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Galapagos tortoise and finch

OK, I've never tried to do an animal statue so I decided I would try one. Here's the first few hours...

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It's going to be a Giant Galapagos Tortoise with his Darwin Finch friends that pick off the ticks and bugs that harrass the tortoise, sort of a partnership. It'll be on a small environment diorama base. I will make a few more finches later.

Obviously it is FAR from being complete (anatomically or detail wise) I'm just trying to get the scale and mood for the piece, it's 7" from shell front to back (the real guy is 48"). I hope I'm able to make it look like the tortoise is very contented with his visitors (with the slightly cocked head and closed eyes) without actually sculpting a smile and end up making it cartoony.

I know it's terribly rough but I dare ask what do you all think?  
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The finch drinks blood. They peck at another animal ( I forgot what the animal is) until it bleeds. Then it drinks the blood until it's full.
 
TMI.
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That's going to be nice!  I'm glad to see you branching out and trying something different.  I have no doubt whatever you tackle, you will be successful at it.  
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Show us more as it goes along.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (0zzy @ Aug. 30 2005,6:48)]The finch drinks blood. They peck at another animal ( I forgot what the animal is) until it bleeds. Then it drinks the blood until it's full.
Actually Ozzy that is only one sub form of the Darwin's Finch that does that. And I don't think they do it on the tortoises, thick skin and all that. The ones Josh is talking about are cleaners.

And I think you are on the right track Josh, the stancs is about perfect from all the nature shows and books and stuff and I think the face catches the content nature with no cartoonyness.
 
Thanks all! It's so intimidating trying something different - especially trying to make a reptile look emotive and not just standing there.

Yes, Pyro is correct, there are 14 sub species of Darwin Finches, everything from classic seed eating finches to insectivores and the blood suckers. I think only 11 sub species still exist though - that's all my various animal books mention and show. Unfortunately none of the photos I have with the Tortoises being cleaned have captions saying which subspecies exactly this is. I've been scouring the net trying to find info on these specific Finches even though at this size a bigger or smaller beak and a few fractions of a centimeter in height isn't going to even be noticeable but it's nice to have all the reference as possible.
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Very nice. Please keep us up to date as you work on it! I'm really looking forward to seeing this one develope. By the way, compare the pictures in your books with the pictures found at this website. Good luck!
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That's going to be extremely cool. The face is pretty expressive already.

If you get tired of the wildlife thing you can put some trees on its back and call it Morla the Aged One.
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