This Rainbow Trout is closer to the project I had in mind when I started the Skull from before. That was building up to this.
I went into this project with the expectation that I'd mess something--or several somethings--up. Even that I might mess things up so badly that the whole thing had to be scrapped. And, even if things went perfectly, I'd find something I wished I had done better. With that in mind, my process was focused more on speed rather than a perfect implementation. That's a difficult thing for me. Anyway, the fish and mounting board look great from several feet away. Up close, well...
I did learn from the experience and will do things differently on future projects:
- Take it easy with the scroll saw. I ended up doing a lot of sanding anyway and some of the errant scroll saw (mis)cuts just created more work later. I would've been better off leaving more margin and working my way into the final cut line instead of trying to follow it too closely with the saw.
- Get some new scroll saw blades and a new router bit. The blades I had were hurting before I even started and they haven't gotten any better. The router bit I had was a cheap one and burned the edge of the mounting board. The dark stain covered this up pretty well but it looked ugly before.
- Leave some distressing on the fish. I sanded the fish fairly well. At least up to the point where I thought "It's just a proof of concept, enough already". In the end, some of the leftover marks and scratches actually look good under the paint wash.
- Practice with the paint a bit more. If I'd gone a little heavier on the water, the colors would've blended better. The water soaked in really, really fast and there already isn't a lot of working time with acrylics.
Fish is approximately 16" long (a decent catch!) with the mounting board being around 19" x 7".
Mounting board made with Aspen. Trout made with pine and finished with acrylic paint. Both have a satin polyurethane coating.
*See Psych Season 7, Episode 14
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