Anyone have any advice on what I should do first. I'm thinking about getting into the business and I've thought I would start with either doing a skin mount or a reproduction fish. Which one would be the easiest for a beginner. I think I would be better at reproduction fish than skin mounts but I've never done either one of them. Which one cost the least, and would not give me as much trouble, and what kind of fish should do. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks, Josh
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Both have their own difficulties. MY OPINION would be IF you're talking about purchasing a blank and finishing it, then a repro will be FAR easier than a skin mount. But, you will need to have a bit more ability to paint with a repro as it is a blank canvas. Whereas with a skin mount the markings are already there. The key to either is good reference. Probably the best route to go would be to acquire a blank and paint it then use the repro as reference for future skin mounts. Plus, it's easy to strip and repaint if you want the practice. There's not much to some of the better repros nowadays. Some come with finished seams and all that is needed is to attach a few fins and blend and you're ready to paint. Traditional taxidermy on the other hand will take much longer to learn and get good at it There's a lot to traditional fish skin mounts. It's a pretty involved process that takes quite a bit of time to get decent at. Just my opinion...
Like Marty said, with a repro you start with a blank canvas. What most begginers don't realize is that you must get the base colors and vermiculations close to what you would have with a skin mount to be realistic looking. This involves knowing what your base colors are, applying them, and removing paint from the tops of the scales. Do this by rubbing fine steel wool on the surface in a circular motion. I don't want to sound negative, but you will not really know how a dried skin mount will look until you have done some.