Big Goth Bird

A couple months ago, I finished a large wall panel featuring a black vulture. I call it Big Goth Bird, to go along with my Big Weird Bird panel.

Photo credit: John Polak Photography

Over the summer, I saw a flock of black vultures in a yard and took this picture of one of them.

At the time, I was in the process of organizing the veneer stash and had found a lot of very dark veneers. I decided to make an image showcasing the variety of dark wood, and a black vulture was a good subject for that.

Each feather on the vulture’s neck is made of wenge and East Indian rosewood. Its torso is mostly jadewood. For the wrinkly skin on its head, I used veneer from a few different kinds of burls.

The red wood in the background is bubinga, and the sun sphere is satinwood.