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let me explain about this decoy. b/c, i know it looks pretty damned ugly.



i've had some thoughts brewing in my head about "what" decoys are, or, what i'm gonna use them for anyway. in short, anatomically speaking, i want them to look like birds from a distance - up close, is icing on the cake. kinda like that drunk girl you wait for at the end of the night - "good from far, but far from good".

in that vein, i spent a few weeks researching folks - both past and present - that produced gunning decoys, what i liked and disliked about them, and honestly, the ease/quickness i thought i could get it done.....which, was another thing - i wanted to do a simple decoy, both in carving and painting, that i could do in a matter of hours.

tuesday, i took out my sketch pad and drew out a pattern for a semi-alert drake. wednesday i carved, sanded, and sealed it. saturday i primed and painted it. i have about 3 hrs total in this decoy....yes, it shows, but i also needed to see i could do it and still produce a gunning decoy that will hunt.

the main problem w/ this decoy is that i STILL tried to do too much. my painting and carving skills simply aren't ready for things such as the speculum and a few other issues. i wanted to make everything BIG and BOLD, so it would stand out on the water (hence the drastic speculum), but i missed the mark just a tad, IMHO. but, as in all things, it's just a learning experience and part of the process, but, it is frustrating.

in any case, this is the first decoy i took from something in my head, drew it out, cut it, carved it, and painted it using no "how to" reference just a bunch of pics....which may explain the ugliness too.

cork body, cedar head, brass tack eyes, oil paints. it'll be fitted w/ a pad weight and leather strap.

i had planned on mating him w/ a female, but instead, i'm going to do another drake, carve it a bit different and paint it a bit different, and see how much better i get.....then, eventually a hen.

-justin

I'm really wanting to do that carving class with you.... awesome.

I am really not seeing the "ugly" you see in that block.
It is what is, a gunner. And it is a great looking gunner.
Good work, keep it up.

gunning decoys are supposed to look like the duck and be able to take a few shots throughout the years. I think it is perfect, man. When I start carving, that is all I will make. I'm not OCD enough to do the good ones like yours.

Gator, I like it...My dad has some decoys that a patient of his gave him a long time ago. I am going to post some pictures of them, they are all gunners and are real enjoyable to look at. They will not win a beauty contest but, they were "real" enough to get them in close. Looking at these decoys always made me think, hell even I could produce that. Kinda cool though, that its obvious that each one tells a story. I have a friend that only shoots over blocks that him and his dad make, real neat to load a bushell basket of hand-carved, handpainted teal decoys into the boat, adds a whole new dimension to the game!!! Anyway...keep em coming I love looking at them!!!

Very nice. You have serious talent, to have picked it up so quick.

Gator,

Here is my take. If you are gonna block paint, you need crisp lines. Otherwise you gotta blend. You gotta a little mix of the two styles going, and to me, it is not as astheciatally pleasing as it could be. For a block style see Geoff Vine's birds, notice how crisp his lines are, without having much detail on the bird. For a blended style see bender.

Not saying I could do any better. it is much easier to criticize than to actually make some chips of my own. Although i should have the block style down soon. emily has me stripping the wallpaper out of our kitchen and me laying down some sweet blocked in green on the whole wall. That should help me get the painting down.

Out, and call those utah boys, its looking like I might only get to travel to hunt this year. oil is bad, getting worse. Sheen like a public pool on MLK blvd.

i hear ya kris....and, that's what i don't like about it.

having an awful time finding my place in this decoy world......i can't, and i mean CAN NOT, paint with crisp lines. even when i try to outline something, i screw it up....................and, my blending SUCKS (hence my post on the workbench).

it's very frustrating.

justin

p.s. geoff vine's stuff is inhuman........that's not even fair to use as an example

-justin

Its a gunner plain and simple you even said it yourself, its not a mantlepiece or a conversation piece (just yet) if they are close enough to notice the small details...well its already to late for them anyway

Did I mention they look great and would really like to do this decoy carving class

Looks pretty dang good for it's purpose, not to mention time invested!

Are you completly against an airbrush? Just think you could get those crisp lines you are looking for if you went that route.

Looks good to me. That's my favorite duck to kill.

eSJay wrote:Looks pretty dang good for it's purpose, not to mention time invested!

Are you completly against an airbrush? Just think you could get those crisp lines you are looking for if you went that route.

oil paint doesn't run through a brush too well

i made the switch to oils from acrylics b/c i just hated acrylics. and, i couldn't draw a straight/crisp line w/ them either.

oils were used by the old masters.......and, me - who paints much like a third grader

gator

I'd be willing to bet you could kill a duck or 6 over that. Those little boogers sure are fun to shoot and dang good to eat!

This really helped me.