I just finished my first deer mount and would like your opinions. It still has some pins in his face so please pay no attention to them. I also need to paint the inside of his nose yet. I know he has a split in one ear and I'm fixing it so pretend it's not there! I did this on Van Dykes Fighting buck form so he has his head turned and perpendicular with the ground. I'd like to think this was a team effort because alot of people on here helped me with all my questions about doing this. Please tell me what you think though, I was pretty happy with it for my first one but I know it needs work. Thanks!
Just click on the first pics of the mount and it will show you all 5 pics.
http://photos.yahoo.com/horseelady_jessie
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Not too bad.
One HUGE glaring this is you have the eyes rotated 90 degrees. The pupils should be horizontal.
they are horizontal, I was told that the pupil is always supposed to be level with the ground no matter what position the head was in. Is that wrong? This is my first deer so I'm learning, so thanks for the input
vertical, the eyes are going up and down, and not flat or level as they shoud be. You have some antler burr showing, push the skin up with a pin or nail before it dries, and push the ears forward an inch, and up a 1/2 inch, and roll them so they cup down a bitt.
Jessica,
Well, for your first one it's not too bad, BUT.....
First of all,
You have to fix those eyes. A good rule of thumb for the Pupil is keep them parallel with the bottom jaw line. Do you honestly think that they can rotate their eyes that much?
You can rehydrate the eyes and actually remove them (if you set them with clay and not epoxy) or just rotate them if possible. Otherwise you will cringe everytime you look at it forever.
You should always repair your ears before you mount. It's gona be pretty hard to fix it now.
You need to work on your skin taxying (sp?) as you can see some of the hair patterns don't line up. Use reference!
It looks like the hide pulled from around the Antler Burr on the left side. Hard to fix now but you must learn to prevent this from happening again. The best you can do now is paint it dark brown and glue in some scrap hair of the same color.
You also need to work on your grooming, especially in the ears. A deers ears are rarely fluffy. Get some hair set gel and smooth out the hair in there. After it sets for a couple weeks, brush it out. It should look good.
When first mounted and drying, attach it to a piece of plywood and tuck the hair in around the back. This will keep the hair smooth and crisp at the wall.
I'm sure you were going for a specific look for your first head but I would have gone for the simplest pose available to start out with. I belive you need to learn to walk before you can run.
Please take what I've said as constructive critisism. I'm just trying to help out.
Keep working at it.
Jim F.
Hey Jess, If this mount is perpendicular to the wall, meaning he has his head down in the fighting stance then your eyes are correct as far as the pupils go, because as the head rises the pupils follow the bridge of the nose but as the nose goes down then the eyes tend to stay parallel to the ground. From what I see you could have tucked your lip a little better, you need to get your hide right in tight to the base of the antler burr or pedical? not sure the spelling is correct on that one. Your ear bases look to be about right, and you need to do more work on your nostrils and I can't see eye detail. Good job for first time. I have lots of reference pics if you need some. I would be glad to help you. Hope I didn't hurt your feelings.
Good call on the verbage I used.
You are right on the horizontial word. The pupils don't rotate like a level ball in free space. You will need to find a reference picture of a deer with his head in that position.
Maybe Yox can tell you the exact position.
I know what you have is wrong.
Yes they can. I have seen real deer do this and I may have pics to show you. What I just posted is almost a quote from McKenzies Whitetail eye study handed out last year by Dennis Behn and I have notes from my seminar from Fred Vandenburg out at the Altoona, Pa Show last year, and notes from Rick Carter, not to mention my teacher Lou Gagliano.
I posted a message a few days ago about where the pupil should be and I was told that they always stayed level with the ground. I didn't think it was right at first but it looked right when I put them in. I didn't think deer could move there eyes that much but that's what I was told. I did originally have them set at an angle but was told it wasn't right. I have horses and moved ones head up and down and watched the pupil and it stays level with the ground in pretty much any position so I figured that was the way to go. I would love any reference pics you would be willing to share Nancy! No no one hurt my feelings, I posted it to get honest opinions from professionals and I take it as a learning experience. I'm not sure what is meant by the hair pattern being off though. The ear is actually pretty easy to fix I just havn't done it yet. I know the skin pulled away from the antler a little but I did pull it back up and put a small nail in it. Please keep the opinions coming, they will only help me get better. Thanks for all your thoughts to everyone so far!
No problem Jess, I had horses all my life so I know what you mean. Even though they are horses and not deer but their eyes work pretty much the same. The reason your horses eyes are still pretty level when you push their chin up (which I know you did cause I did it too ) is because they were focusing on you and not what was above their head. If you watch a deer look up into the trees the front part of their pupils converge forming an X across the bridge or the nose. If you really want to get a good look see, hang an apple just a little out of reach over their head and be ready to snap some pictures. My daughter shows hunter jumpers and part of the flexing exercises are to bend their head to their chest. Their pupils stay level just like your deer. Try it and see for yourself. E-mail me a list of what you are looking for and I will try to get pics together for you.
For your first deer head you did an excellent job. The main thing is that you found the correct information on setting eyes. I guess my thing is that knowledge is dangerous. It's all about reference, reference.
In your pose which is rather extreme is that this deer by nature is concentrating on one thing and that is what's in front of him. It's the same thing whenever a deer drinks water. He is a very curious animal and he wants to know what's going on around him at all times. Consequently, those pupil's are constantly keeping him aware as to what's going on. They will change instantly but, he wants to know what's going on around him at all times.
You did an excellent job and I have photo's indicating that same eye setting when the head is in that extreme downward position.
John Griffith
www.griffithtaxidermy.com
Much better than mine. I am glad I didn't try a difficult pose for my first.
Thanks John for clearing that up. I did find some pictures regarding that position and was confident the eyes were correct, but seriously Jess the mount looks really good to me. I don't even want to post my first mount, but I did post my second. Go have a look see.
Thanks for the nice input! I know it's far from professional work but I've seen people pay for worse! I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, being my first mount and all but yes I need improvement in some areas and that's what your input helps me with. I probably should have started with an easier mount but I've never been know for taking the easy way first. I like to dive in and see what I can do. Thank you very much for the compliments John, we had a little disagreement in here on the eyes!
way better than my first deer