Thursday, February 12, 2009

Carving 101

I have been asked by a few of you to show how I do my carvings. While inviting you all over would show things better I don't think you'd all fit in my shop, so I'll try to do my best here on my blog.

All my carvings start with getting an idea down on paper. and while I don't carve too bad I 'm not the best pencil artist! A few of my carvings come from books and magazines but most are my own concepts. Caricature carving exaggerates certain body parts but everything still has to be in correct proportion to one another. To do this I start with a drawing in a book I have for the basic form, and using pivot points like the shoulder, elbow, etc, I move the limbs where I need them for the carving I want to do.

Here is the sketch for the carving I will be doing, I'm calling it "Goin' Fishin'.

You will notice that the poor guy has no head, that's not my poor drawing skills, it's easier to carve the head separate from the body, plus you can mount the head on an angle giving the piece the feeling of movement.

To see the rest of the pictures for starting the carving go to the link on the side bar tilted "My Carving Photo Gallery", you may have to click on "My photos" on the far left underneath Picasa, that will open all my albums then click on the Goin' Fishin' picture.

Stay tuned for more posts where I'll show more of this carving.

5 comments:

Cherdecor said...

I wondered how you got started on carving a piece. I like your sketch. I also liked looking around in the gallery. Nice work!

Mari said...

It'll be nice for people to see from beginning to end.

Andrew Bruins said...

I agree with me. I seem to remember you coming up with the idea for going fishin. Glad to see he is finally getting started.

Cheri said...

I never knew you drew them out first.
I love watching your carvings come to life- you sure are a talented egg :)

Unknown said...

Who would have known a carving started out as a picture on paper?? Very interesting.