Dog on coyote form?

Your very best friend can turn on you with a job like this. I simply refuse to do pets of any kind. Pets develop a personality with their owners that you're simply never going to be able to capture that. Some people may not notice, but most do and you're going to be the fall guy for this anger. I once did a damned pet rabbit for a lady. She seemed happy when she picket it up but a day later she was raising hell about the eyes. Seems they just didn't look like "Cotton's" eyes. And just wait until it starts gathering dust and the hair starts to break off during cleaning. I DON'T DO PETS.

 

Well I would ( if I had too ) sculpt a dog shoulder manikin or carcass cast and sculpt over that and then you can make it that much closer.

Sonny

 

For pets I carve a head form from a block of foam, using the skinned head as reference. IMO it was easier than cutting apart a form and making alterations, and you'll get the face more accurate that way. Here is a newfoundland from a few years ago, just dock foam and made the jawset from bondo. I think you can do it!

 

George, I think Codi may have proven you wrong on this one. Most of us can't capture the personality of a pet. I don't do them for that reason as well, but Codi surely did on the Newfy.
I believe I already told you something similar to this Codi but it deserves repeating, fantastic job.

 

3Bears, i never meant to imply it couldn't be mounted, i said you couldnt recapture the personality. Codi did a beautiful job. John Belluci's Rottweiler was one of the best I ever saw. But neither if thise are my dog. Up until recently, freezedriers refused to do pets other than lying down with closed eyes because if that reason. And the last part is immutable. As the mount ages, dust mites and age take a toll and fickle owners are faced with throwing their beloved pet in the garbage. I've never felt the money offset the misery of doing pets.

 

I get what you were saying George, a man or woman should know and accept his/her limitations but, it is hard to know the limit if you never push it.

 

Personally, I would purchase the carcass casting DVD from Taxidermy Training Unlimited and the DVD from WASCO/McKenzie and carcass cast it. Then sculpt over the cast and make the form. Why? Because:

1) I have never carcass casted a shoulder mount, only bird bird bodies.

2)It would be a learning experience you may find quite handy down the road.

3) I think it would give you the best results.

I would charge him what I already agreed to and and chalk it up to a learning opportunity and experience.

 

I hope you get full payment upfront.

 

post the drying photo's after you get it mounted

 

JJ, you used three different coyotes as reference for one dog...domestics are heavier, plus fat, lots of it. Id check leg lengths joint by joint, but Id think youd be way further ahead to simply wrap the body, cast the legs, and carve or cast and model the head. That size dog is about a $5500 job or more.

 

Yeesh!

 

George is correct, run away fast. We put human emotions into our pets you will never beagle to get the look that he remembers.

 

Here is my best friend and companion for 13 years that meant the world to my family and me. Do whatever you want to it, as long as it doesn't cost much. By the way he always talked of wanting to look more like a coyote. I think you are asking for trouble down the road by doing this. Not that you won't do a great job, but because of what George said. Just my thoughts.