A Carver's Rambling Continued

Everyone has been asking me how I carve, paint and create.  I will try to explain some of it here. If you have ANY questions about carving, creating, painting or coming up with ideas, just ask and I will try to answer them. Just remember, it is just my humble opinion, and you will find there are as many opinions as there ar carvers.

I have purchased several books on drawing animals, since I rarely carve animals and Noah's Ark has plenty of different kinds of animals.  I drew the side view of the lions first on tracing paper.  Once I had a pattern I liked, I used carbon paper to transfer it to the wood.   I carefully measure the top of the head around to the side I was going to draw the front view on.  I used the complete drawing from the book to determine the width.  How did I do that?  I used a set of dividers or calipers.  I don't have them with me or I would show you a photo of them. You usually find them in the technical drawing section of stores like Hobby Lobby.  I measure the width of the head and see how many widths of the head it would take to cover shoulder to shoulder.   You can do this from a real photo of an animal or person.  You can also measure the height of the head and then use that measurement to determine how tall the animal or person should be.

If your head is 1 inch tall and you can fit 3 head measurements into the total height of the body in the photo or drawing, you can make a 3 inch tall lion or a thirty foot lion and keep it in proportion.  The divider or caliper looks like the old compass many of us used to draw circles except it has points on both ends.  Sailors and cruisers use them to figure distances on charts.

I cut out the lioness blank and begin removing the extra wood.   In the above photo, I just used a mini circular saw type blade with my Ram power carver, (similar to a dremel).

The blade is see thru, even when running so you can see where you are cutting.   There is no reason to stress your hands removing the scrap wood by hand when you can quickly remove it this way.  Some will argue it is not carved by hand if you use power in any form.  To those people, I usually ask if they went to the forest and used their hand saw to fell the tree?  Did you carve your animal, person, or whatever from the log?  Most will say no, the tree was felled by a logger using a chain saw. It was cut into blocks using a saw mill and then a bandsaw.  These are all power tools so is there really many totally hand carved pieces out there? Remember, this is MY HUMBLE OPINION!   LOL.

This is what the front legs looks like before I removed the excess.  I drew the legs like she was walking. I could have drawn them in the straight together pose but to me that seemed too stiff.

As you can see, I have cut between the legs in this photo. I then use the saw blade from the side to remove the extra. I usually make a big X on the piece I want to remove because it is easy to get confused and cut the wrong piece off.

I use my Flexcut palm tools for these small animals.  This is the tip I used for it.   Here is the total set in their roll up bag. The tips fit into the handle.  I take this with me when I travel.

 I like the feel of the handle in my hands.  You can also get a wooden handle for more push.  I somethings use it with a rubber mallet to do larger pieces.   I have their larger chisels to do big items.   Some carvers use only the large chisels to do even Hitty sized dolls with. I say use the tool that fits the project.  You wouldn't use a whole tree to pick your teeth so why use a big chisel to carve a doll?

When I carve dolls, I always carve the face first, but with these animals, I carved the legs and body first.  I guess I was a bit scared of the facial features.

 

I like to see how the figures work with The Ark.  I want my figures to look good but also stand up to tiny hands walking them into The Ark. My Husband  built the Ark from my design.  He came up with the wooden hinges and latches on the top floor doors . He also came up with the pegs that as hinges.  

 I used my wire nippers to cut off the ips of toothpicks for the canine teeth of the lioness. I use a second cut, (flat on both sides) for the other teeth. I used a drill bit the same size as the toothpick, which was not easy to do in her small mouth.   Here is a photo of her with her teeth after being painted.

I chose to carve all of the animals before painting them and the Ark.

Here is a comparison of what a lamb looks like in the blank form. I used hardwood dowels for the legs because I felt they would be sturdier than basswood legs.  The lamb on the right has been carved and I used a tip to burn the swirls to give depth to the hair. I took a small  Cutzall  bur to add the "craters in the center of the curls.  

I started out with a base coat of half acrylic paint and  a waterbased varnish found near the paints. You can also use MinWax WATER BASED varnish found in home improvement stores.  I want just enough color to change the color but still show any wood grain thru, (although there is not much grain in basswood).

I used a beige on the face, grey on the horns and white on the fleece.   I let this dry thoroughly before adding a smidgen of true burgundy to about a dimesize amount of the water based varnish.  I dabbed it to the cheeks and then took a clean dry brush and blended it into the cheek area to get rid of hard lines.  I let them dry and went on to paint (stain) the Ark.

I used a Donna Dewberry brush on the Ark to simulate a wood grain. I believe she calls it a rake , due to how the tip looks like a garden rake with long tips.  

I used a dark brown paint and a moccasin brown for the other color. You can see it on my plastic lid palette. I use the plastic lids off raisons, oats, and also metal can lids. (My can opener doesn't leave a sharp edge on the lid).  I also used a sponge to smear the paint. (Isn't that a technical term? Smear?)

 I let the paint dry for just a bit and then used the damp sponge to smudge the paint. I think it resembles wooden sides on The Ark.

I started out by using a small liner brush to pint the whiter swirls and soon came up with cutting off the point of a long pin and using my beading pliers to bend a swirl in the metal and dipped it into the paint to make a swirl.  It worked perfectly!  I turned it into different directions to vary the swirls.  

I was pleased with the variation of color on the fleece. I also added lips to the female lamb.  I forgot to say that I used white mixed with a bit of grey for the base coat of the wool. I used a buckskin (beige) for the face and ears. I used a darker grey for the horns on the male .  Like people, I added a tiny dot of white paint to the eyes. It is called the spark of life.  It makes them appear more alive.  

In painting the lions, I used a dark brown for the base, I believe it was Earth brown.  I used the same rake brush to later paint on a lighter brown. Sometimes I will mix a tiny amount of the base color into white for fur or hair on a human.  

Here are the completed figures. I have  Noah's wife carved but not painted yet.  When I return from taking care of Mom, I will finish her and mail out the whole set to my clients Grandson.   I will add figures each year on the anniversary of his Birthday.  He also receives new figures each year before Christmas for his Nativity scene.  If you google European Nativity Scenes, you will see they are quite elaborate. 

Once again, if you have any questions, please post them here and I will try to answer them as soon as I can while taking care of Mom.  For those of you that know me, her arm is healing up quite nicely.  She was able to use a padded spoon to eat cereal this morning. It took a little longer than normal, but she was excited to get to eat cereal.  She gets her cast off next week. Yeah!

A Carver's Rambling

Carving is as vital to my well being as breathing. It has been nearly a month since I sat down and carved. I injured a hand and an old wrist is acting up. I just got back from a 10 day stay at my sisters house to care for Mom so her husband and her could take a break from caretaking. I don't know if this format will work, but I will try this post to see if it does.

Carving can take a toll on your body like anything else. make sure you stretch, walk around and don't try for one more cut when tired. LOL. Now to make me hear that advice.

I am waiting for a referral to a hand surgeon to see just what this alien creature really is.   I thought it was a wart at first but then it began turning blueish.  My doctor thinks it might be a herniated tendon caused by overuse carving so long and hard.

I am working on a commission of an Ark for a clients young grandson. I want it to be touchable so the young man can move the animals and perhaps even play with them. I am starting with larger sturdier ones and will move onto the more fragile ones. I hope he will pass this on to his own children and Grandchildren.

Everyone asks how I know what to carve. Well, I don't. I look for the answers in the wood. I wondered which animal would be first. The lion won out being that he is the King of the beast. Here are some photos of the lion and lioness as I work on them. At the North Arkansas Wood Carving Show I picked up "more tools".   "Hi, my name is Wanda and I am addicted to tools!"   Maybe it is because I wasn't supposed to touch any of Daddy's.  I just knew tools were the measure of a person because he didn't want to share his.  I got another set of Dockyard tools from Larry Yurdis at THE WOODCRAFT SHOP in Bettendorf Iowa.   These are what are called dogleg in varying sizes.  They are great for getting in tight places like under beards, chins and legs of animals.

You can also see my homemade cushion for my finger to protect me from constantly hitting it.  I also picked up a couple of different handles for the knife blade, that Connie Hardt loves.  The curve makes it easy to get into minute spaces while carving.  I was using the shorter blade and then switched to the longer one. Bad idea. I also slipped off my kevlar glove and forgot to put it back on.  Does anyone have a bandage?

I didn't even think of taking photos until heavily into the carving of the lion.  I promise to try to take more photos of the carving of the lioness.

You can see the flat blank of the lioness and the lion as he begins to take shape. I search the internet, photo books (which I like cause I am old school).

I thought I had his mane carved the way I wanted it but after burning the hair lines, I realized it was too square.   I can tell I haven't carved in a while. My carving eye is slightly blind by the experience of carving again.

This is a bit I got in an original package with a used Foredom motor carver.  I talked to a bird carver at the show and they use these to make feather lines as well as to make hair.  I love the way it shaped the wood. WARNING  It will cut thru almost anything, wood, tabletops, some metals, fingers, aprons and more.

I found it good to separate the upper thigh from the body of the big cat.  I did say I am a tool junkie didn't I? As a barber, I found that if you varied from scissors to razor to clippers, you minimize hand fatigue. The same goes for carving.

I think this shows what that tiny toothed wonder does to the wood.  The forehead was smooth  until I added the hair with the tool.  It did take a bit of learning to get it to look the way I wanted it. 

Then I had to add it to his body.  I also stabilized the legs with super glue and a product called Insta set to quickly set the glue.  Since a child may be handling it, I took that precaution on the legs, ears and tail. 

I use a plastic lid from margarine, whipped topping, oatmeal etc to catch any super glue drips.  You can sand any irregular stuff out of the super glue.  He is finished as far as carving goes. I am not going to start on the lioness and take more photos for you to see her progress and how I deal with problems of this kind of blank.  

I used a detail master to burn some of the hair, nose and pads on his feet.   He decided to pose with some of my girls since they sneak him tidbits of food!   

Please let me know what you think of this new format and rambling of a crazy carver woman.  Sign up by email and get an update when new posts are made.   I will wait for his lioness to paint them together. I think you can like my blog by clicking on the Facebook button here.  

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Gracey  decided to work on some art pieces for her Mom's Etsy store. It seems that her store has been vacant for a while now.  Gracey put on her painting apron and painted a couple of sofa size paintings and even managed to carve a wood spirit in a tumbled knoted root that she had found in a nearby stream.  She worked on it all day. it must be oak because she found it quite hard.  She had yet to prepare a mount for it.

 

Gracey's Mom took some photos of Gracey with her painting and carvings.

 Being a Mom, she also made her remove the wig and take a photo she could send to her friends and Grandparents.

Gracey thought it was cool that her Mom let her take a photo to show her friends too.

 

Gracey was glad that her Mom had time for her especially since she had another talented girl that she was spending a lot of time on. Luckily, she didn't like to paint at all.  

 

Gracey didn't know her name yet, but she heard her beg her Mom to please make her a tutu so she could do ballet.  Gracey watched her dance and was amazed at her form. She had just been born but already she moved gracefully.

Round and round she turned in slow rythmn to the music.

Gracey could hardly believe her eyes.

This one was not only pretty but talented too.

Gracey watched her dancing as if she were as light as a feather, even in her borrowed leatard which was much too big.

Suddenly she realized she was being watched and stopped dancing.

 

Gracey begged her not to stop dancing. She could tell she was a shy one. Suddenly Gracey got an idea. She put on one of her favorite cd's and offered the dancer her hot pink wig and smiled as she put it on and danced to the new music.

She and Gracey laughed as her wig fell off while she did the splits on the floor.

Gracey picked up her wig and then took the new one to go see her paintings.

 

She showed her the Maine lighthouse first and then the farm scene.

Then the two went into the sewing room to see what kind of outfits they could find next.