amatuer work - comments pls
 

A good friend ordered a DVD and got a subscription to a magazine on taxadermy last spring figuring he would teach himself, I think he's off to a good start! what do you guys think?

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

another

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

another

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

another

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

keep in ind he's only been at it for a year and learned from a mag and video, these were all harvested by friends, and he won't accept anything except for materials.

I'd love some feedback, if its positive I'll pass it along to him, but don't sugar coat it, constructive critism would be great to help him get better.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

WOW... Looks great... I'd definetly say he's got the gift... I just mounted my first gobbler and would like to post some pic to see what everyone thought...

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

The first two, he goofed up pretty bad. Shame too, they are real trophies.
The next two have huge gains in improvement.
BirdsI know nothing about, so they look really good to me.
Everyone starts out with problems and gets better with experience.
Tell your friend good luck and enjoy it.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

livbucks, I know the ears vs rack are bad on the 1st mount, and I told him so, but pls elaborate.
He can't fix a problem if he doesn't realize it exists.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

I think he needs to lighten the paint around the eye area and also it looks on everyone of the deer he had the lip skin pull out of his lip slot.You should tell him to join the state taxidermy association. He will learn alot more in a shorter period of time.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

The first one has many problems.
The ear butts are terribly low, the earliners are shaped bad, as in too pointy at the tip. The skull plate is mounted too high on the mannikin. The inner ear skin is drummed really bad and is not placed inside nearly enough. The dark hair should make the bend and go into the ear so that there is a ring of black hair on the inside of the ear cup. The nose is not thinned nearly enough and needs tucked into the nostrils more and taxi'd better. The lips are not tucked nearly enough. There should be no lip showing except for the very front under the nosepad. The eye clays are not substantial enough for a mature deer and the eye shape itself is not even close. There should be more skin taxi'd toward the eye from the back as the hair patterns are pulled out of place. The tear ducts look pulled, and are probably not thinned enough. There seems to be wrinkles in the neck that have the hairs pointing in various directions from not being taxi'd correctly. All the problems are typical of a first attempt and should be expected. Just a shame it was such a trophy that was experimented on. The second deer has many of the same problems but seems a little more improved. The next deer pics look quite a bit better as they progress, I'm sure you can see that. I'm not trying to beat him up here but these things are obvious to me. The eye shape on the second two looks so much better that one would think it was done by a different taxidermist. Tell your friend to get some good reference pics oflive deer, their noses, eyes, ears, earbutts in various positions and study them thoroughly and have them handy when mounting. The missteps will be obvious when he looks at live reference. Never look at pics of mounts as reference, only live deer. Hope this helps.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Tremendous help guys, I think I'll direct him here to see the responses regardless of positive or negative feedback because its helpfull, and he's man enough to take it.
As stated he basically just watched a video then took a stab at it,his work canonly get better.
Only problem is the guy could walk 20 miles thru the bush blindfolded, but could never find this site, he calls it the "interweb" :D

Thanks for all replies and keep them coming. I wouldn't hestiate to send him a trophy simply because I couldn't afford a pro job anyways, and you guys all told me months ago that a botched shoulder mount could be rehabiltated into a good crown mount, so no worries.

Thanks again

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Buy plenty of Reference Material!!!!!!!

I'm not saying he can't learn, because I hope to never see some of my earlier mounts again, but all of the mounts need a tremendous amount of attention to reference material. The ears, eyes, lip line, nose pad, etc. of the deer need a lot of work and the only direction I know to give is buy reference and learn to read it. WASCO sells a great WTC video of Cary Cochran explaining how to read reference. I'm sure part of the problem is lack of experience with the actual process, so they also cary several WTC videos on mounting whitetails. All videos are not created equal and you can seldom go wrong with the WTC videos.

The birds need a lot of work and looking at any photo of a flying bird would allow you to see the birds aren't even close. But, don't give up. He will have to overcome his lack of experience with the taxidermy process to improve and learn to read reference. Do not take this personal. In order to improve in Taxidermy you must be willing to take constructive criticism.

I can't say it enough. Reference, Reference, Reference!!!!!!!!

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

It's too bad your friend doesn't use the internet. I would suggest he log on to taxidermy.net. He could learn a world of info there in a very short time. The site is loaded with experienced taxidermist that are more than willing to help out a beginner as well as a seasoned veteran. You might tell him it would be well with the time and effort to consider it.;)

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

He should try better quality eyes, like tohickons', those deer eyes are old style van dykes'.
Ducks need work on teh tails, they should be fanned out.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

I have never mounted a deer before so I dont know too much about the detail work, but the very first thing I noticed were the low ears and high scull plate in the first picture. Since im assuming thatthere will be a lotof people who will be looking at this mount that have also never mounted a deer, that would be the first thing I would try to improve on.

I must say though, he did a whole lot better than I would have done on my first!

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Your friend needs to get some good reference, and start going to taxidermy conventions and and seeing seminars, etc. and even competing with his mounts so the judge can critque him and tell him how to get better. The mounts have a lot wrong with them as some people already mentioned so I won't give a critique.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Wow...that's really nice.....

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Awesome work for being an amatuer!

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looks good

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NEEDS A LOT MORE PRACTICE IS HE TANNING THE HIDES HIM SELF?

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Yup, he's tanning them himself, he's also done 2 bear rugs and is tanning a few caribou hides for me.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

hello and here are some tips for him.you can see great improvments as he gets more exp.but try useing gavinized nails 1" long,there finished nails to tack the lips in place and whenit drys you can push them on though the hide and cover with epoxy,I use warter soulabale epoxy all the way around the mouth joint.sorry for my poor spelling.As for the eyes use the brite tech economy eyes there black and more real looking.deer in the wild eyes are black.Now the ears I dont use ear liners they drum to bad.I use small fiber bond bondo.Works great and will never ever drum and the ears look fuller with it.I hope these tips have helped,but dont forget to whatch those rinkeles like the guy before me said bye for now.Joey

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

The 2nd pic the one on the right actualy looks good.That would be one that i would pay for if i brought mine to a taxidermist and he did that.The othere two looks funny, but there goo for his first time.The one thing i think makes that firts on look weird is his eye choice on it.Im just getting into taxidermy, and the mistaks he is making is helping me out by me learning form hi and what to and not to do.There is some good info on your post guys thanks.

RE: amatuer work - comments pls
 

Shoot em Up, I hate to argue with you here, but your advice is misleading.

If a hide is properly thinned, the lip slot cut properly,the lip tucked properly, and a good quality adhesive is used, nails or pins are absolutely not required. I noticed in another post that you are using dry preservative, which may very well require the use of nails, but a tanned skin that is prepared correctly does not require nails if a good adhesive is used. The apoxie finish work should normally only be required within the nasal cavity to blend skin to the septum, slight areas around the eyes and to rebuild the exposed portion of the lower lip beneath the nose pad. It should not be required to make nail hole repairs around the lip line or fill in areas that have "pulled free".

As far as bondo ears go. I have used them with success and they can be made to look nice, but your assumption that they never drum is false. The nice full look you speak of is also incorrect in that a whitetails ear is not "full" but is very thin and the only thing thatshould givea full look is the grooming of the hair. Also, the assumption that ear liners always drum is false. A properly fitted earliner using a quality adhesive can achieve an incredibly realistic ear without drumming.

Your suggestion that the Bright tech economy eyes are even close to some of the other eyes available is also false. Whitetail eyes are not black and any good reference can reveal this to anyone who has the willingness to observe. There are a number of quality eyes that are available, while bright tech may be sufficient for lower quality commercial work, they do not compare to other eyes that are available.