It is fun as well as instructional to study old, antique and vintage wood carvings.  Often they are available at flea markets, antique or thrift stores and auctions at a reasonable price.  Their value is in studying each carving to imagine how the artist and creator executed the carving process with the efficiency of each cut as well as studying the pose and coloring effects.  Some may need some repair providing an opportunity to try one’s hand of making those repairs and blending in the color.  Vintage carving can also serve as models for one’s own interpretation of the subject of the model.

The photos presented here include a repair done of the Quaker man’s hat and an often repeated theme of a man sitting in a rocking chair that was carved for the tourist trade seventy five years ago.  All of which provide excellent study in the art of carving in the vintage style of tourist souvenirs. (click on each photo to enlarge) Read the rest of this entry »

Whittle Doodle Doods are the result of practice carving of faces. Each assembly of five faces provides a study of various faces.  Each of the five faces study assembly is pictured within eight views so that each face is seen with a frontal view and two profile views as the assembly is rotated. Previous Doods can be viewed in an earlier posting of Whittle Doodle Doods.

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Three Cowpoke carvings are presented here as a visual study through photographs of the variations that can be carved in a similar subject.  The WOOD BEE CARVER has been carving seriously for over forty years and yet every carving project continues to be a learning experience, a challenge in improving and refining the design and execution of the carving process. The three cowpoke carvings are the latest lessons learned and are shared here as examples for anyone who would like to carve their own cowpoke. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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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 »