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.

Learning to carve this kind of face, as in carving any face, requires the study and observation of a variety of faces and most importantly practice carving faces.  Every carving is a practice piece and a learning piece at the same time.  “The more one carves the better one carves,”  is how one learns to carve faces or whatever subject of any carving project.  Knight Capp is a fun project to learn to carve a caricature of an “old man” or any other euphemism for an aged gentleman.

The monochrome finish on Knight Capp is artist oil color Raw Sienna mixed with boiled linseed oil followed with a coat of Deft.  The photographic journey that follows the completed carving shows progressive stages in the carving of Knight Capp.  One photo includes a shorter version of Knight Capp to indicate that he could be carved in various sizes according to the choice of the carver.  Knight Capp can be a picture of any of us as we live long enough to become an “old geezer.” (click on photo to enlarge)