Hobos are colorful characters who lend themselves to caricature carving by exaggerating the realistic image of a hobo into an artist interpretation.  A picture is worth a thousand words making this Hobo Study through photographs to speak for themselves. (click on photos to enlarge)

The photo journey begins with the four hobos who are in the completed stage with final coloration finish. Next will be photographs of hobos in an almost completed stage of the carving process which will be followed by an even earlier stage of hobos carved to their basic form.  Letting the pictures speak for themselves is to do a visual tutorial of looking for key characteristics of these carved subjects.  A visual tutorial is to “look for the needle in the haystack” approach of discovering aspects in each photograph that would help in understanding one way to carve the hobo motif.

Things to look for include body stance following the S Rule (no straight lines), what hands are doing, torn and patched clothing, toes exposed in worn out shoes, flair and draping of clothing, crooked walking sticks, variety of hats, facial features and those surprises that can only be discovered by the observant. Keep in mind that this is only one interpretation for carving the subject of a hobo and is in the particular style of Whittle-Carving of the WOOD BEE CARVER.