I’ve done a number of animal busts already, that I call my “Barnyard Portraits“, and this one will be part of that series if we can fit a moose in the barnyard! See the completed piece in a video
May 21, 2023: I’ve completed the Moose and he’s on his way to his new home! Here’s a look at the final piece.
Read more to see how the Moose came together!
This is a scaled down moose head, and an interesting challenge, as I haven’t looked at moose a lot – not like seeing cows and horses almost every day. So I started by finding some good reference photos to plan from. Then I went into my (somewhat organized) scrap pile and found some pieces start building with. Here’s a few that got me started. Maybe this is where the “Artist’s Vision” comes into play, because not everyone will look at this former fire place stand, and think “Oh! A Moose!”.
Here is the first pieces I put together to start with the jawline.
I wish I had more photos to show you of the process, but I get busy, focused and don’t think about the blog post I need to write later. Also, I don’t feel the progress photos would really show much until the piece starts to take shape (at least that’s my excuse!). Here is a photo taken the next day of a more complete moose head.
Here’s the piece from another angle – and I think the moose is a little surprised at how well it’s going!
Once I had most of the head complete, I took some time to weld hair to it. Here’s a time lapse video of the process:
Stay tuned for more updates as I keep working on this piece (Disclaimer: Winter in Nebraska means the shop is fairly cold so I’m not in there as often).
May 2023: I finished the MOOSE! 😀 Here’s the final video: