Otis and Sloppy Joe are not only carving studies but also studies in character as they represent the contrast of personalities.  Much like the “Odd Couple” characters of movie and television fame, Otis is the neat one while Sloppy Joe is the less refined. Joe chomps down on the stub of his cigar, has no sense of color coordination nor of bothering to button all the way up.  Otis gives the polished appearance of a well-dressed man who is prepared for rain or whatever else may come up as his pipe dreams encircle his head much like the smoke from his pipe. Read the rest of this entry »

The WOOD BEE CARVER  carves continuously in the journey of woodcarving to continue to learn and sharpen the craft of carving various subjects.  Each carving project is in essence a “Study Carving” whereby lessons are learned through the innovations of designs and the stretching of ability through challenging innovations.  Such carving projects become the subject for an instructional posting on this blog as well as a Go-By for a carving class.  Even though the subjects may have been carved previously, yet each time a similar subject is carved it becomes a new carving with slight tweaking of design, pose or feature.  Thus no two carvings are exactly alike as each takes on its own personality and characteristic. Read the rest of this entry »

Buzz Buzzard  is a character study of a caricature of an old man standing at the twilight of days with a gaze back in time to a younger time when spring was in his step and winter was a cold breeze far away.  Now the days have accelerated towards the winter of his days with only summer memories to warm his soul. At least that is one story this carving may be telling since the purpose of a carving is to tell a story to the imagination of the observer. Read the rest of this entry »

The photograph shows a Clown writing pen and a Hobbit carved recently for  Helvie Knives  for their private collection.  The writing pen began as a ball point pen cartridge inserted into a short and a longer block of basswood to see an example of what could be carved as a carved writing pen.  The Hobbit was carved out of a five inch tall by two and three quarters inch square block.

A picture is worth a thousand words suggests what can be learned from studying pictures in this photographic journey.

The first photographic journey is of the Clown writing pen showing the front and back view followed by a picture of the Helvie Signature Series # 3 knife used to carve the Clown.

The Hobbit was carved to form using a Helvie Limited Special Edition  larger two and a half inch scimitar blade in a Pakkawood handle. A smaller two inch scimitar bladed knife, the Signature Series # 2 and a Collector’s Series knife were used for refining the form into detail carving of the overall figure Read the rest of this entry »

Traveler was carved as one of those serendipity carvings that is an interplay of creative imagination partnering with the activity of carving to create a new carving subject.  Often in the act of carving the action of the knife shaping a piece of wood will almost dictate the carving design.  That is the way “Traveler” came into existence and when finished he had the appearance of a man of experience out for a walk towards the horizon of an unexplored journey.  The Original Traveler is the one in the middle of the four photographs above. Read the rest of this entry »

This Whittle Doodle  was carved to be one segment in a Friendship Cane to be given as a surprise at a forthcoming woodcarving show to a person who has contributed much to the carving community.  A Whittle Doodle is doodling with a knife to carve faces in relief and embellish blank space with free hand chip carving.  Click on each photo to see a larger version.  The monochrome finish is artist oil paint Raw Sienna mixed with Boiled Linseed Oil followed by a protective finish of Deft and then Howard Feed and Wax. The block of basswood is three inches tall and approximately two inches square.

Don Stephenson,  my artist friend who continues to come up with neat carving ideas has done it again with a “Hillbilly Drawing.”   This hillbilly captures the mental image of how most people picture a hillbilly.  All art is an interpretation of an idea, an image or a memory.  Art is also fluid as one interpretation flows into another interpretation so that one subject can have many interpretations without any duplication of theme, appearance or appeal.

A drawing of a hillbilly is a two dimensional interpretation while a carving of that same hillbilly becomes a three dimensional interpretation of the two dimensional drawing.  A drawing of a hillbilly is in one medium of art while a carving of that same hillbilly is in another medium.  Don Stephenson’s drawing of a hillbilly was used as inspiration for carving a hillbilly out of an inch and half square by six inch tall block of basswood using a Bud Murray 539 knife as depicted in the first photograph in the photo journey below which shows various views of the completed carving of a hillbilly.  The carving is finished with artist oil paint Raw Sienna mixed with Boiled Linseed Oil to produce on monochrome finish in order to emphasis that  “texture is color.” Read the rest of this entry »