First Gemmie Carving

[MathFish]

I wanted to share my newest trout carving that I finished today. I have carved 8 more little trout since I posted my last carvings of the little brookie and brown trout (Here's a link to that posting: small scale carvings). Those carvings were proportionally small scale carvings of large trout. I've gotten a little better with the details of carving and painting since that posting. This latest one is my attempt to carve a true to size 5 inch long native brookie.

It took about 5 hours from start to finish from the block of wood to get it to the point that it was ready to paint. I tried to put a nice curve into the fish and I attempted to make the fins as thin as I felt I could make them. In looking at a lot of photos of underwater photos of trout, I realized that trout seem to position their pectoral and pelvic fins low under their belly and I did my best to try to mimic that.

The paint scheme on smaller fish was tougher for me to paint than the paint schemes I have done on the larger fish. The softer colors seemed tougher to blend, but I enjoyed the challenge. I think that I spent another 5 hours painting it...

I know it's not perfect and I am still kind of new to this, but I am happy with what I was able to make.

Here is how it turned out.

 

[ryansheehan]

Wow! Just wow, so impressive.

 

[dryflyguy]

Very nice indeed!

I really like how you put the curve in it

 

[Prospector]

That’s tremendous!!

 

[redietz]

Great work!

 

[drakeking412]

Extremely impressive, nice job!

 

[rrt]

I think it's absolutely amazing.

(I know where you could "get rid" of it if you don't want it!)

I think it must be nice to have talent. I remember an old comic skit where everything the guy tried to make in shop class turned into an ashtray. My industrial art efforts were even worse than that.

Your carvings are wonderful. Great jobs.

 

[afishinado]

Excellent work > evolving from craft to art, IMHO.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

That is a bang-up job right there. Honestly, I think your work is evolving to the quality I see at woodworker craft/gift stores when I'm on vacation in TN,NC.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

Bravo! If the quality of the carving wasn't enough, the paint job is more impressive. 5 hours, I would have thought much longer. You have skills!

 

[Dave_W]

Well done!

 

[DaveKile]

Fantastic work!

 

[MathFish]

Thanks for the compliments. I’m happy to hear that you guys think that I’m getting better - I’ve been putting in some decent amount of time carving and painting lately and I’m definitely seeing the benefits of time spent practicing...

I’ve already got two more little trout rough cut and I’m about 75% done carving one of them. If only managed to poke my left thumb once and my left index finger twice with my Xacto knife... The plan for these two is to create a little wild brown and also a little wild rainbow. I’ll post photos of those if they turn out alright.

Thanks again!

 

[MKern]

looks amazing

 

[Vaughn]

That looks amazing, thanks for sharing.

 

[FarmerDave]

Mathfish,

Wanna buy some rocks? ;-)

 

[laszlo]

You are a true artist

 

[MathFish]

FarmerDave, HAH!

I actually went out to a local creek and harvested quite a few rocks for future carvings... I picked up quite a few, so i think I’m good for a little while.

Thanks again for the compliments everyone!

 

[krs]

Excellent work!

 

[larkmark]

Well done. Enjoy hearing about your process too.