“Santa carving a Santa” has been a subject carved several times and is being carved again as indicated by the two in the beginning stages of being carved to the basic form.  Serving as a back drop are photographs of earlier editions of the same subject and the one in the middle was carved in 1999.  The very first one was carved in the mid 90’s as a commission but sad to say there is no photograph of the very first one. 

The design of this carving requires some pre-planning in that the subject is sitting on a tree stump, head is tilted slightly downward so that the Santa is looking at what is being carved and the arms, hands, knife carving the block of wood and body posture all have to look life like.

These four views of a completed carving will give an overall idea of the design features of this carving which is carved out on one block of wood.  This one began as a six inch tall by three inch square block of basswood.

In order to determine the body proportions of a figure seated the Rule of Three for body proportions was used.  This Rule of Three divides the body in the following formula: Shoulder to Waist is a third; Waist to Top of Knees is a third; and Top of Knees to Bottom of Feet is a third. With a  sitting figure the Waist to the Top of the Knees measures horizontally while the other two sections are measured vertically.

Before the Rule of Three can be put to use it is necessary to carve the head to the rough form of a head so that the shoulder area can be established.  Keep in mind that the chin when the head is rotated left and right as far as it will go will always be above the level of the shoulders.  After the head is carved to form, then one can draw proportional guidelines with a pencil to guide in carving the body to the form of the pose of a Santa carving a Santa.

Photo on left shows carving the Santa to the basic form while the second photo shows details have been added to the carving.  It should be noted at this stage that carving chisels, gouges and V tools are being used to carve this project, (even though the WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a knife carver, yet there are some carving projects where I use the “real” carving tools.)

The first photo on the left shows the smaller carving carved to detail while the one in the middle is carved only to basic form without much detail and the 1999 Santa carving is on the right.  The middle photograph shows both newly carved Santa’s carved to detail.  The photograph on the right show the completed carvings including the Painting Softly finish (which is described in another post on this blog).  The smaller Santa is in the middle and it began as a four and a half  inches tall by an inch and three quarter square block of basswood.

These three veiws are of the smaller Santa still using the basic pose and the Rule of Three to keep the proportions accurate.

These carvings were finished using artist oil paint thinned with boiled linseed oil using the “Painting Softly” method as described in another post in this blog.  Even though this design has been carved several times, yet each one takes on a personality of its own.  That’s as it should be as the carver puts life into a carving to make it have personality and character.

For now, this journey is over and it is on to the next carving project.  Carving is more the journey than the destination because it is the actual carving process that is most fulfilling.  Once a carving is completed the carver is ready to  begin another journey, perhaps down a familiar path or a new and challenging path on the journey called “wood carving.”