Covering the back of the figure in concrete.  

First I am stuffing the cavity of his body with paper to create a surface to stop the concrete from going completely through the mesh.  

the cavity to be filled with paper.  

stuffing the crevices.  

view from the back  - you can see the newspaper stuffed in the cavity through the lath. 

I am now ready to add the concrete to the back.  

When working in concrete you start from the top down. In this piece I started with the owl. Concrete is constantly falling and you don't want to have any fall on a surface you have finished. On each section I work from the bottom up, placing the first handfuls on the lath where it meets a surface that can support the weight of the concrete. In the below case I started on the hips and built the concrete up his back to the shoulders. 

30 lbs- covered his back. 

now it hydrates for 5days.