25
Jun

10-S-NE-1 ~ Tennis Any One

   Posted by: woodbeecarver   in Carving Projects

Tennis Any One” is a caricature carving introduced by with a vanity license plate slogan. The carving stands six inches tall on an inch and half base (the size of the basswood block from which it was Whittle-Carved using only knives to carve.)

This posting begins with the gallery of the finished colored carving and proceeds with a “backward look” in reverse progression from detailed carving all the way back to the beginning of the “Shape Up” process.  Photos with written descriptions will offer instructional information about each of these stages in reverse fashion.

[CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE]

 

 

          

                 

The  four photos below will be of the tennis player detail carved ready for the painting stage.   [CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE]

The next four photos are of the tennis player carved to its basic form with the cap, shirt, shorts, socks, shoes and tennis racket carved with recognizable details while the hands, face and hair await details.

Continuing the reverse progression, the next four photos show the previous carving with the “Rule of Three” block with guideline drawings to make a visual comparison between the before the Shape Up stage with the shaped up detailing stage of the previous carving stage. Note “Rule of Three” block has three horizontal lines on the front of the head area to represent the top red line as the Eyebrows, the middle red line as the Tip of Nose and the bottom red line as the Chin.  Below the head area the body area has three red horizontal lines representing the Shoulder, Waist and Mid Knees.  Within these red lines there are drawings of the body parts, clothing and hand-held ball and racket.  These drawings are not a pattern but are rather the landmarks to guide what wood is to be removed and what wood remains during the Shape Up process.  It is during this Shape Up stage that “Design by Carving” refines the guidelines into the shape and detail of the various areas of the entire carving from carve to basic form to detail carving.

 

The final reverse progression shows the Shape Up stage of carving the basic form by removing wood from the outer limits of the landmarks and beginning to refine all the areas by the Design by Carving phase of shaping the wood that remains into the imagined overall view of the subject.  The Shape Up stage is a progressive action of making repeated slicing cuts to refine and enhance the shape, so keep in mind that “One cut is not a cut to end all cuts but additional cuts will follow to complete the refining process.”  In the photos in this reverse progression notice that some of the area are beginning to be opened up with the removal of wood using the drawn guidelines as a guide of what wood is to be removed.

The last two photos give visual guidance as to the removal of wood between the legs by making repeated angled slicing cuts on the front side and then on the back side between the legs to create an opening followed be refining slicing cuts to shape the legs, socks and shoes.

 

Back Track now from this end of the posting to review up to the top for a refreshing of the visual progress of the stages of carving the 10-S-NE-1 caricature.

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Carving Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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