Drake shoveler gunning decoy.....mini demo.....

Keith Mueller

Keith Mueller

Active member
I was on Long Island, NY in February visiting with three friends and collectors and we stopped off at a local cove to look for waterfowl and hopefully take a few pictures. This small cove was full of mallards and Canada geese, and quite a few gadwall, ringnecks and a small flock of eight shovelers. One of my friends was trying out his new 100-400 IS Canon lens to match his new Canon camera....and we took a whole bunch of images. Even though the day was very overcast (just after a snow storm) it was great to be able to take images of shovelers in the Northeast where we don't see them too often. As I was in "shoveler heaven" one of the drakes swam right in front of us, and he was absolutely gorgeous. In my excitement I muttered under my breath....."I want to go home and carve him", to which I received a very excited response...."I'll take him"!! So here is the "Long Island snowstorm" inspired drake shoveler gunning grade decoy.

This decoy is carved from tupelo and is hollow. The wingtips are inserted "bulletwood" and the insertion procedure is just as in my book featuring the wigeon decoy.

The "rough carved" decoy......

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On most of my decoys, my "signature" component is an exotic wood bottom insert plate, and a carved exotic wood keel (if one is used on the decoy). Since I have seen wintering shovelers in Costa Rica on both coasts, I wanted to add this element to the decoy. On this bird, the bottom board is Western red cedar, and I used beautiful macadamia nut wood for the bottom insert plate. Macadamia nuts are grown on the middle elevations of the Caribbean slopes.

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The bird is finish sanded........

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To signify the Pacific coast, I carved the keel from one of my most favorite wood species; mango. This is curly mango wood. Although the keel is a functional part of the decoy, I like to add an artistic component to the decoy by adding a "visual dynamic" to the keels design.

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The finished bottom sealed with two coats of shellac (steel wooled between coats). I will repeat this process when the decoy is finished, with four or five additional applications......

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The sealed decoy with one coat of shellac......lightly steel wooled when dry.....

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Since the bird is tupelo, I primed it in many "thin" applications of flake white Ronan Japan oil......

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"Grisaille" or "pre-painting"........

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The painting begins. I started by painting and finishing the tail "wet on wet", and continued with a simple blend of black/phthalo green on the upper tail coverts and oil gland coverts. The "feathering" willl be finished in this area when the paint is "tacky". The primaries were blended and the "outling" of each individual remix will be painted when the initial blended feathers are tacky.
I continued onto the tertials and the scapulars with the same black/green outlining of each feather. The white internal striped markings will be added when these feathers are dry. The brown scapulars and mantle were blended, and will be outlined when these feathers are tacky, but not dry. The white lateral scapulars and the blue lateral scapulars were finished and blended, with the exception of the white striped center markings....they will be added when the paint is dry.

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Another view.....

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The secondaries, greater secondary coverts and the lmedial secondary coverts were painted and completed at this point.....

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The flanks, side pockets, chest, head and bill were painted using many color values of each color and multiple blends. The details will be added when the paint is tacky. Notice the area of the exposed side pocket.....many values of color is being shown to give the illusion of transluecent feathering.

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Another view.....

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In this step, I painted the feather edges of the upper tail coverts and the oil gland coverts with lighter values of phtahlo green and yellow light/white to lighten the values. I also added the soft broken feather edges of the flanks, side pockets, and the chest. At this point the paint was perfectly "tacky" so I finished the edges of the dark brown blended scapulars and mantle with five lighter values of light brown to white. I also finished the center white stripes of the tertials and scapulars using many values of white, soft white and light brown to develop many values of color in the white which softened the harshness of plain white.

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Keith,

Absolutely stunning, I always enjoy seeing a new post from you and this one definitely doesn't disappoint...Can't wait to see the whistling duck demo also!

Hope all is well

Zach
 
Hi, Keith,
great to see you back, and thanks for sharing your mini demo with us and your next project is looking good keep us updated on the progress, we never tire looking at art, hope you received my email. Tom Conroy.
 
Very nice Kieth! Bulletwood? In Wisconsin bulletwood describes the wood post holding up a road sign when it meets a rifle that shoots low.
 
I thought I had seen enough of your work so I couldnt be surprised anymore. Each one is exquisite. Then you throw out that keel on me,
WOW. Thanks yet again
 
Keith,
Great job as always. I saw a group of six Shovelers this morning, and they are in full full color. They really are spectacular birds. I just finished one last week............... now I should go re-paint it.... ttyl... T
 
Of course you know now that you've put this info out there that it will show up in Stackpole Books how to manual very soon. Either that or in a copy being sold on Hunting Classics.

Great thread Keith. The neck on the whistling duck is fluidity embodied.
 
WOW! I wish my finished birds look as nice as your "rough carved". Very cool keel and wing tips.

Thanks for sharing
~Dave
 
Neat to see how the painting of the shoveler was "planned," well before the carving was finished. + The pose on the whistler is awesome! ...right down to the carved eye.
 
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