Anatomy of a Carving
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Driftwood The driftwood is also carved from wood. In this case it was made from a piece of 4X4 fencepost from a local lumberyard.
Body The body of the fish must be carved from wood. Most carvers choose to use a fine grained wood such as Basswood or Tupelo. This fish was made from Sugar Pine, which is my personal favorite.
Fins The fins are often carved from the same major piece of wood as the body. However, I choose to use the fine grained wood called Tupelo. These fins are set and glued in, then carved to the fine detail.
Rocks All habitat material, such as rocks, mud and grass must also be carved from wood. In the case of grass, I generally use Bamboo. Rocks, such as these are carved from spare wood and then painted.
Paint The paint is alternating levels of opaque, semi-opaque, semi-transparent and transparent. The layers are built up one by one. This carving has approximately 27 layers of paint. The paint used was Acrylic.
Eyes The eyes on the carving are the only thing must not be wood. In this case, they are made from hand painted glass, such as would be used in a taxidermy mount.
