HABITATS

THE NEWMYER METHOD FOR
Two Easy Habitats
PHEASANTS AND DUCKS
That Can Make You Money!
by Frank Newmyer 

Pheasant Habitat
1. Designing a natural habitat not only frames a mount, it also makes it more dynamic, lifelike, and more appealing to your customers. This narrow, 36- x 14-inch base is going to become a beautiful example of a habitat for a ring-necked pheasant. Frank Newmyer's company, Wildlife Design, currently offers 30 different, realistic habitat materials. Here, he is using #'s 5- Hilde Grass, #9- Pod Grass, #14- Eucalyptus Seed, #15- Artichoke Bud, #17- Thatch Bundle, #18- Rose Hip, & #27- Wild Grass. You can combine these items to easily reproduce the plant life for any type of geographic setting. Artificial materials will not deteriorate, and they will have a more vivid, natural coloration than dried or dyed materials. Not only that, but you can amplify the colors of a mount with the colors in the plants. Several of these items can be split up and used in more than one habitat. Newmyer is building environments for waterfowl and upland game in this article, but these materials can just as easily be used with reptiles, mammals, and amphibians.

2. The inside of the wooden base is sprayed flat black, providing a dark background. It would be unrealistic if light-colored wood were to show through any gaps in the foam, dirt, or plant life. Tape off the outer frame of the base and use a black spray paint. Newmyer has selected a limb to secure to the foam. The elements that you use in a scene will produce linear guides that will move your eye in specific directions. This limb is going to be one of the main lines for this composition. A composition is a visual plan, or blueprint. A crowded composition will loose a viewer's attention. You will sell more environments that have been built with artistic principles. When a composition flows together, you will keep a viewer's attention.

A tape measurer is used to keep the height of the case in mind throughout the working with the foam and habitat materials. The case is 14 inches high and will have ³Ž_¹⁶-inch glass for the top. A wide piece of cardboard is bent in the center and used as a dam for controlling the foam as it rises, and prevents it from filling the tracks for the glass case. A plastic pail of crushed debris is on standby for covering any bare spots of foam.

3. Eight ounces of black-dyed foam are spread onto the...

...Continued in the Spring 2003 Issue of Breakthrough.

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