The Fisherman carved by carving friend Jim Hecker is a good example of the influence of Scandinavian flat plane carving.  In this case Jim pushed the envelope a little towards softening the flatness into a more realistic contour of the planes.  The carving itself tells a story right off in the pose of the fisherman looking back wide eyed at the hook that has caught him in the seat of his pants. It is appropriately entitled “Hooked.  ” Humor in carving is a unique way to capture the foibles that often come or could come in ordinary activities. (click on each photo to enlarge.)

The purpose of sharing these photographs is to give the viewer the opportunity to “learn by observation” of studying the carving from various angles.  The observational study is to look at a carving as an imaginary carve-along to envision how one would carve a similar carving subject.  All too often carvers are looking for an easy way out by wanting a carving project to be all spelled out to leave nothing to the imagination.  At some point a carver will need to grow in using imagination to envision the mental process of carving a project in one’s mind.  Once a good “imagination carving” has been carved in the mind, then it is time to do the actual carving process using the carving tool and piece of wood to be shaped by following the “imagination trail” that has been blazed in the mind. 

Study the subtlety of the little things Jim put into this fisherman carving.  Notice his pose with head turned as far as possible to see where the offending hook has caught him. Notice the twist of his shoulders going in the direction that his head has been turned. Notice that the heel of the opposite foot is raised slightly to add movement to correspond the twist of the head and body.  Notice how his mouth twists in the direction of the head’s twist. His wide eyed expression denotes a sense of alarm.  The head fits appropriately and naturally into the floppy hat.  Notice especially the accurate planes of the hands and fingers holding the end of the fishing pole. The painting is soft in that the coloration does not take away from the carving, but instead compliments the carving.  The bobber is carved as well to give it that added touch.

Jim’s carving of the hooked fisherman gives an excellent “observation of imagination” tutorial to guide and inspire the carving process to “fish in the deep waters” of creativity through woodcarving.