Osi

Osi is made using a foam armature instead of a cardboard one because I wanted a more dynamic pose. His body is cut from 4’ x 8’ x 2” foam board sheets laminated together and refined into shape. The armature is skinned with felt and overlaid with cardstock feathers. The body feathers are painted, and the tips sanded to achieve the “tipping” of the feathers. The flight feathers are heavier cardstock, painted with an ink and watercolor mixture. They are then “veined” with stained wire on the bottom and natural fiber on the top.  The flight feathers receive a painted “tipping.” The tail feathers are treated similarly to the flight feathers. Paper towels are used in the downy areas such as the beak, head, and feet. The toe details are achieved by folding and tucking to get a natural look, because cutting creates an unnatural, hard edge. The talons are made from basswood that I carved and then painted with an ink mixture. The eyes are glass blanks with a painted watercolor paper eye laminated onto the back, and are set using epoxy clay. The base is aluminum and a piece of driftwood found on the Arkansas River.  A divine gift, as it fit the toes so well that only one had to be adjusted. It simply needed to be pushed down into the groove. Osi, without his base, weighs about five pounds. It took around 550 hours to complete. One important realization from working on the downy areas is that hair was possible to achieve with paper towels.