yes another day working on this sculpture maybe one or two more.

Another Day Painting on Fish

   So by now I have over 6 hrs. in this carving and I am still another day way from finishing it.  Spent a couple of hours repairing, 2 hrs. finishing, and about 2 hrs. doing other stuff , like mixing paints etc. if I was going to charge would have to charge at least 15 per hour and more for pickup and delivery . Also more for not being my sculpture about 10 might do it, maybe 20 if I really like you. So it would be 6 hrs. at 15 , plus pickup and delivery charge. That should cost 10 for each direction up to 10 miles away, and 10 for return trip or 20 total , and this is one of my carvings so I will not charge you my fee for buying from other carvers. Or it would cost a total of 90 dollars total labor at 15 /per hour for 6 hrs. and 20 pickup and delivery charge. This is what I would have to charge for this type of work. When working on other sculptors pieces as far as finishing, would try and respect the original artist’s work as best I can determine from original piece.

     I will be doing more extensive work on a repair of a monkey where the repairs will have to match a hard piece of wood to find, color wise. Also it is a different type of carving with a somewhat checkered past. Oh the stories to tell when I think back to a carving’s creation. I was in a different place and time.

       This carving I think I originally done here soon after moving back to the farm about 6 years ago. Guess I will have to think all that through before telling you the stories. Anyhow the monkey will be my next project. I grabbed a hold of this monkey’s ear to set him up and snapped off a piece of wood. He was never finished and I refused to sell him although I had many offers. Just a one of a kind for me, and I am looking forward to fixing the damage on this carving.

     I was able to paint the sides of the fish with a forest green base and started to highlight the fins with a yellow tint to showcase the action of the sculpture.  I will need to add more layers of paint to gradually bring up the contrast needed to make this sculpture work. Another reaction to finishing this is that the sealer I use which is marine grade spar urethane by helmsman in the satin finish will tend to darken the colors and provide a kind of antique look to the sculpture making the colors stand out to some degree. The satin finish will block reflecting light normally creating white spots when viewed in daylight or artificial light on the surface of the carving. When first applied appears shiny but after it dries completely reflected light diminishes gradually over next couple of days and true colors begin to emerge.

     Plan on building in more color a little too opaque now and want to find a happy medium of the carving representing both wood and painted sculpture and not look like Ronald Mc Donald sitting at your local Bell store. Also want to highlight and then shade giving some depth to the carving. Hopefully creating a 3d effect, making him look more real.

       Considered carving scales into the fish as he didn’t have them before and I guess everyone knew what he was including young kids. So I felt since it was not in my original sculpture then I shouldn’t mess with anything more than I have to. It worked back then and should work now. The paint I had no choice but to strip as I was going to have bare grinding spots anyhow. By redoing the total paint job, it will be easier to match the colors making repairs almost invisible to the naked eye.

       Maybe tomorrow depending on temperature I will get around to sealing the fish sculpture and will be able to show you some finished pics. By that time will have 7 hrs . labor and about 135 total invested in a carving I would ask 150 for. But this is also a one of a kind sculpture as the fish’s mouth is actually the center of a burl on the side of a tree. Once I saw the piece I knew it was a fish. Now I guess I have the confidence I need to make things work when carving a sculpture and can usually at a glance work a bad spot or a flaw right into the essence of the sculpture. Will catch you all tomorrow.