Here are a couple of mounts recently done by TriState Taxidermy in Houston:

Nice work as always Mr. Ben.

Good stuff Ben. I like them both.

Very Nice !

niiiicccee!!!!

Beautiful!! Love it!

The elephant is gorgeous!

a pretty cool pic of the ele...

OK, I'll be the first to say it, if that were my lion mount I'd want my money back.
Like the ele mount.
Not so on the lion.

Ide, yes a agree Whoever did this could have been helped had they used some references!!!

Lions can turn their heads back around, but that swing is limited ...

Mostly by their mane, but more importantly by the "structure of the cervical vertebrae".  If one is familiar with anatomy, then one would realize the limitations of the living animal.  Yes, a Lion can lower its neck, but NO ... a Lion cannot turn its head round to look back when the neck is lowered as portrayed.  It is a near physical impossibility ... especially when the front end is elevated while standing or walking.

And then those tail rolls?  Plus the fact that the tail is not coming away form the body cleanly.  "The tail is an extension of the spine".  It is not its own independent growth, and shouldn't come away at a higher or lower plane than the spinal process itself.


Never mind the fact that he made the rolls under the tail to look like the rolls on a cinnamon bun!  LOL!  The rolls are simply the extra skin and fat pad that is located under the base of the tail.  They are a place for all that skin and fat to go, they have a purpose, and are not to be portrayed for purely decorative reasons.  Again, a knowledge of Big Cat anatomy would have taught him this.  They have been put in - INCORRECTLY - because he knows they are there, but doesn't know the how or why of their structure.

The presentation is ... very nice.  The mount is smooth in its appearance.  But a poor execution in regards to the structure of the mount does not help matters.  I don't know if there was a sparse mane that was trying to be disguised by the extremely ridiculous sharp turn or what. 

Why is the neck dropped down so?  It reminds me more of one of the cartoon Lions in "The Lion King".  It appears to be based on the neck position carried by 'Scar' from the movie!  It doesn't appear to be based on any real life Lion I have ever seen.

If the client loved it that's all that matters in the end.






Producing the Highest Quality Custom Wildlife Mounts with less than 120 Working Day Delivery.
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quote:

Originally posted by lde:
OK, I'll be the first to say it, if that we're my lion mount I'd want my money back.
Like the ele mount.
Not so on the lion.

I bit my tongue. Quasimodo lives!

I have to agree. In fact Dennis and I discussed this mount at length. I know ... a shocker, right? That's how strongly we felt about the Lion mount! I'll further back up Dennis here by admitting that I supplied the photos and some of the text in his post. Yes, I'm guilty of knowing Big Cats and Mammals in general. I also agree ... if the client is happy with the piece, then so be it. I also like the Elephant mount, and I particularly like that pose.

John.

I bit my tongue on the lion because no one asked for an opinion, simply offering us some pics to look at. I'm still biting my tongue....

I get my mounts critiqued here when I just post some nice pictures to look at, so fair is fair.





Producing the Highest Quality Custom Wildlife Mounts with less than 120 Working Day Delivery.
Visit our Studio Online at:
The Artistry of Wildlife
"2009 World Champions"
"Best in World Combined Artists"
World Taxidermy Championships
" 2010 Michigan State Champion"


Email:
info@artistryofwildlife.com

Nice hump back lion. The high shoulders do not look very good. Sorry.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul C:
Nice hump back lion. The high shoulders do not look very good. Sorry.

I was going to ask what the two humps were on the back of he Lion. I understand they have muscles there but that big ?????????

.

I want to ask a question without getting in trouble for going off topic, has anybody ever seen or done a mount of a lion, shoulders forward, as if it were leaping at its prey?

I dream of hunting lion in Africa, and thought of having one mounted like that above my desk, behind me, awesome.

of course that's 20 years off

Red

Dago: Many poses on this site

http://www.animalartistry.com/pb/cats-lions.php

quote:

Originally posted by lde:
OK, I'll be the first to say it, if that were my lion mount I'd want my money back.
Like the ele mount.
Not so on the lion.

Well, you're not the first to say it, just the first with the balls to leave it up. I made a pretty derogatory post regarding the lion, but after getting a good nights sleep I thought better of it and deleted my post.

Basically the lion is pure garbage front to back. And the guys praising it are either idiots or need to take off their rose colored glasses. I tend to look at this Taxidermy forum as an old boys network where one guy posts a photo and everyone climbs over each other to laud it praise.

Part of the reason I deleted my post is because I tend to dislike most taxidermy as it just rarely looks "alive". Having said that, the lion is a joke. And I bet the guy who did it thought it was a masterpiece, so I hate to throw stones, but that is just way, way overdone. The amount of definition is over the top.

I don't criticize much on the taxidermy forum because, well, most of the stuff I see I think actually looks pretty good.

Two guys in particular that I love seeing their stuff is The Artistry of Wildlife and Jerry Huffaker.

One reason I was deragotory about this lion is how could an artist do so well with the ele and be so far off on the lion (I'm assuming both were done by the same person)?

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
I bit my tongue on the lion because no one asked for an opinion, simply offering us some pics to look at. I'm still biting my tongue....

+1

quote:

Originally posted by 500N:

quote:

Originally posted by Paul C:
Nice hump back lion. The high shoulders do not look very good. Sorry.

I was going to ask what the two humps were on the back of he Lion. I understand they have muscles there but that big ?????????

.

The shoulder 'hump' is due more so to the shoulder blades (and accompanying muscle tissue)being displaced by certain body positions . . . in this case it appears to be a bit exaggerated. I'd the say the area on Cat mounts that is the most difficult to get right is the face, and in this case the face does look quite OK, so kudos for that part . . . ost!

Careful Anbessa, if you say anything nice about the mount, the hyenas will turn on you.

I will stick to skull mounts and photographs. If I have already killed the animal, there is little point in trying to resuscitate it. Turning it into a clown indicates a lack of respect. Just my thoughts.