the work stations.  Had so many other projects going in the shop it was hard to get the time needed to complete it.  But it's done and I think it looks great.

In painting the figure I muted most of the colors to give the figure a look of having actually worked.  I really like the dark, bluish gray shirt and the dark neckerchief. I especially like the suspender area on his back.  I took a closeup of it.  Neat.   Another nice thing about this piece is that he will eventually join up with the earlier carving titled "Fence Work" that I did a couple of years ago.  They go together quite well....one buy digging the post holes while the other is stringing the wire.  I've talked the collector into allowing me to hang on to the new one until after the Dayton show so I have something new on my table.

There are lots of photos in the Gallery and I'll look forward to your comments as I always do.

Fence Work II

At last!  Boy, it was a chore getting this one completely carved.  With all the work around the place and the hellacious amounts of rain, it seems like we've been mowing almost everyday to keep up with it.  But as the hot weather has finally moved in the showers seem to have stopped, it's on to the paint table with this fella.

I know I just recently finished a carving with the same title but I thought I'd do another showing another aspect of this activity.  If you've ever used a pair of post hole diggers around here where there seem to be more rocks in the ground than dirt you'll know why cowboys would rather be in the saddle than on the ground.  I constructed this set out of some roof flashing after measureing a real set.  Bending them into shape and anchoring the two halves to the pols a nail and a drop of solder hold them in place and allow them to operate. And they do operate, at least until their anchored to the figure..

The figure is basically the same as others that I've done but I did spend a little extra time on the back of his vest to add a little more detail to the strap.  I really like the way it looks now.  I had earlier thought of using a barbed wire fence and had carved a tin bucket which would have held a hammer and staples but decided that a wooden fence would be more interesting.  So, instead of the bucket I gave him a pick which he would definitely need if he dug those holes anywhere around our place.

So, it's off to the paint table.  More photos in the Gallery and your comments are welcome as always.

John Wayne Gets Some Color

Finished this one up yesterday and it turned out really nice.  I forgot to measure it but it's around 10-12 inches tall with the base.  I was fortunate enough to sell it before it was even painted so I hope the collector likes the color version.  The Duke will take up residence soon in south Texas...a good place for him cause he'll be joining quite a group of old Out West friends.

There are several more photos in the Gallery and I apologize if it's hard to negotiate that site but Google just keeps changing things.  Hope you like him and I look forward to your comments.