The gray was flat black, flat white and ultra-marine blue. I intentionally went with a slight blue tone to the gray, I just liked the way it looked. I know the white neck ring doesn't go all the way around, but truth be told, I wanted to over do it on a few things to compliment the style of the decoy. When I set out to carve these, I wanted to think like duck hunters did before plastic production decoys. Based on the research I've done on the history of working decoys, originally birds were carved using all hand tools, using easily available materials. The birds were also designed to be carved quickly, so that you could build a spread fast. A lot of carvers pin pointed things that stood out on the real birds and exaggerated or highlighted those features, such as the brilliant green head of the mallard. I felt like the direction my decoys were going was very time consuming, especially for gunning birds. I like the contemporary style decoys that I do, but I wanted to take a break and try something different and have fun.
So I had some cedar boards laying around and decided to try some bay style birds. The only power tools I used were the bandsaw for cutting the pattern and the drill press for hollowing. Other than that, the birds were carved using a draw knife, rasp, detail knife and then hand sanded. I thought they looked a bit goofy when I finished carving and I laughed. So when it came to painting I tried to compliment the style.
Here is an example of the contemporary decoys I carve. This drake mallard is hollow cedar, carved with hand tools and a foredom and then textured and painted by hand and highlighted with airbrush. It took a long time to finish this bird, but its one of my best birds to date in my opinion. The camera flash makes the side pockets look whiter than they are.
Here's what he looked like before painting. I need practice on my painting skills.
