Jan 28 2009 - fox, bass, trout

I arrived at 8am and left at 7:45pm. LONG DAY

First of all, let me first say that I am sorry for the delay of the following image. This is the fridge where the most recently-being-worked-on deer capes are kept, and where we put our lunches when we come in the morning.
My lunch is on the top left. That's the lucky spot. Sometimes it gets moved to the goo-water on the bottom right. This is not ideal.

Today, Carrie made apple danishes.

We began today with painting our life-sizes.
We hit the ears with black and shaped them up.
We hit the nose with black, too. Then with matte gel all over, and gloss gel in the nostrils to have the nose appear wet.


To begin with the fish, we had to gloss them outside with an aerosol can of "super fish shine."
Julie and Brenda wait to spray their fish.
Julie took these of me. I am holding HER fish because mine were inside already. I am laughing because I teased her about how I didn't want to claim them as my own.

The paint schedules for the fish are similar at first, but then differ as you build up colors with the airbrush. If you get too much on or mess up, you have to start over with white. There are nine colors on each fish. Some of the colors are sprays in general areas, but some are detail work.
The trout is on the top, the bass below.

The trout is almost done - it needs a darker line on the top, plus its black spots. You can do those with sharpie or a paintbrush. Airbrush spotting is hard because of those "freak drops" and other accidents.

In this photo, the bass is completely painted. This eye protect is still on so his nice glass eyes are covered underneath. The trout has some spots but will have much more by tomorrow. In fact, I am painting them for homework. Tomorrow, we will put a high gloss on them that will make them look wet.

Tomorrow and Friday are going to be absolutely crazy. We have to build bases for our mounts, finish our antler plaques, and I have to sew some leather to the under side of my deer mount.

This is a video of what it looked like outside as we sprayed our fish with sealer.


This is a video of Missouri Taxidermy's showroom. It's the room you come in when you enter the building. The office is straight ahead, to the left is the work room and classroom area, and up the stairs is where Chip and Carrie and Cam and Caleb live. Oh my, that's a bunch of C names. Just picked up on that.


WOW! Jonas sent me a link to Kate Clark's work ... totally inspiring and disturbing.