DESIGN AND COMPOSITION

Barrow’s Goldeneyes
On the WING On the WING
PHOTOS AND TEXT BY STEFAN SAVIDES

DUCKS ON THE WALL seems to be one of the most common requests asked of us taxidermists. Boring, flying wall mounts have been done for so long that they are all our clients ever expect. In this article I will dissect how we can present these birds in a manner that offers interest to the viewer and satisfies the needs of the client as well.

Generally, when more than one bird are involved, I recommend that the subject matter be presented in uneven numbers. Threes, fives, and so forth are naturally easier to arrange to form an interesting grouping than even numbers. In this case, however, my assignment was to mount four Barrow’s goldeneyes.

1. This piece also had to be designed to fit a horizontal space. Given that, I first selected a piece of driftwood and positioned it horizontally. Keep in mind that goldeneyes are made up of neutral colors. If you mix the black and white coloring of their plumage together, you get grey, so I looked for wood with grey tones rather than earth or reddish tones.

I positioned it with the heavy end toward the back of the composition so that it gets progressively lighter and airier as your eye travels toward the front. Using lifesize color paper cutouts can be real helpful at this point to determine the placing of the specimens. It is also important that a careful assessment of the birds is done prior to this point to determine any pose-limiting damage to them. Should there be a problem with any of the specimens, it would be better to know about it now so it can be positioned to down-play its bad points and showcase its good points. Ideally, it would be better if the birds could all be mounted and posed, and adjusted together.

2. I started with the poorest specimen and...

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

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