Hobos of a nostalgic era of long ago and fixed in our memories are delightful subjects for a carving projects.  Hobos were traveling characters who traveled from town to town and all over the country in the tradition of itinerate labors in search for work as a way of life. Cedartown Hobo was carved in a six inch by two inch square block of basswood in Wilmington, Ohio and is now living in Cedartown, Georgia to carry on the traveling way of life.

The retelling of how he came to life in this carving process begins with a gallery of the finished results and followed by back tracking to the beginning as a block of basswood through the carving process with instructional words and progressive photos.

[Click on Photos to enlarge]

The Progressive Stage begins with two photos below with the first photo showing two basswood blocks of basswood. One will be used for comparison with the second one which will be receiving the “SHAPE UP” procedures.

The second photo is the beginning of opening up the 2X2X6 inch block by rounding the top corners into a dowel shape in which the cap and head will be carved to basic form. Note the center line on top of dowel is the guide for carving the beginning shape of the top of the cap in which the head will fit up into the cap.  The center line helps the eyes to see that both halves of the oval of cap are staying close to the basic form.  The center line is causing the head to be turned slightly to its right to add movement right away from the beginning as part of the “Design by Carving” concept of seeing with imagination the form that can be adjusted while carving rather than a predesigned pattern. Design by Carving uses “proportions” more the patterned measurements. The other block in the photo has its four top side corners sliced away as the beginning cuts for shaping a square into an octagon and then continue to slice away the corners of the octagon for form a dowel to shape it into an oval for the cap and head forms. This second block will be for comparison and instructional purposes at the project proceeds.

First photo shows the hat/head dowel carved and notice the back of the arms from elbow to shoulder area is sliced at an angle to begin the look of the back side of the shoulder area and note also there is a little red circle on the front where the cigar will be located to indicate to leave enough wood for the cigar.  Then the four remaining photos show the cap and head carved to “Basic Form” to await future refining and detailing.

The photos above begin with the two blocks with Red Horizontal lines drawn around the blocks to lay out the Rule of Three for Body Proportions within the grid of these three lines for the body parts drawn as guidelines for the removal of negative space.  These drawings are not a pattern, onlyguidelines to guide the Shape Up of the Basic Form in the Design by Carving process.  The five photos of the drawings show how they fit within these lines and the last photo shows opening cuts that cut away from the line (not on the line) to allow for Design by carving.

The next stage of the progress of Shape Up of the Hobo with two photos above showing opening up between the legs (front and back) with repeated angled slicing cuts using the cutting edge of the curved blade of the knife.  It is a slow and precise process that is Design by Carving slicing that is more than just removing wood but also shaping the contour of the inner leg in preparation for the final detailing.

The above four photos are of the four sides showing the progress of the Basic Form taking shape and gradually working towards the detailing phase of the process.  Still a lot more to do, but it is getting close to its final look. During the Shape Up phase a carver experiences “Woodcarving is Agony and Ecstasy but Ecstasy always follows the Agony,” in which the imagination of the image joins with the Basic Form as it comes into focus in the carved wood. The Shape Up of the Basic Form is “Baking the cake” and the Detail Phase is “icing the cake.” (which makes carving the journey more than the destination)

Basic Form stage has made progress ever so close to moving towards refinement of form to move to detailing phase. At this stage an overall look to evaluate the proportions are in order.  The first two photos above are taking a look at the basic form (back and front) to evaluate any adjustments to the form. The three red horizontal lines on the second block is being used as a proportional study. The middle line represents the waist and note that the elbows are slightly above that line, which is good, but looking at the separation of the legs, the crotch area should be carved a little higher up to extend the length of the thighs. The third photo is taking a look at the mound of wood where the back of collar is located and at the back of the head and ears that need to be reduced and ears moved forward. This extra wood was intentional as part of the Basic Form phase to have enough so those areas could be reduced to a refined size. Extra wood is part of the plan because the head can be resized smaller, but it is harder to enlarge. In the next three photos it will be evident that the head was refined a little smaller and shaped up proportionally. It was necessary to refine the head size for the next phase of carving the chest area to basic form that was expanded to carve in the shirt collar, tie, and vest while blending in the top of the pants.  As it worked out the tie and the tails of the vest hid the belt area. The next five photos show the beginning transition of detailing portions of the Basic Form. Once that is completed, then refinement of the detailed areas will clean and sharpen up those details in preparation for the painting phase. Details include: eye, ears, hair, whiskers, fingers, patch on elbow, knee, seat of pants, tear at elbow, knee, right hip, pant cuffs frayed, top of shoulder/arms coming apart (and a few more little details are to be made.)  The figures I carve always have a larger head than proportions allow because the head is the center of attention.  I try not to have any straight lines (unless totally necessary) thus, the crooked stick for a cane because crooked lines and “S” curves are eye catching that stops to see more while a straight line is overlooked. Patches and tears is clothing are eye catching and make the carving into a Hobo because as the old saying goes, “ Clothes make the man.”  Cedartown Hobo is Shaping Up.

The photos above show the Hobo has completed the detailing phase as depicted in the series of 6 photos that give an overall view of an unpainted (naked)  bare wood carving. The seventh photo compares the Hobo with Abe Lincoln carved in 1987.  The 1987 carving is straight forward with the only movement is the arm bent and hand holding on the coat lapel. The Hobo is showing a lot of movement with head turned to his right and with a slight head tilt. The left leg and foot are slightly forward while the right leg in back slightly. The clothes on the hobo show signs of movement. The crooked cane and the suit case with clothes coming out the crack suggest interest as well as the suitcase pressing into the side of the pants leg creates wrinkles.  And of course, the patches and torn clothing and flair of the coat tail add movement and interest. NOTE 1987 carving the shoes are the base (but from sad experience of the shoes being thin cross grain, the shoe can break off and shoes hard to sit level) Thus I moved to creating a base at the bottom of the original block and then carve the shoes as part of the base and also a cane or rifle, or umbrella can be carved as part of the base on another type of subject. The base presents a wider bottom for the base to sit without tipping over as was the hazard of using only the shoes as the base.  Painting using artist oil paint thinned with boiled linseed oil is next followed by protective coat of Deft lacquer.

The photos above are of the painting process ~ the full story is on this blog under BEE HIVE ~ “Painting Softly.” The first photo shows the application of the base coat of Raw Sienna oil paint and boiled linseed oil mixture that goes on as an undercoat or base coat that begins the “soaking in process” of the oil and to slow down the bleeding into the wood when the secondary color paint is added on top of the base coat which also “tones and soften” the secondary paint in an antiquing effect. The “white” on the shirt color and dots of the underwear coming out of the suitcase” is acrylic white applied earlier because white paint in oil is not as effective. The eyes received a pencil dot for the pupil and super glue to strengthen the eye lids and to impede paint soaking the eye ball (this gives the eye ball a lighter color and the flesh area of the face and the hands receive only the Raw Sienna base coat for two reasons 1. flesh tones in paints are hard to match flesh color and 2. the base coat allows the “wood color” to shout “this is wood and not ceramic”.)  The base coat is applied all over the entire carving and then blotted off with paper towel and dry brushed to smooth out the surface. (put oil soaked paper towels from clean up into a lidded jar of water and dispose of the jar and contents in safe manner to protect against spontaneous combustion of the boiled linseed oil~ practice safety.) SECOND PHOTO is of the Hobo covered with the base coat Raw Sienna and this is how it looks if you are doing only a monochrome (one color) finish, which I often do to emphasize “Texture is Color” appearance. THIRD PHOTO ~ shows the secondary oil paint colors applied on top of the base coat on the cap, hair, beard, tie and jacket (not shown is the rest of the painting process but the end result will be seen in the final photo.) FOURTH PHOTO ~ Finished carving having received all the oil paint and when dried, received a coat of lacquer DEFT.

The final photo below is showing the comparison block with the Rule of Three Red Horizontal line compared with the competed carving in a study of proportions.