I just started getting Breakthrough and I think the article about using reference is to extreme. My customers say my work look as good as some of the big competition guys around me for a lot lower price and faster return. You dont need all that stuff.
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Don't let your ego overpower your pride. I use a lot of reference in my mounts, and I think it's helpful when it comes to doing custom mounts, or mounts your not accustom to. Also I use reference for, eye reference, nose reference, inside the mouth reference and so on. It is also helpful when doing birds and fish. Because the color fades in both, so it helps when airbrushing back the colors. So if you feel it's not nesessary to use reference then don't. I will continue to use reference in all my mounts.
Coyote
Mike,
Your attitude about reference is completely wrong. If you want to let your customers tell you how to run your business, then that is your business. This is exactly how a taxidermist stops learning about his trade. Just because a customer thinks its good work doesn't mean a thing. They just don't know! And this is not a slam against our customers. I was just the same when I started in this business. I did not know good from bad. And the only way you get better is studying reference. There can not be enough said about using reference. It is hard to believe that someone in this business would say what you have said about the use of reference. The guy down the street from me does not use reference. Maybe that is why he gets $295 for a whitetail and I get $425! "You don't need all that stuff".........Yeah right!
Mike, Just don't set that brain fart in stone yet.
Uhhhhh, wouldn't a magazine dedicated to the art of taxidermy be considered reference? ...duhh, yeah.
When you stop learning you stop living. Now which one are you?
How many big competition guys do your customers know? I bet not many. Just go on with that thinking and you will keep all of the taxidermists near you in business. I bet they will come to love you.
Todd B
We use reference materials to get different expressions, without the use of reference you tend to make all your mounts looks like assembly line work. I get a lot of ranches that bring us 5 to 6 deer at a time, their old taxidermists did each mount identical. After the first year they tried us they loved the fact that the deer all had their own personality.
Been doing taxidermy for 39 yrs. never used a refrence in my life!
Dont need it.... made $39,467 (part time)last year..and never had a complain.!even mounted a deer for one of our ex president of the beuitiful U.S.A...god bless the u.s.a!
People actually buy those gawdawful yard flamingos too. Because you did work for an "ex-president" doesn't tell me much. I mean, who the hell would have ever married Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton? I've been a taxidermist for considerably longer and I know it's dumber than dirt to make a statement like you just did. If you're using "snap together" taxidermy, that's one thing, but if you're doing custom work, that's another. I have a file drawer full of reference pictures. I must have painted a couple thousand largemouth bass and each and every time I go to do the spot pattern, I take out my reference pictures. I also use paint schedules (aka REFERENCE MATERIALS) to paint everything. I can't imagine doing any work without having some sort of "reference" to compare it to any more than I can imagine doing it without a scalpel, tucking tool, or fleshing machine. And ANYONE who says that Breakthrough shouldn't be a staple of every taxidermy shop already tells me the quality of the work they produce (regardless of what their gross receipts are).
Before I started I used the "best" taxidermist around. Every mount done by that person looks exactly the same. Don't use reference, don't compete, never get better. I had another guy do a deer for me in 97 and saw one of his mounts from last season and it looks just like the one from '97. Some thick headed folks however can't be told anything they don't want to hear.
Well, I figured somebody would get their tail feathers ruffed as soon as I started writing that article. It looks like I was right on the money. I said what I meant and meant what I said. You guys' problem is that you THINK your mounts are grand. In reality they are aweful. The people pumping up your ego know as little about anatomy as you do. Take your best mount to ANY competition and enter in professional class. IF you are actually earning over $39,000.00 PT you hardly qualify as an amateur. I promise you won't be all that & a bag of chips. "Taxidermists who are stylized are actually more comfortable with the error than they are with reality".
You forgot to tell us what you REALLY thought. LMAO
My husband(and taxidermist) has been an avid hunter for many years. A lot of people in our field think that is enough "reference" to use to do a mount. SORRY GUYS! We've got cabinets full of reference pictures and use them on a regular basis-like on EVERY specimen mounted. And on every display made. I feel very lucky when a customer brings in a picture of the specific area he-or-she harvested their animal in so that I have an accurate reference to use for their base. I mean, how better to set-up the background for the re-telling of their "grand hunting adventure" or "great hunting trip"? If you aren't using reference materials for your mounts, you are doing the mount and customer a great injustice- as well as undermining any effort at learning that will help you better your mounts. -Susan
Should have read, "Go Get 'em Rick!"-Susan
Should have read, "Go Get 'em Rick!"-Susan