The simplest of tools...

This is just a quick post to tell you about one of the items I have in my tool box....a circle template.  These items generally sell for less than $10 but do bring some good value to our hobby.  I generally use this when I am designing a cutout or when I roughing out a carving.  It's a good reference to see where you are in relation to round.  If you are a carver who often produces square looking carvings just get a template draw a circle on the end grain of some 2"x2" stock and carve until you reach a cylinder...this will assist you in producing a better quality carving.  A square carving is usually the result of nicking the wood instead of carving...so go ahead and take some big, committed cuts for a better result.

HEY ITS A HOLIDAY!!!...Carve something besides the turkey!! 

(Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous Thanksgiving!)

One from the bench...

Just a quick writeup regarding a painting demonstration I provided my club...the carving to the left was carved along with a couple of carvers I coach in the art of caricature carving.  It's founded on busts generated out of Marv Kaisersatt's book and is a good way to teach face carving.  A while back our club was seeking content for our monthly meeting and I forgot to take one step back sooooo a painting demonstration seemed like a good idea.  I don't believe the club was thinking they would get a demonstration but rather a discussion.  For me its all in the teaching as anyone can just talk about it.  Many folks out there struggle with painting their carvings especially when it comes to the strength of paint color.  I laid it all out there for them and demonstrated it through the carvings dipping in the antiquing mixture.  The carving at left has since been waxed and buffed.  One item of note, I demonstrated with Sharpie markers for shirt stripes and as you can somewhat see the colors bled...its important to test this prior to painting on your carving as experiences will vary. 

This carving was painted using round brushes, H2O, a paper palette, acrylic paints, BLO, Deft, and Feed-N-Wax.  The most important portion of the process is to ensure you have thinned each paint so only a hint of pigment is showing.  Please understand that the color red requires a great amount of water and white is just the opposite.  A 'test block' is an important accessory when painting, its just a scrap block that you can test on.  The paper palette (or Styrofoam plate) is the best for mixing paints as it allows you to draw the pigment to the water rather than trying to mix the appropriate amount of each in a cup.

 

No matter what...painting takes practice and in order to practice you have to have cleanly carved carvings...so what are you waiting for????  Carve something!

I am not a bird carver, but...

A gift for Page!

  I will be the first to admit that I know nothing of carving birds, however this would be my third.  The first was when I was first learning about carving and I decided to carve a Rick Butz merganser for my parents...I created that one in cherry.
  The second was my original piece "The elusive Baltimore Oreo" which was driven by the fact that I wanted to show my club members (95% bird carvers) that I could if I REALLY wanted to.
  The latest, the flamingo to the left, is driven by a promise to a friend and one who wholly supports our art.  Many years ago I embarked on a great friendship with a gentlemen from the great state of North Carolina, we had very similar desires, a good sense of humor, and the need to do something different.  I would learn overtime the generosity not only of himself but of his supportive wife, Miss Page.  Over the years I have attended a number of events in the state of North Carolina and it would always seem that Mitch and Page were at the heart of supporting these events.Now I must say that Miss Page goes well above and beyond being supportive all while maintaining her sense of humor dashed with a bit of sarcasm (something I really enjoy).
  It was at one of the aforementioned events that Miss Page informed me that I owed her a carving,  no doubt I did so I inquired as to what she would like me to carve...the answer was that she liked birds, especially flamingos.  Well, it was decided then...a flamingo it would be.
  Now the only thing I new of flamingos is that they get their color from the generous amounts of shrimp they eat.  Not knowing where to begin, the "carvers paralysis" set in.  If you have experienced this you know that it is when you know you want to carve an item however you can't decide where to begin but there are way to many questions. 
  In this case I did what I could knowing that this does not pay the debt but rather just satisfy the bird requirement.  One interesting note when researching the flamingo...they are mostly shades of pink/orange almost everywhere. In finishing the piece I took this into account and gave the piece depth through multiple tonal values. 
  This carving while simple was still somewhat challenging,  a learning experience for sure.

  It's another day, don't wait...carve something!!

Caricature - A real likeness

Chris Rock by A. Filetti

It's always good to have goals and one of the goals I have is to be able to create a Caricature likeness of a real person rather than carving generic folk all the time.  To be clear, carving generic folk and taking what the wood gives me is truly acceptable, this is more about expanding my talents to be able to generate a true likeness.

In studying caricature I put a lot of stock into Tom Richmond's writings, as they are well written and enable caricature abilities.  One of his key stated observations is that a good caricature can be judged by whether or not the likeness truly equates to the subject (the carving/drawing truly looks like the individual). 

As part of my studies I read other blogs, many by other graphic artists and animators.  Some of these folk publish great sketch books, one of which is Jioe Bluhm's Sketch Infectus.  This is where I found a basic drawing on which I could base the carving upon.  Utilizing the drawing and focusing on the parts rather than the whole I was able to create this latest attempt at a carving a caricature of a real person.  My hope is to next generate the Caricature drawing from which I will be able to generate a carving. 

Being critical of my work there are a couple of areas I would do differently to have a greater impact,  I believe the representation would have been better with a smaller nose a larger teeth.  I do believe this carving is close and for those who are aware of the comedian will be able to decipher the likeness.  In carving Chris I did notice that he bears a similarity to both the Prez and also to Eddie Murphy and the they truly only differ in some minor ways.

All-in-all this was a good way to stretch my skills and I hope to improve with each. 

Strop 'em up and get carving my friend!

 

The use of a Soft-V

Denny (OCCT) Ortel Soft-V

 

A recent question on one a Caricature Carving forum polled the members for their favorite roughout tools.  One of the often mentioned items was a Soft-V.  Now I understand some folks might wonder what a soft-v might be as compared to a standard V gouge.  Simply stated the bottom of the V is rounded and does not form a strict angle.  This can be seen a little better in the picture below.



Ok, so its rounded...what does that mean for me the carver?
...
Well with time carvers come to realize that before actually adding detail to a carving they really need to get the foundation correct.  In the above pictures is an in progress whittling modeled after a rough setup demonstrated to me by Mitch Cartledge.  At this point in the carving I am locating the elbows, shoulders, overall head  size, eyeline, and bottom of the nose.  A major portion of what has been done so far has been done with a Soft-V, knife, and a very large #9.  The use of a Soft-V vs. a standard V tool allows me to set planes of the carving without committing to that plane.  If I had used a standard V tool I would have left lines in areas that I did not want.  The carving in its current state allows me to make changes or adjustments without major issues.

One other item of note is that the Soft-V in the picture has very high shoulders which I also find helpful.  As you become more advanced you will learn to use these shoulders and find they are quite useful.  In case you are wondering about gouge size,  I tend to buy the largest palm gouges as it is best to start at the largest sizes and work your way to the smaller sizes as a carving progresses.

The gouge shown is a tool I would recommend...its stout, in use by many carvers, been around for a few years, and manufactured by a maker committed to quality.

I hope you found this helpful...sharpen and strop them tools and get out there and carve something!

 

Vendor relationships..some insight into recent experiences

Another tool for the collection!

I have to say the thought for this post came from a post I recall reading on a forum regarding the quality of a tool purchased and my experiences coaching other carvers.  The post questioned the quality of the tool due to it's condition when it arrived and recently I have taken notice of some this as the vendor landscape has transformed over recent years with some folks retiring and selling their business to others.

In my experiences as a carver and a coach I know the importance of sharp and the impact it can have on a carver and the carving experience.  I was heavily influenced early on by my friend and first instructor Gary Falin.  He taught me sharp and gave me my first enjoyable carving experience with sharp tools.  Carving in Tom Wolfe's whittling competitions with the likes of Mark Akers, Mitch Cartledge, and Alan Goodman also reinforced the need to maintain my tools keeping them in optimal condition.  In coaching others this is where I see some of the greatest difficulties...teaching sharp and how to maintain sharp and I hope this message will be of benefit to others.

Like others my hobby budget is limited so I want to avoid the mistakes I made early in my carving experience by purchasing the correct tools needed for a particular purpose.  Now please understand that a pretty tool is like an expensive set of golf clubs,  having them doesn't mean you will qualify for the tour.  So I am focused on buying quality tools that fulfill specific needs.  Recently when carving  with Mitch I asked if he would be so kind as to demonstrate a particular setup and I appreciate the fact he was able to share that with me.  While he was demonstrating this for me he happened to pull out a couple of Henry Taylor palm gouges that I had not previously seen (one of which is shown above).  These gouges were 3/4" wide and were in a #7 and #9 sweeps...ideal for caricature carvers seeking to remove wood quickly.  After seeing these I knew I wanted to have them in my toolbox.  Not having purchased this makers tools before I did a quick online search and found one the foundational U.S. companies I had purchased from before in person and placed an online order.  Now placing online orders you would expect to get a confirmation of the order email stating the order was received, whether or not the product was in stock, and its expected ship date.  I GOT NOTHING!!!  OK, so I am a busy person and I did not have time to chase this vendor so after waiting over 3 weeks without hearing anything from them I decided to forget about the order, if it was filled it would go into my collection as a backup set.  I then did another online search and discovered that another acquaintance of mine also sold this brand.  I gave him a quick call, he stated that he had them in stock and asked if I would like them sharpened...I said no I have a Burke and need more experience with it.  THE TOOLS ARRIVED IN 3 DAYS !! (Thanks Bob Stadtlander).  Now knowing Bob and the discussion we had around the sharpening aspect my expectations were set.  The tools came with a wax coating over the cutting edge but were in no way near the point of usability, they were dull and just tearing at the wood.  The shafts of the tools had a fresh from the forge tool grind with sharp edges that would irritate the hand during prolonged use.  This to me is not the way the tools should arrive and it is my belief that this only serves to discourage new carvers.  I have to say that I am spoiled and that I had the fortunate experience of buying from Little Shavers where Rick does not let a tool ship until he ensures it is ready for use.  BTW, after a month and a half I got an e-mail from the first vendor saying my order had shipped.  The tools arrived in the same condition as the other set (note I was not offered a sharpening service).  As you would expect I will not be ordering anything further from this company and word of mouth will not positively affect their business.

For the inexperienced out there when ordering a tools ask if they sharpen the tool prior to shipping and for the businesses out there don't ship a dull tool.  In the long run our hobby and businesses will benefit from this practice. 

Either way the consumer should be prepared when the tools arrives to put the edge on the tools cutting edge, polish the channel (if you have the tools necessary), and lastly dress the shaft ensuring comfort when carving.  In the case of these aforementioned Henry Taylor tools I have a Burke sharpener and I was able to bring these up to spec, my carving experience with these tools since then has been favorable and I would continue to consider this brand with this understanding that they will require refinement once received.  As consumers we must understand that a good vendor wants our positive feedback in order to make a better product satisfying our needs and making the carving experience better for all.

It's a great day for carving...as others would say to become a good carver get into the practice of carving 30 minutes a day and success will follow.  Now get out there and carve something!!
 

Gone clubbing...



 

Ross Oar and his creation

Well maybe it is not the type of clubbing you had in mind but it sure is my kind of clubbing!  A fellow carver gave me a heads up that the one of our neighboring clubs was going to hold their annual shindig and invited me along.  Of course the spouse was happy to have me out from under feet, so off we went.

The club in question is the Southtowns Woodcarvers of Western NY.  I had in the past taken classes with many of the carvers and it was good to see their latest creations.  I finally got to put a face with a name...Ross Oar (see picture above).  Ross was the originator of the "Oar Carver" pocket knife.  One of the few that contained one or multiple Wharncliffe blades (it is a blade shape desired by many a Caricature carver).  Shown above is an early creation of his,  what I presume to be an early revolutionary period soldier (not a historian, so this is an uneducated guess).  Prior to this I had not seen an in-the-round caricature carving fully painted in this size.  The carving was done out of a log cut by Ross with the only attachments being the weapon and a scabbard.  My guess is that with the base the carving is about 42" tall.  In speaking with Ross we learned that the face was that of one of our former presidents, Jimmy Carter.  It was really is an attractive carving and Ross really excelled in the finished presentation and the carving of its hair.  Hard to believe but if I read it right the carving is about 25 years old!

The clubs show was hosted in a local Senior Center, a spacious and bright space that allowed for the display of many carvings.  Being a member of a club we are truly thankful for the entities that host our organizations, without them we would surely be lost. 

Bob Statlander was also in attendance and he had a wide array of items for sale at the show.  No, I did not buy a knife...but I did buy reference material...nice!  (i.e. Tom Richmod's MAD Art of Caricature)

Of course after making our purchases and perusing all of the nice carvings we stepped outside to a picnic table and carved for about an hour.   It was a beautiful day and the club did a nice job of hosting.

All in all a great outing, if you ever get a chance to meet up with this group you are sure to enjoy the company. 

It's another day...carve something!!