So, a distinctive bird like a pheasant is good in some ways, and bad in others. It's recognisable enough that it can be stylised into certain shapes and still be recognisable - good. But if it's so recognisable, it has to be done well in order to look right. - bad.
So, on Sunday, I spent 7 hours sketching, experimenting, and fiddling, until I finally made something that I'm kind of proud of!
It began with the eye and head/neck. I needed to roll two colours of paper as one strip to get the green/blue tone I wanted. I tried doing the red area and the green/blue area with metallic papers to begin with, but the don't stick well to each other at the best of times, and couldn't cope with the pressure I was putting them under.
The head then gained a white neck section, a dash under the eye, and the distinctive narrow beak.
This is what took all the time: translating that drawing there into a self-supporting multi-level 3D piece!
This is the nerve-racking stage: I know what I want it to look like, I just have to believe that it WILL end up looking that way, despite appearances!
I completed one wing, and I really quite like the "powering forward, wing caught mid-beat" effect that a single wing gives, but I'd got everything ready for a second wing, so...
I completed it with two wings, yay!
Fly, little pheasant, fly!!
And, of course, what's better than one pheasant? Two pheasants!
I created a duplicate bird to check how long it would take me to make it again in future, and have a blank to work from if I want to do another. It took me over 3 hours to make the duplicate, so I think this one will never really be cost effective to make, unless people would be willing to pay £60 or so for a paper bird!
