Keith Radick has a strong face with character that is a good subject for study. He is not only an accomplished carver but he also is a good sport by granting me permission to use his face for this study. The face on a WANTED poster is intended to be studied in case you ever see this character.
This posting is a visual and written description of this Study Cuts Stick that was used when teaching wood carving classes. The WOOD BEE CARVER would place small boxes on the student’s tables that contained pencils, band aids, leather strops, a couple carving knives and a Mertz Study Cuts stick for reference during class sessions.
Whittle Dwarfs came into existence in 2011 by artist Don Stephenson who drew a few examples as carving ideas for the Wood Bee Carver. The first dwarfs were based upon these original drawings by Don Stephenson.
The Wood Bee Carver has practiced his motto “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood,” as a way of living out the journey of woodcarving both as a personal pursuit and as an encouragement to others. The basic meaning of this motto is “we learn by doing and the more we carve the better we carve and there is always more to learn on the journey.”
A tutorial that the WOOD BEE CARVER did for the “Whittle & Chips” blog a few years ago may be viewed by clicking on HOBO JOE link. The tutorial does a series of step by step photos and verbal descriptions of carving in the Whittle-Carving style of using only knives to carve a figure. The complete “Whittle and Chips” blog is listed under Cool Links in the right column on this Home Page.
It has been said that there are three ways people learn, that is, they learn by observation, by reading and by touching the wet paint. The same can be said about learning to carve as it is beneficial to be observant, to read and to touch the carving knife to the wood to experience leaning to carve by carving.
WHITTLE DWARF TUTORIAL is now available as a PDF document under BEE HIVE in the right column of the Home Page of this blog. All items in the BEE HIVE are instructional PDF documents that can be viewed on the computer as well as printed.
Study each of the photographs displayed in this posting to make the comparison between a natural (monochrome) finish of one colored carving with a multi colored (poly-chrome) painted carving side by side. Read the rest of this entry »