Carving heads into wooden clothes pins is a novel way to practice carving heads and faces since every face carved in never a lost effort because there is always something new to learn. This brief visual tutorial about carving on a clothes pin is another way to reinforce the process of face carving. (click on photos to enlarge) Read the rest of this entry »
Whittle Doodle Doods are the result of doodling with a knife. The fifty Doodle Doods pictured in this album are the end result of learning demonstrations for carving a Plane Face to learn the A, B, C’s of Face Carving. They are assembled with five faces attached together in a handy study grouping with eight photographs for each grouping.
Red Beard the Pirate is a carving project that serves as a model for another instructional journey in carving a six inch tall figure out of an inch and half square block of wood. A pirate subject provides several carving adventures in carving the various individual parts of the overall design. The finished carving of Red Beard in the opening photographs above serve as a visual tutorial of the various design features that are part of the overall plan while carving the individual parts. (click on photos to enlarge) Read the rest of this entry »
Carving another Gandalf wizard is an exercise of caving a previous project attempting to apply subtle innovations into a new version. Read the rest of this entry »
Old Salt is a caricature study of the old man of the sea. Three figures are used as a study in carving three different poses of a similar figure with slight variations. One Old Salt has his hands behind him while the two others have a thumb on one hand in the waist band of trousers using different hands. One is smoking a pipe. (click on photo to enlarge.) Read the rest of this entry »
Whittle Doodles are doodling with a knife while shaping a block of wood with a variety of carving designs. The Mini Whittle Doodle is carved into an inch square by three quarters of inch block of basswood using a small bladed knife to carve four faces and embellish with freehand chip carved designs. The knife was made by the carver using the same blade material Bud Murray uses to make his knives (planer blade steel). (click on each photo to enlarge) Read the rest of this entry »
A recent commission to carve two figures representative of Phil Robertson dressed in camouflage resulted in these two carvings. The design of the camouflage fatigues was created by wood burning the darker designs on the bare basswood followed by the painting process of a tan color to simulate desert camouflage.
The caricature likeness of the Duck Dynasty character was made possible by incorporating certain characteristics identified with the character. A duck call in one hand, a shot gun in the other hand, the camouflage head band and the signature beard and mustache outfits this carving into a reasonable likeness of the character.
A study of the photographs will reveal that each carving while similar yet each is unique in its own interpretation of the same subject. Most carvings are interpretations rather than a mirror image of the original. It is the interpretation mixed with imagination of the eye and mind that make each carving come alive. (click on each photo to enlarge) Read the rest of this entry »
Rich Smithson of HELVIE KNIVES pulled a fast one on two of his Signature Knife friends by asking each one to carve a block of basswood into a knife blade holder for the other friend without telling us that we were each doing it for one another. Read the rest of this entry »
