More fish carving

[Dave Sikorski]

This one isn't as creative as the menhaden/driftwood piece I did last, but it's for an important cause as well.

The Ocean City Reef Foundation is having their annual fundraiser dinner this weekend in OC and like always, I waited til the last min to finish up the piece I'm donating.

This is a 19" tog that is going to be mounted on a piece of brick that came from a load of recycled concrete. Concrete seems to be the reef material of choice these days so I figured it was fitting.

Check out the OCRF here, they're really doing some good stuff and Capt. Monty Hawkins is a die hard and dedicated fisherman, reef builder, and fisheries advocate.

http://www.ocreeffoundation.com/

This piece is 8/4 cypress and goldens acrylics.

 

[Dave Sikorski]

Tog have quite the ugly mug and some gnarly teeth, so I took a page out the Yukon Mike book and made some teeth out of deer antler tips and epoxied them in place. I really wanted to do a whole mouth full, but my impatience and deadline to get this one done got the best of me. We'll pretend she broke them off on the reef trying for a snack...

The base coat always shows all of the imperfections and places I should have sanded more...but i'm not a sander!

Next comes the onion bag scale tecnique.....decent coat of paint first, then lay down the mesh, brush over with more paint and a bit of water, then pull the net away and pop the bubbles....if It doesn't go on right I just brush it all out again and try again.

Voi La...

 

[Dave Sikorski]

The scales were almost dry when I started on the first coat of color. The hard part is reminding myself that is take a number of layers to get these fish paintings right and to just be patient. I almost went too far with this one, but with a few more layers it should really come together.

Just about every tog is ugly, and they're all sorts of olives, browns, and black, w/ all sorts of other highlights, so it's pretty hard to get it wrong.

I used a burning tool to do the eyes....I've decided that I'd rather paint them than buy glass eyes. The glass eyes don't really match the look I'm going for so at least by painting them I can keep trying until I decide they're done!

I'll keep the pics coming...

-D

 

[Phil Eager]

Very Nice!!

 

[george w]

David, this one is a bit more cheerful in attitude than the bunker-I think the teeth are just the right addition. Man, from that frontal view, he looks rather ferocious, but then, he needs them for cracking pissclams.

 

[Vince Pagliaroli]

Dave - Looks good, glad you left some of the wood grain show.

 

[Tom Rowe]

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the completed piece.

 

[Al Hansen]

I sure like that, Dave. You have the patience of Job!
Al

 

[Steve Sanford]

Dave~

Great work - very creative!

...but maybe you should rename the post "More fish filleting"....

All the best,

SJS

 

[Dave Sikorski]

Thanks all....

Mission complete, other than a clear coat to add a little shine.

-D

 

[Chris Finch]

no offense, but i would love to shoot that tog with my spear gun.

lol, looks great. love the big teeth too

 

[Lou Tisch]

Dave,
That is way too cool. Great job.
Lou

 

[Dave Sikorski]

Thanks guys. Chris I don't blame you! They're a tasty treat. If all goes as planned I'll be fishing for them and sea bass on Monday.

-D

 

[Dave Speer]

love it