Anyone use one of those Quick Set Eyelid tools?

I never saw two eyes the same on different deer. Does the tool vary from eye to eye? Guess theres your answer...well, mine anyway! Bonnie did I tell you about buying that sweet...ahhh, never mind, lol.

 

Speaking of eyes... That avatar of yours catches my eyes every time I see it.

 

Bonnie, I bought it, used it once and put it away. Save your money.

Matt Beavers

 

Although I agree with Bill and with the Colonel for sure, I will add my two cents worth. Bill is a seasoned vet. I don't know if you are or not, but I will say this. With my students over the years most had trouble with eye shape, as I did comming up. I would make them draw eyes with a pencil, shape eyes with clay and ect. When that tool came out I bought one and began using it to teach eye skin shape. It worked miracles. As those students learned and became more experienced they weened themselves away from the tool, because they had learned eye shape. Now they can do eyes with correct placement and add expression with their own talent now developed. I recommend it not as a crutch but as a learning tool.

Do it until its automatic!! Then it becomes habit.

TRY TO TIE YOUR SHOES WRONG! CAN YOU??? MAYBE IF YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT, BUT IF YOUR IN AUTOMATIC MODE YOU CAN NOT TIE YOUR SHOES WRONG!! BRAIN WON'T LET YOU!!! TRY IT!!!

 

OH AND ONE MORE THING!! I GREW UP WITH AN ARTIST AS A MOTHER. SHE TAUGHT ME TO DRAW UPSIDE DOWN. TODAY IF I GO TO PAINT AN OIL FROM A PHOTO I TURN THE PHOTO UPSIDE DOWN. SOMETHING ABOUT LEFT BRAIN/RIGHT BRAIN. I HATE TO ADMIT IT BUT I FIND MYSELF DOING THE SAME THING WHEN DOING TAXI WORK. UPSIDE DOWN

 

YES MY DEAR I THINK YOU GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!LEARNING TOOL ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVERYONE seems to have a dominant side. I find it easier to shape the deers left eye because I am right handed. So I will always do the deers right eye first. That forces me to duplicate second and original first. Since my weak side is the deers right I do it first and DUPLICATE on my strong side.

I hope I've made that clear as mud!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

Try printing your name upside down and backwards at the same time.
ok you did it but you had to think as you did it right???
now do it again in signature form.................................................HOLY $hit!!!!!
It's about training your brain..............IE..TAXIDERMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

antlerman, great post, i do the EXACT same thing, i am way better on the animals left eye (right handed) i ALWAYS do the animals right eye first, and seems to give me a better product, Your post was spot on.

Bonnie, as said above, dont waste your money, just overcome and persevere.

 

Bonnie, I bought all three sizes of them, used them once and then gave them away. I strongly disagree with Antlerman's concept of teaching. Talent can't be taught. Now if you want your students to have cookie cutter eyes, the tool's the answer, but when I didn't understand the Pythagorean theorum, my teacher didn't give me a calculator (not that they had them back then), but rather made me repeat it enough that it became ingrained. For years, my eye work sucked (some say it still does) but the improvements have to be made by redundancy. The tool may "get you over the hump", but you still won't know how to do it. MAKE YOURSELF do it. Even with the tools, a person SHOULD be using reference pictures, and since the tool ONLY WORKS ON DEER, what are you going to do with antelope, foxes, bobcats, squirrels, and the rest of the animal kingdom.

 

Thanks Russ! I try to help when I can with what works for me.

 

Spot on George!

 

YES TALENT CAN BE TAUGHT, BUT A TRUE ARTIST DEVELOPES FROM WHAT HE OR SHE HAS BEEN TAUGHT.
Micheal Jordan didn't just wake up one day and bingo he was a basketball GREAT. He developed what he had been taught.

 

Well, we won't ever agree on that one either. No one can teach me to be like Michael Jordan and to say talent can be taught means that you should. If it could be taught, the "Great Masters" wouldn't be either great or masters since anyone else could have been. I wrote an article for Breakthrough a few years back about my dear friend Ken Walker. I stated that he had "magic" in his hands. All you need to do is be around him for a few hours and you'll see that simply can't be taught.

Craftsmanship? Yeah, that can be taught. Talent? Never!

 

OK, I'll except that to a degree. We talk about naturals, God given talent and such.  Yes those are the Masters at whatever.  I feel that you, me, and the person mounting there first piece ALL have varying degrees of talent. Then there are those who rip a hole in the heavens with their talent that goes beyond the norm of what could be expected by human capabilities such as Ken Walker. Absolutely love his recreations!!! AWESOME with emphasis placed on AWE!!!
Thats what I call supernatural talent.  Michael Jordan was supernatural.  I also have a friend that has been a taxi for 30 years and his mounts suck, but I love him and try to help him. He lacks in craftmanship and talent, but he has some or he wouldn't  have survived 30 years in the biz.
What I think makes the difference is that drive from within to exceed beyond the norm.
However, or whatever it takes to get there is what I'm referring to.
And on any given day someone else could win the game. Thats why we play it. Otherwise there's no need to play the game. Steelers verses Cardinals.  That game wasn't decided until the final minute or so.
How much work, practise,drills, and ect went into developing the talent????
Ken Walker did not become Ken Walker overnight. He developed his talent. He could have went in a direction in life that we might know him for something other than taxidermy, perhaps a politician.  Thats IT!!!  Ken Walker for PRESIDENT!!!!!! And he probably would be a damn good one. IF he decided to develop his TALENTS!!!!!!
So, I guess I agree with you but I think talent HAS to be developed. IT"S NOT AUTOMATIC!!!!!
Training, perseverance, determination, and will are key to developing TALENT!!!
I have studied under MANY OF THE GREATS in this field, but have not beat a single one of them YET in a competition, but the game is not over yet. I will try and try again, and when I fail as I will surely do, I will train, study, develop more TALENT until I succeed or until the game is over for me........
EXPERIENCE OR TALENT??????
Undoubtedly BOTH come into play......
Be KIND George!!!!  Believe it or not IT LOOKS GOOD ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!             

 

...looks like you might need to check out some ...a-hem, classes sometime soon...

 

Bonnie, it comes down to practice, along with patience enough to get through every eye, no matter how long it takes to get it right. Also, a key ingredient, the DESIRE to get it right. Some people are more talented than others and I believe it is God given, but, I also believe it must be nurtured to come to full strength. Without working on your talent, your eye's will not be trained to catch what's right. Ken Walker for instance, is a wizard with his hands. And his eyes are well trained. But ask him, and he will tell you that he has had help along the way. Help from folks he considered very talented. All I'm saying is it's okay to be frustrated over setting eyes on a deer. It's a good challenge to go through and as you work out the problems you'll really start to love the results. Use good reference and take your time. Don't worry about time, only worry about getting it right!!! Once you master it, and you will if the desire is there, you'll look back with fond memories of the challenge. Enough from my pie hole, Steve

By the way, I am left handed and always do the right eye first....

 

I'll apologize to Ken for dragging him into this fray, but some of you don't seem to know the same guy I do. Ken is one of the most selfless, unassuming people I've ever met, but I know he hit this industry running and not walking. At his "young" age, he's already worked for studios and museums that a guy like me has to pay admission to get into and I've been doing taxidermy going on 51 years. I've seen him model sculptures out of clay with his hands while talking to a class and NEVER LOOKING DOWN.

My real point is that this industry is blessed with gifted individuals like him and many others, but the MAJORITY OF TAXIDERMISTS tend to be simply "craftsmen". We make molds of ancient Roman sculptures to make plaster and ceramic reproductions of Venus de Milo. A recent John Bellucci pictorial of how we used armatures made from skeletons just a few decades ago shows what calling oneself a taxidermist entailed. Now, if we can spell it, we can be it. (Some can't do that and still claim it.) If you wnat to make a comparison, use Pete Rose versus Cal Ripkin. Pete had no talent to play baseball and to see him catch and throw is still painful today. But Pete had desire and dedication and a good work ethic and he MADE himself into a pro-ball player. Cal, conversely, was smooth as silk. Everything he did looked effortless. In his very first game he hit two homeruns and played flawlessly. From that day on, he was on that playing field for next 16 years straight for a mind boggling 2632 games before he decided to sit the game out in the dugout to intentionally end his streak. At the end, Pete Rose owns a memorabilia shop next door the the Baseball Hall of Fame while Cal has a bust inside it. So skill and craftsmanship may get you to the show, but only talent and grace will get you in the door without paying.