Process
From the bird
to the block.
“Every sculpture starts with time spent with the living bird.”
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Time with the living bird
Every piece begins with the bird itself: watching how it stands, swims and turns its head, and photographing it from every angle. Charles keeps an aviary of North American waterfowl for exactly this reason.
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Working out the pose on paper
Sketches settle the attitude of the bird and its proportions before any wood is cut. The pose is chosen to suit where the finished piece will live.
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A head study
The character of a bird lives in its head: the set of the eye, the line of the bill. A separate study gets this right before the full carving is started.
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Blocking out the form in tupelo
The carving is cut from tupelo, a light, fine-grained wood that holds detail. The main masses of body, neck and head are established first.
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Roughing out the body
Knives and rotary tools refine the shape, then the feather groups are laid out and each feather is carved and textured so that it reads under paint.
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Carved and textured, before paint
The finished carving is sealed and painted in thin layers of oil or acrylic, then mounted on a driftwood perch or a carved habitat base.
Charles takes on a small number of commissions each year. Inquiries →