Tis the Season of carving Santa and Snowmen in the classic childhood memory of Christmas fondly remembered.  This particular carving was a class project in a class taught by Harley Schmidgen in September 2008 at the Caricature Carvers of America Seminar in Converse, Indiana.  Harley carved the original that was used as a model to make instructional rough-outs.

Rough-outs are used in the class setting as a time saver to speed up the process of being able to carve in the details right away.  The student uses the rough-out as a learning tool along with the instructor’s guidance to learn the basic steps in detail carving the project.  The student does most of the carving and yet the signature of the instructor is quite evident as the student follows the instructor’s lead.

Harley has carved his own unique niche with his caricature relief sculptures carved out a two inch thick block of wood.  Learning to carve in Harley’s style is a fun way to expand one’s carving horizon.  What one learns in any carving class is not intended to be an imitation of the instructor’s style and method.  Rather, it is an opportunity to learn a few new approaches to carving that can be adopted into one’s own style and ability.  The goal is to learn the “how-to” so that one can gain experience in “know-how” to create  one’s own unique carving.

The  back side was dished out to create a pleasing transition where the carved detail ends into the flat back of the rough-out.  Flat surfaces are always flat in appearance very much like straight lines.  Thus this dished out area acts like a curving line that the eyes follows right on around rather then stopping on the flat surface.  A crooked stick is always more appealing than a straight staff just as hair and beard are carved in flowing “S” shaped lines are more appealing and lifelike.

This Santa With Snowman, while definitely being a Harley Schmitgen design, stands proudly as a sign post of learning on the carving journey.  Even more so, it helps to welcome in the season of “gifts given through giving gifts.” MERRY CHRISTMAS.