Rooster:

I crafted and engraved this money clip so it could be auctioned off at the NE chapter of the Pennsylvania Pheasants Forever banquet later this month. Pheasants Forever has been largely responsible for the re-introduction of Wild Pheasants into Pennsylvania.

great art, and for a very worthwhile cause. cheers to you, my good man !

Handsome work. Also a nice idea to create something for a good cause that can be raffled off to earn some money for that organization.
Is it a particular pheasant? I'm an avid birder. I'm in roadrunner country, very little grass around here. Nonetheless, beautiful country. Occasionally when I take my morning walk a roadrunner flashes across the road.
Kevin P.

Good lookin work!!

Nice pheasant Crazy Horse!
Darcy

It looks very good Crazy Horse but can I make a constructive comment?

The wattles (patches of red that are the cheeks of a cock pheasant) are very distinctive. Indeed, as your engraving depicts, some are very large! But they don't run together across the head. Feathers divide them. Here it looks as if they're bridging the head. You can easily rescue this before it's auctioned.

To be honest, in all my years of engraving (and I've engraved hundreds of pheasants) I've never come across pictures of one where the wattles meet across the head. I've shot and been on shoots so I've seen hundreds of the real thing also.

There is something to be learned here by all engravers, especially novices. If you give something to your friends/family they are very grateful and positive but if it goes out to the larger world then clients, and prospective clients, can become really hurtful and critical with their comments. Nearly all the time these pedants are right (even if it sometimes gauls me to say so) and it's nearly always about the engraver's ignorance of anatomy of the animal/bird. If you give anything to a bunch of folks who are 'experts' on the particular subject, someone will at sometime point out something that's not quite right.

This forum is a great place to share and exchange ideas but sometimes all the praise doesn't help one develop and advance. A couple of years ago Chris DeCamillis and John Baraclough pointed a couple of things out to me. I listened to them and adjusted things accordingly and now I'm a lot happier with the stuff I produce so even experienced engravers can still learn!

Here's a pheasant with very large wattles. You can see by the dark area where the beak joins the head (in front of the wattles) that there are feathers and that these divide the wattles even though it's not clearly defined in the picture. The eye doesn't perceive them as joined.

I've darkened the area with photoshop on your engraving so you can see what I mean. The bird's beak also isn't quite correct but that's another issue.

I see what you mean Macus. I used a photo from a magazine and made some small alterations of the picture. It's too late to recall as I already sent it out. I will make note of my mistake for future reference and do appreciate you pointing it out. I can use all the help I can get. Thank you much.

J.T.

Thanks Marcus for taking the time to point out some very constructive suggestions on how to improve our construction of these birds. I always liken engravings to laying a concrete floor, once its down it's very hard to take it back.