1ST MOUNT. The entire cape on the deer I mounted is very dark with little white around the eyes and nose when compared to other whitetails I've seen. What little white was around the eyes seems to have darkened with drying. There is very little hair in this area and I beleive its the skin giving the dark appearance. I was able to match the dark brown at the edge of the eyelid but don't know wether to leave the white are alone or try to lighten it. Is it commom practice to lighten the hair and or skin around the eyes on mounts? The training information I have does not address this.
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Many deer, living in darker habitats have less white on them that an open plains deer. It's called Gloger's Rule. Mount what you have.
request you lighten i would do as George said and leave it as is
i remember a case where i lightened one
didnt go over well with the customer
another time(thank God i take pictures)a women customer who had hunted for years and finally shot a nice 8 pointer with a very dark cape accused me of coloring her deer.
i hadnt and had the pictures to prove it
some customers have a preconsived idea of what a deer should look like and could not pick theirs out of a line up
some will notice the slightest detail
if you start doing as a business you need to spend a little time with each customer to decide which one you have
some would just die if you mounted their deer with anything but ears
forward and alert
some will freak out if you made the ears like a real deer(pinkage)
and a nose anything other than jet black
some like a softer look or some compromise of both
one lady brought me a big bruiser and the husband told me to mount on the biggest form i could.
she told me i made her deer look angry . i tried not to laugh when i
heard this
when your new you need to guard your heart and be true to yourself first
i mount as is ,paint the ears like a real deer,and ditto on everything else unless requested by customer
even after showing live pictures some customers want their deer to look like their dads did forty years ago
lmao
paul e
Roy, I don't know if it's a "common" practice to lighten the white area around deer eyes but I do it. I can certainly argue on either side of the discussion so I'm not saying you should airbrush anything around the eyes but pretty much everyone is going to airbrush the dark area to restore the skin color. To me, adding a bit of brightness around the eyes looks nice so I do it. If I had a customer complain about it (which has never happened) it is a simple matter to remove the paint. Sounds like an early season deer you have and if that is the case the white hair had not fully grown out when the deer was taken---so leaving it dark would be proper but I would probably give it a very soft spray of off white. I always use an old soft tooth brush to remove excess paint as I work to avoid a painted look. Like all things taxidermy, there is more than one way to do this. For commercial work I try for pleasing the crowd which sometimes finds me making choices some would not but I think it comes down to trying different ways and going with what you like or what works for you. This is part of why there is a difference in the work of one taxidermist and another. Enjoy, Aaron H.
Like Paul said, I've had customers INSIST that all that flesh base, blacked over nosepad fading into the pink at the lip line was "not the way my deer looked" or "all deer have solid black noses and I want mine to look real". So I pick up the air brush and make them set there and tell me exactly how they want it. I verify when I'm done, that's how they wanted it, and then I write on the two part receipt, "repainted nose to customers desires". They get the message REAL quick without me having to say a word.
That you are a a$$. LOL
Just wait till you see some of the crap that guy down the road is doing. He is the reason alot of taxidermist are looked at so bad. I wasted my time going by there and wont again. He was drunk and was working on a deer when I showed up. The pupils where set like that of a cat and the ear liners where installed on the wrong side. His latest accoplishment is " I don't need to flesh these ducks, they don't have any fat in them. I just skinned them out and washed them overnight in hot soapy water then boraxed them and put in the fridge....." " I will mount them when I sobber up in two or three days. hahaha" Thay way I figure i don't need to blow dry them"
I can only imagine how well he is fleshing his deer. I can't wait till he calls to tell me he doesn't need to remove the wing meat in his birds and yes they are customers mounts. There was a deer on the wall that a customer was coming to pick up I am glad I was not there. This guy thought he had it hung on the hanger and well you have probably seen a deer that has a run in with a truck right. He said no I ain't fixing it it wasn't my faught the hanger didn't grab the screw. With him being only 35 minutes from you it wont be long before you here about the chicken farmer taxidermist in Greenwood.
Last year a guy came by here with a gamefarm sheep. I hit him with an exorbitantly high price and he said, "I don't care what you charge. I've wasted my last cent on cheap taxidermy."
I asked him why and he said, "would you mind if I brought in the sheep I just paid $250 to have mounted?" I told him no and to my surprise, he said it was out in his car.
He brought that thing in and I almost puked. It had not been fleshed, obviously, the pupils in the eyes were set skewed, the hair hadn't been combed out and the nostrils had been cut off and packed with black wax.
Since I don't like to badmouth anyone's work, I just stood there with my mouth open. He broke the spell and asked, "Can I use your trash can?" and he tossed his mount in my trash barrel. Then he said, "Promise me you work will look and smell better than that one." I told him if it didn't, it wouldn't cost him a cent.
When he picked it up,he gave me a $20 tip, one of only 3 tips I've ever gotten.
I had no idea who this guy was. Thanx Joey.
BTW, I didn't think I acted like an ass when you visited.
Around. Didn't you see the LOL
Yeah He is the one. I hate it for the hunters in your area and I have told him he so do it right. But he says what the point if it don't slip. I would swing through to visit you again but I wont drive that extra 35 mins. Well I might if I was that close. Just think he has been at it for two or three years now so I am sure you will get a few more of the use to be price shoppers. Later