PHOTO REFERENCE STUDY: DOVES

Doves and pigeons constitute the animal family Columbidae and the order Columbiformes, which includes about 42 genera and 310 species. The distinction between “doves” and “pigeons” in English is not consistent, and does not exist in most other languages. Back in the 1970s my attempts at mounting two species nearly had me at the brink of giving up...

Taxidermy's Ca$h Cow

A cash cow is a metaphor for a dairy cow that produces milk over the course of its lifetime and requires very little maintenance. In business, it’s defined as a consistently profitable product whose profits are used to finance the rest of your business. In taxidermy, it is defined as whitetail deer. They are your most reliable source of money. With an estimated 30...

Painting a Triggerfish: Step-by-Step

There are 40 or so triggerfish species in the world with 6 living in the tropical waters of Florida and the Caribbean Sea, ranging as far north as the Carolinas as the summer waters warm. Triggerfish live mostly in the shallow water around wrecks and reefs but can be found as deep as 300 feet. The queen triggerfish is the most colorful and interesting of the triggerfish....

Making Hooves Great Again: Step-by-Step

One area of taxidermy that seems to get neglected are deer feet. Just a few of the problems I see are feet that are over-filled, under-filled, or teeming with shrinkage. In this article I will focus on the hooves of a whitetail deer. I will take you through my procedure for creating a cast foot, then coloring the hoof, and adding detail to the finished cast.  When...