Five students gathered at the Woodcraft Store in Centerville, OH on March 24, 2012 for a class on the subject of Egg Noggins. Survivor students in the photograph are (left to right) Edgar Brumbaugh, Andy Zinmeister, Leonard Ballard, Wendy Beck and Jeannette Hamilton.
Egg Noggins are faces carved out of a basswood hen egg using only a knife to shape the wood. Whittle-Carving exercises prepared the students to carve a face in the wooden egg using slicing cuts with the knife. These exercises included shaping practice blocks of wood with a series of notch cuts to lay in the landmarks of the face using the Rule of Three of Facial Proportions with a notch cut at the hairline, followed by a notch cut at the eye brow area, followed by a notch cut for bottom of nose nostrils and finally the bottom of the chin. Slicing angled cuts shaped the planes and angles of the face in order to provide a good foundation to receive the detail cuts for eyes, nose, mouth, smile line and ears. The Three Version Face Study Stick was used for the first exercise. Read the rest of this entry »
Myron Compton of Pekin, Indiana, is pictured with his winning carving with a Lynn Doughty original carving of Quigley Down Under. Lynn conducted in 2010 an on-line carving contest in the Old West Challenge to carve Quigley Down Under. Myron won the contest in which he received Lynn’s original.
Woodcarving is an open door to friendships made and being made. A carving can be an extension of the personality of the carver, so much so that we can know the carver through their carving without having met one another in real life. I became a friend of Myron Compton long before we ever met. It happened by way of viewing some of his carvings as he had posted them on the Wood Carving Illustrated website Forum. Viewing those carvings as well as reading some of his comments about carving struck up an acquaintance without actually meeting. We did meet a few years ago when Myron and his wife visited the Artistry in Wood Show in Dayton, Ohio and right away there was a reunion of kindred spirits.
It is time now to introduce a carving friend to all who visit this site through pictures of his carving along with his own words about his journey of carving. Such a visit is intended to encourage visitors to carve more and extend their personality through their own carvings to make more carving friends. Let Myron become your friend through his words and carving interpretations depicted in the photographs. Read the rest of this entry »
It has often been said that “variety is the spice of life,” and the same is true for carving projects that continue to be a “variations on a theme.” The carvings pictured in this posting are carvings that are repeats of earlier carving projects.
Included in the photographic journey are practice face carvings, three inch tall figures and a six inch tall fisherman.
Often I have suggested that when a carver completes a carving project that carver should carve another one of the same theme. The purpose of such an activity is to experience “the more one carves the better one carves.” When carving the first one, the creative sub conscious is recording all that went into the carving process. When carving the second similar project, the creative sub conscious partners with the carver to make subtle design changes as well as guide the carving process to create a newer version that is just a little better than the previous carving. If the carver continues to carve another, then another, then another of the similar project the “variations on a theme puts the spice of life” into each carving. Carving practice faces will lead to carving faces with a variety of personalities depicted in each face carved. Practice “spices up” the carver’s carving resulting in experiencing the “Spice of Life.” Read the rest of this entry »
Don Stephenson, aka: the “Idea Monster” and artist friend who continues to come up with unique carving ideas through his creative drawing has come up with another one that has turned into a carving. This drawing appeared on the back of an envelope that Don sent to me containing other drawings.
This old geezer dressed in his night shirt and night cap is carrying his candle to light his path from bed to the bathroom as old men are prone to do during the night. He is named “Knight Capp” as a play on the spelling of words with an upside down meaning of the term.
Knight Capp is carved out of an inch square by three inch tall block of basswood using only a knife to shape and detail this carving. A Bud Murray Knife #539 was used in the carving. The challenging parts of this carving include carving a mouth without dentures, carving bare feet and the candle held in one hand. An old man without dentures tends to narrow the face, hollow in the cheeks, sink in the mouth with wrinkled lips and protrude the chin. Read the rest of this entry »
Hillsboro Hobo was carved out of a two inch square by six inch tall block of basswood using a Bud Murray Knife # 529. Typical motifs characteristic of the mental picture of a hobo are depicted in this carving. “Clothes make the man” or in this case “make the hobo” with torn elbow of jacket, torn shoulder seams and torn knee of trousers. Patches at the elbow, knee and seat of the pants along with a disheveled shirttail plus the toes coming out of his shoes all add up to the appearance of a hobo. The traditional bindle bag tied around a walking staff complete the attire of a hobo.
The photographic journey that follows presents several views of the completed and painted hobo. The last four photographs show the beginning stages of carving a hobo with guidelines drawn to show where the hobo is inside the block of basswood along with the completed carved and painted hobo. Notice that the hat and head have been carved to basic form which allows for the remaining portion of the block to be divided by the Rule of Three of Body Proportions (shoulder to waist; waist to mid knees; mid knees to bottom of feet). Within these proportional divisions the arms, legs, coat tail and shoes can be drawn to coincide with the posture and stance of the hobo figure. Read the rest of this entry »
Myron Compton of Pekin, Indiana, is pictured with his winning carving with a Lynn Doughty original carving of Quigley Down Under. Lynn conducted in 2010 an on-line carving contest in the Old West Challenge to carve Quigley Down Under. Myron won the contest in which he received Lynn’s original.
