a small carving becomes a big deal

It all began with this little guy; he is 4" long but only 1 1/4" wide. He was a fun little carve and I was happy with hoe he came out. About the time I was carving and painting him up a friend of mine and fellow carver sent me some butternut wood, a few corner cuts from 3" block 12" long. Well this one piece looked really nice and I got this thought in my head that I could re-carve the design of the little guy on this big piece of butternut and so I did.

With him being 12" long I figured I had plenty of room for some extra detailing and so I gave him a flight cap and goggles as well as the long folded cap. Of course if he was going to have a leather flight cap he would probably be a smoker so I gave him a cigar as well. I don't normally carve anything this big and at times I pondered why I was but in the end I was happy with the design and carving. Hope you enjoy him as well.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

It all began with a pencil

My second effort into publishing is now available on Kindle; it will soon be available in paperback as well. This was a wonderful project looking back on my cartooning efforts and deciding what would be put in the book. If you have the Kindle unlimited plan you may view the book through that program.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

 Recently I was asked my procedure for carving the nose and eye area, so I will share my response;

When carving the nose right after I have cut the lower line where the tip of the nose and then cut an angled line for each nostril flare area I take my  ¼  #7 gouge and cut up towards the area where the eyes come meet. I then take my 3/16 #9 or 10 gouge and proceed to open up the eye area. When I do this I always cut all the way through from one eye socket to the other across the bridge of the nose. The time we got together Dwayne Gosnell was carving a nose area and he started setting up the eyes when he said "what if  have a oops moment and you accidentally go too deep" and cut out a chunk of wood at the bridge of the nose. He then continued on with the eyes and the nose making the "oops" moment part of the new design. Well I have made this oops moment a part of my carving routine to make myself be sure to go deep and to get real depth.

 Every carver has a different approach and uses different techniques to achieve the look he/she is going for, this is simply mine.

as always, 

"Good Night and May God bless"

Cartoons 2 Carvings Kindle version

So as many may or may not know I had this past year published a pattern book for wood carvers in paperback. Well since then I have had numerous request to make it available in a kindle version and so now it is. The kindle version is in the Kindle Unlimited for those that are members, which means you can simply borrow the book along with thousands of other books.






There was a twofold reason for me making a Kindle version available, First and foremost because it was requested by some of my fellow carvers. Secondly, because I am now in the process of putting together a coffee table book of my history in cartooning, close to 40 years of doodles and cartoons. With this being more images and less text it seems that it would be well suited as a Kindle book but as always will have the paperback version available as well. It will take the reader from my earliest pencil sketches and doodles all the way to my present day water color cartoons and a stipple illustration or two in between. Here is a sample page from the book, set-up as a scrap book of my work. And if nothing else comes of this, my family, boys and any grandchildren God may give us will have this as a keep sake of my work and time spent here on this blue ball we call earth.

as always, 

"Good night and may God bless"