Project photos

[steveh]

I am relatively new to this forum and have posted some new pictures of animal portraits in my photo gallery. The patterns are from Neal Moore's Animal Portraits in Wood using relief segmentation. Click on the link below to view my gallery.

[Fran]

Steve, now that is some great work.. Beautiful animal portraits. I have Neal's book and have intended to try my luck at making a couple of them, but something else keeps getting in the way. lol The animals look so real.

Fran

[Messman]

Some great work Steve. One of these years I might actually get around to trying sementation type work.

[Travis]

Boy, those turned out sharp! I've seen one of his patterns in a magazine and I've been wanting to get his book. I'm really itching to try one. I think they look really cool. What kind of wood do you normally use? How many shades of stain do you keep on hand? Very nice work. Good job!

[steveh]

Thanks for the nice comments folks. These were really fun to do. I have about 6 shades of MinWax oil based stains that I use and occasionaly mix a couple to get what I want. The biggest problem is black. Real black, not just a stain, I used a black marker for that. Sometimes black marker plus stain on a piece. However you have to be careful. Urethane or Polyurethane will not cause the black marker to bleed, but laquer sure does. I made a mess of another large head which then became designer firewood. Some of these were cut from 3/4" laminated pine shelving material. Others from 3/4" Baltic birch of the far Eastern variety, not from the Baltic, and not a particularly good choice. Three or four swipes of 120 grit sandpaper and you're through to the first layer of glue. I would like to have used 3/4" pine but could not find any in my area that was knot free and I do not have re-sawing and planing equipment so I rely on what HD and Windsor Plywood stock..

 

Steve

[Travis]

Coming up with black stain can tricky. You could try some India ink. You can find that at an art/craft store in the calligraphy section. It's basically an inkwell you dip your pens into. I'd just dip a paintbrush in and paint the wood. The ink will soak into the wood like stain.

 

There is also a technique for ebonizing wood with steel wool and vinegar. This article has some info that you may find interesting.

[steveh]

Thanks Travis,

 

The idea to use India ink for black sounds real good and probably will not run under laquer.

 

Steve

[Barry5180]

Just finished checking out your album Steve, and I've got to say those animals really turned out beautiful. I haven't seen this book before but you can bet that after viewing your work, it's now on my purchase list. Thanks for showing us your work.

 

Barry

[Clayton717]

I just looked through you gallery and everything is just awesome. very nice work.

[steveh]

Great job on intartia and wheeled toys, Clayton717. Those are two types of scrolling woodwork I have not attempted. I think I will have to give it a try. I will be posting another album to my gallery so check back again.