Habitat combination-what do you think?

[roostinridge]

Very nice job, well done.

[krusher167]

idk if its natural for icicles to form on wood like that, even though ice can form on branches and trees, when snow melts its usually absorbed by the porous wood instead of forming any icicles longer than say a couple of inches? right? i mean ive never recalled seeing any noticeably long icicles ever attached to green or rotting wood.... just a thought, please correct me if im wrong... great work regardless, customers gonna love it

[Brian]

not a fan of the ice or snow. i agree to darken the base aswell. mink looks nice though!

[rigbobby]

I guess it will be displayed inside a case?  Dust will play a role in the way it looks years down the road.  I agree with others that the ice should go.  The seasons 'first frost' really looks nice, I like the light color of the base.

[FishArt]

Composition is very good. At first, my eye goes off to the right in the direction the mink is looking. But, then your eyes want to follow down the mink to the tail and the driftwood brings your eye back into the display and over to the left. Creating a visual "circle" of interest. Again, it's very good composition. I think the snow and the ice look pretty good. I don't know if they'd form like that or not, but I like it. Yes, the base is a problem. And a HUGE problem at this point. Adding a darker base underneathe it helps but, very little. Here, you have the whole scene very natural looking and then all of a sudden you have a contrasting, unfinished man-made looking base. I don't know if there's anything you can do at this point to fix it. Perhaps scraping off as much snow as possible, staining the panel darker until you have the right color. And then adding the snow again. If you're worried about losing the dark tail here you can always plop some snow on the base at that point in-between the tail. Again, it may not be feasible at this point. But, the base really detracts from an otherwise beautiful flowing piece...

[M.T.]

Now you're talking Marty! You see, I consider myself a Habitat specialist, and when the terms "line", "negative space", "positive space", and "flow" are used, it really is important that we as artists can relate to that. When there is a beautiful mount of a Ringneck Pheasant on top of a fence post, there is nothing worse than having a straight up fence post to stop the motion of the eye. Even though that same fence post may be straight up vertical out in the field, we want our pieces to flow. Normally, anything that is straight up vertical incorporated into an action scene will stop the movement of the viewers eye and prevent the piece as a whole to flow! It's no different than when we put a nice mounted fish on a piece of driftwood that is just a straight piece of wood. It might look great to the customer but we really know it could be better. Either dont use that particular piece or add to it some small weeds or roots. I dont mean those cheap plastic fake looking stuff either. Some of the best habitat roots and logs come from an uprooted cedar tree. I use that kind of stuff nearly daily. Anyways, back to the mink, the piece is very nice, but like I said earlier, I would eliminate the ice. Those icicles may form like that,doubtful, but they stop or slow down the movement of the piece. When viewing any piece, your eye should start at one point and make a circular motion and end up at the same place. That is when you know you have created a nice piece,  Just my two  cents worth!