finishing fish mounts

[kstenzel]

Geez, now you guys make me feel bad  I have a nice painting that hangs on my wall which I used to like, but that was until I realized that the artist short changed me. When I now look at the back I see nothing but white canvas, unstained frame and even the exposed staples that hold it together!!!

[Pescado]

Boy Kevin I bet yoou'll never buy one of his paintings ever again.

[Perca]

" If you do half the fish, I doubt you have to send them on thier way, I'm sure they leave and never come back on thier own"  You are? Wow! You seem to be oblivious to the numbers of repeat customers who don't pay any attention to the backside of a very well done skin mount. Maybe that's because you registerd on this site 5 days ago and have a total of 5 posts? Welcome to the fish forum. I'd like to suggest you post a poll on this forum to find out how many fish heads do "half the fish" and get repeat customers. 

"yes and the wall side is the first thing they look at."   Wow dude. If that's true, you need to spend more time on the FRONT of your fish. Oh...I just saw that you don't do many fish. That explains it. 

Carry on Paul.   

[Harum]

$200 - $400 for a Bass on my wall… I wouldn't expect the front side painted for that. At this time I am turning away clients but if you wanted a Bass on your wall, (finished on the show side) add a one to the beginning of your figures. I encouraged my clients to look at the "unfinished" back so they can better appreciate what I did on the front. Excellent comparison Kevin.

[Jknuth]

The only time a fish gets painted on both sides by me is when the customer pays for both sides.
It gets a dummy eye in the back and a basic dark coat blending into the light on the belly. I have yet to have ANYONE complain and seem to do alright with repeat business.

I agree with Perca, if you spend enough time on the front, nobody will care about the back.

In fact the other day I had a customer come by and pick up a walleye, I didnt see him look at the back once. As he was on the way home with his fish secured in the back of his truck he called me and said "Oh yea I forgot to check, did you put a hanger on the back of my fish?" ........................
In fact today he ordered 3 new fish from me so..... He didnt seem to care it was unfinished on the back, Of course he may just have bad taste. 

Like Pete said I often show my customers the backs and unfinished work, they seem more impressed and realize the amount of time went into the painting of their fish.

Oh Kevin, I just checked the paintings on my walls as well......... What a load of crap! same deal?

[fishstuffer]

funny thing is MOST people that bash a one sided fish guy WONT or hasent ever posted any of there fish work for others to see???

[Aaron Stehling]

If the first thing a customer does when they get there fish is look at the back/wall side, you have got problems ! He is probably thinking " man, what did they put in this thing ? It looks like crap, but hey , it's got two eyes and paint on the back !! I guess I'm cool with it "

[Cory]

Hadn't ready on here for a while, but I can and will assure you that any cabinet made in our shop (Mid Continent Cabinetry, think we are 7th in the nation in size) DOES NOT have a finished back side.  Look them up on our website and see how many back sides you can see in the photo shoots that are selling us to our customers.  Also I read this on here:

You can always see the end of the tail that sticks out from the wall. You dont know where the customer is hanging the fish.  He could be hanging it somewhere that when he walks in the room he sees the back part of the tail or head and it is painted black.

I would first of all carve the form so that the customer can't see the back of the tail when it is hanging on the wall.  Second, I would be honest with the customer and tell them what the back is going to look like, but the front will be dead on!  I believe the color black is used and can be used to add depth/or to NOT bring attention to a particular area in a painting.  There are better on here that know WAY MORE about art and color than I do, but spraying black on the back side of a fish IMO would NOT distract from a rather WELL DONE front side (correct eye set, scale tipping, base colors with depth, .................)

[Pescado]

What happened to possum ass george?

[Perca]

I think possumgeorgewalkingrectum was a flash in the bed pan...eh?  I've read several time where guys try to make a case for finishing the backside with the scenario that the customer might hang the mount on a wall where it's backside can be seen when entering a room.  The solution comes from one of our best fish heads...DougP. Do the mount in a " reverse C" pose and there is no way anyone can see an unfinished, one eyed, one pectoral fin, black backside. 

[Randy Budzynski]

I tape felt in the eye socket and glue my eyes on the seam, seems to work for me. You guys are a hoot for sure.

[den007]

That is right. The Hell with the backside. It is all about quantity in order to make a go at it. Here is a hard days work for me. How many of you guys can keep up with this?