"Pancakes"

Here's one more.  "Pancakes"!  Cookie just whipped up a stack of flapjacks for the boys as a special treat for their hard, dusty work keeping those cows in line.  I had fun with this one, especially making that stack of hotcakes and painting them to look like the real article.  I hit it pretty close I think.   And again, with my growing Cataracts, doing the fine painting was a real chore.  Come on September!

I hope to contribute this one for the carving auction at the Dayton show this November.  If I remember correctly, it's an open theme again this year as last.  My Emmet Kelly from a few years back when for a nice sum whick benefits the Dayton club and I hope this one does even better.

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

The Searcher

Put the finishing touches to this one today and am pretty satisfied with it.  If things work out it will be destined for the new John Wayne Museum in Winterset, Iowa.  Seems the Director of the museum and the Wayne family saw a photo of the small bust I did earlier and asked if I could do another.  Their only requirement was that there was no cigarette in the piece.  No problem said I.  I gave a lot of thought to just how I would portray him, settling on either Rooster Cogburn or Ethan Edwards from the movie The Searchers.  As I have a Grandson named Ethan and as The Searchers is probably my favorite Wayne movie I put the coin back in my pocket.  I also wandered away from the caricature theme a bit and tried to be a little more realistic.  Hope it works.

This one is about 12" with the base and while it looks a little generic without any color I hoping that the application of paint will bring the figure to life.  If now I have Rooster Cogburn partially completed as a fall back.

Anyway, I hope you like him so far and will look forward to your comments.

Red Hawk II

Here's a new one I just finished today.  Approximately 8 inches tall with the base.  I have to admit that I had my doubts about him but after applying the facial paint everything seemed to come together.
For the texture on the robe I again used some fine gravel held in place by clear acrylic medium (Mod Podge).  I really ike the way it looks as the rough surface seems to disperse light more than the normal burning.  Again, like a lot of details, once reduced in scale they lose almost any resemblance to reality.  The ear rings are made from copper wire with aluminum ducting material for the fobs. The skin side of the robe needed something so I added a few designs to bust up the surface.

I hope you like him and will look forward to your comments.

The Plains Warrior

I put the final touches to this one just a few minutes ago and believe me when I say that I'm glad to see it move out of the shop.  Someone asked me just how long I've spent on him in carving and then in painting.  Who knows?  All I do know it was long enough.  Doing some of my carvings I reach the point of saturation to where I can no longer really enjoy the process as much as looking forward to the enjoyment of completion.  This is one of those.

There is one thing that I was going to do but at the moment thought better of it.  The leggins are kind of plain.  I could have ran beaded strips down each leg but I think that would have been just too much.  I also could have painted on black stripes on each leg to indicate counted coups but I think that too would be just too much.  Seeing it now I think I made the right decision.

I added some horse hair decorations to the ends of the bow and arrow cases and the tomahawk handle.  As they swing freely they add a little motion to a static figure.  I used low doamed brass tacks for the decoration on the belt and added a leather strap to the shield.  With the base the figure measures right at 21".  An impressive carving.

Wrapping things up I think this turned out to be an example of my best work and the collector who has spoken for it will have a really nice piece to add to his growing collection.  I know it will have a good home and lots of old friends.  Hopefully, they'll get along with each other.

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

How To Make Glasses