a rough roughout

I haven’t posted in awhile with the holiday and all. I did have a small project I recently got done and it seems to be working out for me quite well. You see I don’t have a machine to do roughouts nor do I have the budget to buy roughouts every time I want to do a carving so I got inventive, of sorts. I wanted to carve some Santa carvings on a piece of 1 ½” by 1 ½” by 4” corner cut but once I got the wood in half how would I cut out the pattern. 

So this is what I have done. I took a flat piece of 2” wood and placed the pattern on that. 

From there I used my v-gouge and cut a v right down the center of the wood. I then turned the piece over and placed the outline of the carving on that took it to my scroll saw and cut away. I then took a few pieces of scrap wood and made an “L” shaped piece that I place my corner cut on. 

Then on top of that I place my silhouette with the v cut on the bottom and with a pencil in a slight angle out from the wood transfer my pattern onto the corner cut and to the scroll saw we go. Now this is not a perfect solution but it works quite well for what I am trying to accomplish.

This takes me to my next task which is trying to improve on the style of my carvings, which has been made easier by an extremely generous friend. Knowing the small assortment of tools I had to work with I was given an extremely nice supply of knives and gouges for my very own. I can't thank this person enough it has opened my eyes to what a real carving knife can do. I know many people are in the same position I am with raising a family in today's economy. So many of us getting by using X-acto knives or pocket knives. My advice is simple, buy yourself at least one good carving knife. If possible an inexpensive set of gouges. After using the knives I received I came to realize how hard I was working just to make a basic cut. The other issue, the clean cuts you can make with a proper knife that you can't with improper tools.

I use Amazon for a lot of my purchases like this. The nice thing is you can check out the reviews to get an idea of the quality. Worth checking them out and see what is available. One of the basic chisels sets I found you can look at in the carousel provided on the left of this blog.

As I have said a number of times, research it out and if possible get into a carving group. You learn so much and nothing like hands on training and many carving magazines have a list of carving groups in your area. It is worth checking into.

New stock, old cartoons

Well now that I have some new stock to carve what am I going to do about it? That's easy, I pulled out my folder of some of my oldest cartoons and I found a few characters that I thought might be fun to carve. Since I have 1 ½” and 2” wood I thought I would start with the 2” and carve that first. I have rough cut two of the three and after roughing it out it seemed 2” was too wide. I decided to cut it down and this will give me a skinny practice piece as well a thicker piece of both characters. Maybe after I carve the skinny rough out the thicker one will seem to give me so much more to carve, maybe not. In the not so distant future I will carve a piece from a magazine or book and then I will carve from an instructional DVD. I want to compare and see which way works best for me when it comes to learning new procedures in carving. I have noticed I am lazy and don't take the time to read the article like I should. How do you learn best and what is your main resource? If anyone has any to share let me know. 

Bought some wood

Well I recently bought some bass wood and I have to say I was thrilled with the service. I had a few options but nothing locally so I decided to try a company in Wisconsin, HeineckeWood Products. I placed my order on the 11^th of this month and I received my shipment on the 17^th. Now let me start by saying the shipping time was impressive but not the most impressive thing about the product, the most impressive was the wood itself. I order both 1 ½” and 2” and to my surprise it came at the exact size. Some places tell you it can be a 1/4” off due to surfacing, not this it was the exact size. Shipping was competitive and timely. All in all this is a great company to buy your wood from. They charge no minimal amount, a competitor on the web required a purchase of at least 25 dollars, and they were priced higher than Heinecke Wood Products which meant I would have to pay more for less wood. All in all it has been a pleasant shopping experience and would recommend them again. I have seen a link to their page on many wood carvers sites but thought you might want to know why so many wood carvers promote this company. 

color contrast pt 2

Well the king is finished and his name is Ryan, which happens to be my son’s name who told me not to give up on this carving. We found out as well that the name Ryan in Gaelic translates to “little king”, what better name for the king of the leprechauns. This carving started out as a corner piece, you know, a carving from a practice stick that is only done one half of the block. Well after I had carved out the front side and Ryan (my son) showed an interest in having him in his room I thought I should carve out his back side as well. The funny thing was I had already begun to paint him, you see for some reason my son not only wanted me to save this carving but he also wanted him to have a red beard. So I started to carve him, broke his nose (trying to muscle the wood, bad idea), finished the initial carving, but I’m not done yet. Second half, started to paint him, decided to carve the back side, carved off some of the old paint with minor changes to original design and repainted him. 

From all this was born Ryan, king of the leprechauns. I have added more pictures than I normally would but wanted to give you a good look at the transition he went through. All in all it was worth it and it taught me a lesson in carving. No matter what mistake was made and no matter what you thought it would end up to be complete each carving and see how it looks complete.

Michelangelo once said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”.

color contrast

Color truly brings a contrast and I have openly said that with my current supplies, I am limited in painting supplies. Now of course I could go out and buy a full supply of paints but I am not ready for that yet. Although most carvers use similar techniques to paint their carvings, there are variations from carver to carver. I will be researching this in the near future but I want to find a way to paint my carvings to have a water color look to them. Right now the paint is heavy and covers the wood completely. I know there is a way to apply paint and still have the wood have a presence, more on this later.

There are three factors (in my mind) in getting a completed carving. I know I might be breaking it down into too simple of terms but for now I am not only trying to improve upon my skills but also trying to form a process to my carving that will keep me consistent in my work. I have broken it down this way, basic carving; where you proceed from rough out to the basic form of a carving. This will be followed by the detailing process. This will be when you go into the details that make this character come through and stand out from other carvings that you have done. This will be followed by the painting process and I truly believe that this can be a make or break it time. Color can reduce a wonderful carving down to a cartoon like character. It can also diminish the idea that this was carved from wood if put on too heavy.

I have painted some of my cravings just to get into the process and to pick and choose what I do and don’t like from each, the main thing as I have said before is I don’t like it covering the wood completely so that it (for me) takes away from the wood itself. Isn’t this why we carve we love the wood, the look the smell and the feel of a carving made from wood? I have attached a picture that show a carving I have been playing with before some of the detailing work.

This one I was carving and the wood on the nose chipped away and I thought I was going to have to discard the carving. My youngest son told me he still thought it could look nice so I continued on with my efforts. See for yourself if he was right. I am in the process of painting him for my son, and will add those pictures shortly.