White crappie are fun and popular fish to paint. The secret to painting a crappie is to apply layers of pearls, silver, and shimmer colors on top of each other to give the reflective effect that is desired. The main difference between painting a real skin-mounted fish and a replica is the real fish skin has the natural markings to follow, so you need to apply the colors lighter than with a replica. On a replica, you need to use good reference to create the markings as close to the real thing as possible. One trick I have used over the years is…

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Eyes must convey the attitude depicted by the body, as well as each expressive part of its face, neck height, and tail position. In the minds of some artists, they first envision the eye expression they want to convey, building the rest around that attitude or mood, which becomes the theme of the entire piece, habitat included.

As we go through this article, notice how many more details are seen on the shorter-haired cats as apposed to the fluffy ones. Compare a fully primed Canadian lynx to an extremely short-haired ocelot. Consider the difficulty factor when choosing a competition specimen, as the wow of a fully-furred lynx might outweigh the difficulty factor of a short-haired bobcat. Keeping in mind the importance of the silhouette (refer to Issue 140, Article 1), a bobcat is very distinguishable from other cats. Much of this uniqueness comes from a generally round-shaped head with more rounded ears, shorter ruffs (long hair coming off the sides of the head), and shorter ear tuffs (the cluster of black hairs that come off the back of each ear at the tip) as a comparison to its sometimes very close look-alikes of the various lynx species. The bobcat head should not be a Mr. Potato Head where you get to mix any components.

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The highest award an entry can receive at a state or national competition is Judges’ Choice Best of Show. Breakthrough is honoring this top achievement with the Breakthrough Award for Judges’ Choice Best of Show. Each winner receives a handsome plaque and a gift certificate from Breakthrough worth $50.00 in subscription renewals and merchandise. This is our way of thanking and perhaps giving additional motivation for the many artists of our profession. Here are the winners we are featuring from 2021:

National Taxidermists Association Wes Mote

European Taxidermy Championships  Wesley Kevenaar

California Taxidermists Association     Richard Mark

Colorado Association of Taxidermists  Doug Barnes

Georgia Taxidermists Association Tommy Rogers

Idaho Taxidermists Association     Richard Mark

Iowa Taxidermists Association      Darin Brincks

Kentucky Taxidermists Association     Danny Knight

Louisiana Taxidermists Association     Kyle Landry

Maryland Taxidermists Association      Chad See

Michigan Taxidermists Association        Matt Diemer

Minnesota Taxidermists Association    Bill Neuman

Nebraska Taxidermists Association     Jamie Brincks

NC Taxidermists Association  Russell Coble

I felt it was important and necessary to let our readers know why our office has been shut down for phone calls and Internet communication for many days in September. As of this writing, because of Hurricane Ida, we still have no telephones or Internet at the Breakthrough office. We only recently reached the company that handles our Website and they assisted us in getting our Website orders with safety and security for our customers. Here is a short story of what has happened.

On August 28, 2021 I was enjoying my birthday with family and friends… OK, I will tell you, my 73rd. We all expected that the next day would be anxious with Hurricane Ida strengthening and showing a direct path toward the Louisiana coast near Grand Isle, about 100 miles south of us. We had all been through some pretty bad hurricanes in the past, but the eventual path Ida took would produce the worst devastation our home area (Hammond, Louisiana) has ever experienced. The storm hit us August 29, only a few days before our press date for this issue. Unlike thousands of other businesses and homes in south Louisiana, our office and house suffered no severe damage, but we were facing no electrical power, no land-line telephones, nor Internet for weeks. It took days before any dependable cell phone communication returned.

Our local airport reported gusts to 134 mph and sustained winds of 110–115 mph as we were in the eastern eye wall of the storm for 6 hours. Being 40 miles northwest of New Orleans, our topography and landscape abounds with mature virgin pines and towering oaks. Thousands of these trees were uprooted and broken over by these powerful winds, downing power lines and poles. Our personal property has 18 mature pines and oaks on the ground. Fallen trees and then water intrusion damaged or destroyed at least 50 percent of the homes in our neighborhood.

As bad as it was here, there are locations along coastal parishes of Louisiana that were hit much harder than we were, with winds exceeding 150 mph, tidal surges, and up to 15 inches of rain.

Two weeks after the storm we had power restored to our office where Kathy has her graphic and publishing computers, but no telephones, emails, or Internet. I had a gasoline generator at our home office where I work enabling us to finally complete this issue 17 days after Ida. There were several articles, such as reference and stories of the new Taxidermy Hall of Fame inductees, planned for this issue but we could not complete them because of no Internet, photography, and graphic needs. Our reference articles and much more will be back as normal next issue, including coverage of the 2021 European Taxidermy Championships in Budapest Hungary.

We offer a big thank you to all who have reached out to check on our well being, who have offered hope and assistance. I hope by the time this issue is printed and mailed we will have all of the good features we have come to work and live with. God is great, and even in times of difficulty he gives us the strength we need to continue. •

Taxidermists are often asked to create a base for multiple turkeys, whether a hunter was fortunate enough to score the coveted Grand Slam or simply had a great spring. We will walk through techniques that could be used to achieve any type of lightweight wall mount display for clients.

There were a few different processes we could have used. This includes creating an understructure: breaking pieces of foam and screwing them together, then applying spray foam. There are also other common methods involving chicken wire or carving A/B foam.

For what we had in mind, these techniques were not ideal. Using these methods often makes the display heavy and limits the shape of a custom rock. While they certainly have their places in the world of taxidermy, we went another direction. Our process allowed us to adjust terrain formations as we went and create a dynamic base without the weight. •

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