Guys and Gals,
I looked through the archives and not a lot of infor on setting fox eyes. I got the mammal taxidermy manual from Breakthrough, and I feel I am missing something on the using clay to set the eyes. This is my firt fox. and second mammal.
With the deer, I set the eye, and eyelid, and the tucked the skin une the clay. The book seems to set the eyes of a fox sort of like they are buldging out a little, and no clay down on the eye.
So any tips to make this more clear to me. What are the common mistakes, things I should avoid with a gray fox eyes.
Coach
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Set the eyes the same as any mammal. You must first split the eye lid open all the way. seperating the inner and outer eye lid. When split properly they should lay flat where they meet near the eyelashes. They need to be shave thin. The clay work is sculpted in when the eyes are set. The skin is tucked just like a deer. It doesn't matter if it is a moose or mink. The eye lids are tucked the same. Look at reference photos carefully. To prevent comon mistakes, see where hair patterns and color patterns line up from side to side. Location of ears and how deep they are set. The ears are on the side of the head and are connected toward the top. The ears are also at the base of the skull, not half way into the skull. Flesh out the tissue around the roots of the whiskers. There should be no tissue arond them. You can also pull the whiskers out and push them into a foam block in the same pattern they are removed. Then flesh off the area completely. Glue in the whiskers during your finish work. Use reference for placement and angle. All of this will effect the look. That is just a few things to look for. Make sure the pupils of the eyes are going in the right direction. They run vertical. Deer run horizontal. You might say Da, but it happens. Good luck
Whatever you do, don't make your fox look like he was just smacked in the back of the head. (eyes bulging or buggin' out of his head)
Like Dean just said, just do your eyelids like any other mammal.
But make sure he actually looks like he has eyelids (slightly or more on eye depending on expression), and the eyelashes are laying properly.
The buggin' eyes and over stuffed toes & feet are the 2 most common mistakes I see in a beginners fox (& some not so beginners)
..and select images and then gray fox - 1000's of pictures
Thank you