I just started taxidermy a few months ago. This is a hog I killed and have now mounted.

Looks good..well done

sixgunner, it's not bad for your first but you need to use reference pictures on your next one. The skin has been stretched way too tight. The face is too elongated and the muzzle lookes extended past the form as there's a huge overbite being portrayed. The hog is just too "slick" and the hair needs back brushing to give it a realistic "pissed off" look that the open mouth implies. The ears are way too far back on the skull. Look at your skull and note where the ear canals are in relation to the eye orbits. The ears are Bondo I'm guessing as their shape is more like a dogs than a hogs. Finish work around the mouth also needs to be bounced off your reference pictures. The bottom teeth should be over the lip and there is no "chin" on a boar. The teeth come to a point. If you can, get WASCO's Rick Carter tape of mounting the wild boar. It will enhance and improve your work. You seem to have the skills, so don't be discouraged.

quote:

Originally posted by ga sixgunner:
I just started taxidermy a few months ago.

For a "first shot" at taxidermy, I think you have done better than average. I know how difficult it is to pick up a new skill like this.

I say congratulations on your first mount. I would be willing to bet my first attempt would not be suitable to hang on the wall in the garage!

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:

quote:

Originally posted by ga sixgunner:
I just started taxidermy a few months ago.

For a "first shot" at taxidermy, I think you have done better than average. I know how difficult it is to pick up a new skill like this.

I say congratulations on your first mount. I would be willing to bet my first attempt would not be suitable to hang on the wall in the garage!

+1

sixgunner, for some reason on this forum anytime a taxidermist gives a beginner some constructive criticism, the group feels the need to console the beginner. It IS an OK mount for a "beginner" and for your first, but "nice job" or "I couldn't have done that well" won't help you improve. Today's modern forms are exceptional and have led us old farts to call it "snap together taxidermy". If you measure your animal correctly, you can buy a corresponding form, eyes, and earliners to do an acceptable job. It's the FINISH WORK and the anatomy work that separate the artists from the wannabes. You seem to have very good artistic skills in your finish work and simply anatomy changes will put you on top very quickly once you accept that need for training. It took a LOT of guts to post your first piece on an open forum and I congratulate you on that. Good luck in your future and if you ever need help, just let me know. I'm no where near the skills of many, but I do know a few who are that might be able to help you.

George,

I don't think it's the comments for improvement that people react to as much as what they they infer the tone of the message to be. Remember that in typed messages you lose visual and auditory clues that can communicate much and soften what cam be received as harsh criticism. More than 40% of a messages communication can be non-verbal clues.

One effective way to avoid a negative reaction is to praise what is good then explain what can be improved and finally reenforce the good. So praising what is good is known to be positive and explaining what can be improved is seen as helpful instead of negative.

Oday, you're correct in most of what you say. I know this is the "Taxidermy" forum but it's not regularly attended by the thousands who go to a dedicated site. Most of the people visiting here are hunters looking at pictures of trophies. Even less of them understand that the basis for good taxidermy is art and artist tend to have fragile egos. (Hell, I actually have feelings once or twice a year myself.) Simply put NO ONE wants to be told they have an "ugly baby". There's simply no way of telling a person that without it bruising his ego a tad. Wnen most of us start, we have family and close friends who tell us how good we are and how great we make our mounts look. We thrive on that and actually start to believe it UNTIL we run into someone who's been there and oozes the talent we wish we had.

So perhaps I'm blunt or honest to a fault, but when YOU go to claim your trophy at the taxidermists, how are YOU going to react if all your friends look at the piece and ask you, "Who the hell did you let mount that?" (We both have friends like that I'd bet.) Well, that's the "critique" and the "feedback" no aspiring taxidermist needs. I guess I'm just going to have to shun this section of the AR site unless some of you can tell me how I can say that the baby is ugly without throwing it a banana or two.

Looks good! Keep up the good work!

I would suggest that most of the posters could not turn out as good a job as you have done. It looks fine to me from the photo. Besides; you have the pride in saying "I shot that bad boy, and I did the taxidermy work...". Very, very few here can say that.

Rich

Thanks everyone for the comments, even George. I want to improve and appreciate the tips from George. The reason I started taxidermy was I payed good money for a hog mount that looked terrible compared to this one. Not to mention the 1 1/2 year wait and all the excuses I got as to why it wasn't ready.

Many of us who are long time professionals got involved for the same reasons you do sixgunner. For me, I was too poor to be able to afford it and as a young hunter, any wait was just too long. There's really not much excuse for any professional to take over a year to mount a specimen. If he's that overworked, he should stop taking it in.

George Roof has given a good critique on this mount. We mount hogs wholesale across the country so I have some idea what Im talking about. Any would be taxidermist who doesnt take criticism well is not going to improve. Follow Georges advice & your next hogs should show marked improvement.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Coates:
George Roof has given a good critique on this mount. We mount hogs wholesale across the country so I have some idea what Im talking about. Any would be taxidermist who doesnt take criticism well is not going to improve. Follow Georges advice & your next hogs should show marked improvement.

+1

Ga sixgunner, I applaud your guts for both trying your own mount in the first place, and then posting the results. I thought the hog looked great, but maybe a bit too clean and shiny.

I also applaud George for having the fortitude to give his honest opinion. I hope the criticism is what ga sixgunner was looking for. I know that when I've asked for and genuinely wanted criticism, it is hard to get people past the attaboys that we are programmed to give, and get real criticism.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about that wallpaper.

quote:

Originally posted by RREESE:
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about that wallpaper.

Great start for a new taxidermist