stevebuk
Established Member
please keep the photo's coming, waiting for the next session.. :lol:
Time for a self challenge - new carving
- Thread starter CroppyBoy1798
- Start date
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Lons
Established Member
Hi Croppy
That's really coming on well. I knew you'd like working with lime - it's lovely crisp wood to cut but as said the secret is very sharp tools. Keep a leather strop and some autosol or similar close at hand and just polish your edges constantly.
Try to get hold of some boxwood if you can. it'll be small sizes but fantastic material for miniature carvings. Quite hard but finishes beautifully.
Looking forward to more wip pics
Bob
That's really coming on well. I knew you'd like working with lime - it's lovely crisp wood to cut but as said the secret is very sharp tools. Keep a leather strop and some autosol or similar close at hand and just polish your edges constantly.
Try to get hold of some boxwood if you can. it'll be small sizes but fantastic material for miniature carvings. Quite hard but finishes beautifully.
Looking forward to more wip pics
Bob
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Oops, been a while, thanks guys for the additional comments.
I've got sidetracked this past while, only got back to the carving today, so passed another few hours. I focused more so on the material, ie the folds on her lower right side, the throw over her left shoulder and the wrinkles in the body of the dress. As you can see she's still very much in the roughing out stages, her arms, legs, head etc are in very rough form still but I'm pretty happy with how the fabric is going, its after adding a little bit of life to it and given me a boost!
I'll tell ye, carving the human form aint no easy task, not a straight line to be hand and its gonna get very interesting when I start trying to get hands and feet looking correct.....
I've got sidetracked this past while, only got back to the carving today, so passed another few hours. I focused more so on the material, ie the folds on her lower right side, the throw over her left shoulder and the wrinkles in the body of the dress. As you can see she's still very much in the roughing out stages, her arms, legs, head etc are in very rough form still but I'm pretty happy with how the fabric is going, its after adding a little bit of life to it and given me a boost!
I'll tell ye, carving the human form aint no easy task, not a straight line to be hand and its gonna get very interesting when I start trying to get hands and feet looking correct.....
BMac
Established Member
That's looking well. Be careful with thin edges running with the grain because I'm carving a bit of Lime at the minute and my Santa Claus is on his third nose but that could be more to do with my skill than inherent weakness in the wood.
Brendan.
Brendan.
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Cheers Brendan! :wink:
Got her right arm pretty much sorted today (still have to do the hand, but I think I got a pretty good natural curve on it, I'm happy with it anyway). Working on her face/neck at the moment, had to chop away a fair bit again. Faces are bloody hard to get looking right!!
Your Santa is on his third nose? :lol: Are you sticking back on fresh blocks as you make the mistakes? Full Santa or just a bust?
Will post a pic later.
Got her right arm pretty much sorted today (still have to do the hand, but I think I got a pretty good natural curve on it, I'm happy with it anyway). Working on her face/neck at the moment, had to chop away a fair bit again. Faces are bloody hard to get looking right!!
Your Santa is on his third nose? :lol: Are you sticking back on fresh blocks as you make the mistakes? Full Santa or just a bust?
Will post a pic later.
BMac
Established Member
Just a bust. It's a practice piece to try to get proportions and relief right.
Brendan.
Brendan.
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
The face of beauty......... hey, its a work in progress, so what, she needs extensive work on one side of her face, a nose job, her lipped filled out a bit, after all that she might look somewhat decent! :lol:
hey, its a work in progress, so what, she needs extensive work on one side of her face, a nose job, her lipped filled out a bit, after all that she might look somewhat decent! :lol:
xy mosian
Established Member
From where I'm sitting that looks like very competant carving, beautiful. Great to see a carving work in progress. Keep it up.
xy
xy
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Cheers XY!
She had a bit of beauty work carried out today and she's looking the better of it if I do say so!
One thing I have learned about carving faces that its not so much about just carving 2 eyes, a nose and mouth, but to focus more on the sourrounding areas, muscle structure, cheek bones, chin etc and then everything starts falling into place gradually. I'm chuffed with how the face turned out, I was dreadingggggg doing it and at one stage thought I'd made a mess of it and had visions of doing a head transplant!!
She had a bit of beauty work carried out today and she's looking the better of it if I do say so!
One thing I have learned about carving faces that its not so much about just carving 2 eyes, a nose and mouth, but to focus more on the sourrounding areas, muscle structure, cheek bones, chin etc and then everything starts falling into place gradually. I'm chuffed with how the face turned out, I was dreadingggggg doing it and at one stage thought I'd made a mess of it and had visions of doing a head transplant!!
Chems
Established Member
VERY impressive!
xy mosian
Established Member
Coming along very nicely.
Strange, what you were saying about your own perceptions of the head in progress. A lot of years ago I made a rocking horse. At one stage, as I was working, I felt as if I was carving a horses head, but as soon as anyone came into the garage it became a block of wood. Odd.
xy
Strange, what you were saying about your own perceptions of the head in progress. A lot of years ago I made a rocking horse. At one stage, as I was working, I felt as if I was carving a horses head, but as soon as anyone came into the garage it became a block of wood. Odd.
xy
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Thanks Chems!
XY, a rocking horse is something I've never done, but being a lover of all things traditional and simple (odd for a 26 year old! ) its something I'd love to tackle someday, a nice heirloom.....gotta get me some kids first though! :wink:
Setch, cheers for the comment. I see what you mean, I'll have a go at cutting in the temples tomorrow. By right her hair should drop down at a steeper angle, thus covering her ears, so, by right you should be able to see as least the hint of ears, but I made a boo boo. Cant wait for the hands....... :shock:
XY, a rocking horse is something I've never done, but being a lover of all things traditional and simple (odd for a 26 year old!
) its something I'd love to tackle someday, a nice heirloom.....gotta get me some kids first though! :wink: Setch, cheers for the comment. I see what you mean, I'll have a go at cutting in the temples tomorrow. By right her hair should drop down at a steeper angle, thus covering her ears, so, by right you should be able to see as least the hint of ears, but I made a boo boo. Cant wait for the hands....... :shock:
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Well, got one hand done today, ie her right hand, its roughed out still, but near to final, I'm pretty happy with it. Heres a few in a series of the carving up to the current state.
studders
Established Member
Gobsmacked. In fact seldom has my gob been so smacked. Totally amazing.
goldeneyedmonkey
Established Member
Awesome, well done mate. Keep up the good work, I really want to get into hand-carving @ some point, but need some more time on my hands.
How did you learn what you know? How long have you been doing it for?
Cheers_Dan.
How did you learn what you know? How long have you been doing it for?
Cheers_Dan.
Hi.
do you smooth/scrap/sand the surfaces (face, arm, etc)? they don't seem to be left straight out of the gouge.
I once carved a relief of a horse head (based on a chess piece) and found it extremely difficult to reproduce the wavy effect of the mane hair in a pleasant way. even more difficult than the face itself. in fact I never got it right the way i wanted.
do you smooth/scrap/sand the surfaces (face, arm, etc)? they don't seem to be left straight out of the gouge.
I once carved a relief of a horse head (based on a chess piece) and found it extremely difficult to reproduce the wavy effect of the mane hair in a pleasant way. even more difficult than the face itself. in fact I never got it right the way i wanted.
CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Cheers guys!
Happy to have gobsmacked you studders! :lol:, wait until you see the end product so, it'll be a knockout!
Goldeneyedmonkey, I'm a self taught carver, havent really done that much to be honest, I'm sorta wondering why I havent been doing more of it now or at least honing up on the skill over the years. However, upon doing this little project and working with the lime has given me a couple of others ideas for projects involving carving.
cerdeira, The only stage at which I'd have serious gouge marks would be in the initial roughing out, after that I'd try shape with smaller gouges, flat/skew chisels etc. But I do scrape and use sandpaper also when I'm getting near to/at a final stage.
Happy to have gobsmacked you studders! :lol:, wait until you see the end product so, it'll be a knockout!
Goldeneyedmonkey, I'm a self taught carver, havent really done that much to be honest, I'm sorta wondering why I havent been doing more of it now or at least honing up on the skill over the years. However, upon doing this little project and working with the lime has given me a couple of others ideas for projects involving carving.
cerdeira, The only stage at which I'd have serious gouge marks would be in the initial roughing out, after that I'd try shape with smaller gouges, flat/skew chisels etc. But I do scrape and use sandpaper also when I'm getting near to/at a final stage.
xy mosian
Established Member
Fantastic. Is it me, or the lighting or is she getting er ... more curvy?
Keep up the tremendous work.
xy
Keep up the tremendous work.
xy
BMac
Established Member
This is brilliant! I love to open this section of the forum and see a new message signal against this thread. I called my wife to see what you have done so far (she was in England for 3 weeks so missed the start) and she was very impressed indeed - and she's not easily impressed. I look forward to further updates but, already, I'm kinda dreading the end because I'm enjoying this so much.
Brendan.
Brendan.
