Doom and gloom

The source of this pattern is obscure like the previous post. I was attracted by the body language, something that hitherto I have paid little attention to.

Doom and Gloom

Doom and Gloom

Wood: Lime (Tilia x europea)

Height: 16.5 cms

Finish: Linseed oil and beeswax polish

The body language spells a miserable mood!
I went to town with stylized folds for the oversize trousers, which caught the effect I was after. Most (90%) of the carving was completed with a knife. I resort to gouges where concave cuts are required.

Characters from the USA

Ozzy

 These 2 characters I took from the publication Caricature Carving-The Best of Woodcarving Illustrated, a magazine from the USA.

Wood:  Lime (Tilia x europea)

Height: 10 cms

Finish: Linseed oil and beeswax polish.

Ozzy is an Ozark mountain man, whilst Olgit can be found anywhere in central USA.

Olgit

Both figures were carved quite rapidly with a knife, following very clear illustrations.

Finishing procedure
Creating shadow with deep cuts seems to work well. I never use abrasives to clean up, it destroys detail and ruins the surface burnish achieved by a sharp blade! The procedure I follow for finishing is:
1. Scrub the carving with warm soapy water to remove hand grease.
2. Wipe off water with a paper tissue, then before drying occurs liberally coat the wood with a mixture of 75% boiled linseed oil and 25% turpentine, dabbing off any excess. This prevents the grain from swelling and raising, and it smells nice! Allow to dry over say 14 days.
3. Brush on wax of choice. I initially used beeswax but now I use Rennaissance wax to resist finger marking. Allow to dry for a few days, then burnish with a soft brush to reach into the deeper cuts.
4. Enjoy!

Troll queen

Troll queen is my first serious attempt in creating depth and shadow without the use of colour (paint). I used an article by Harley Refsal in Woodcarving Illustrated Spring 2011 for the basic pattern and to learn the rules of Scandinavian flat plane carving. Harley is  a member of the Caricature Carvers of America http://www.cca-carvers.org/

Wood: Lime (Tilia x europea)

Height: 13 cms

Finish: Linseed oil and beeswax


My goal was to achieve simplicity, and hopefully some speed since all previous work had been relatively slow going with me getting too involved with detail. The flat plane carving was done with an American style carving knife tailored to fit my hand (see later post). A cross section of an arm, the body or head should resemble an octagon, with shadows created by deeper cuts.

A steep learning curve

These 3 figures I was less than pleased with. The central face bears a recognizable likeness to the owner but the 2 flanking heads are disasters!

Wood: Lime (Tilia x europea)
Height: 7.5 - 10 cms
Finish: Linseed oil, acrylic/oil paint and beeswax

Lessons I took from these are:-
  1. Get the basic dimensions correct at the start
  2. Never use pure black or white paint, it   distracts attention from the rest of the piece.

First caricatures

My first caricatures were made using the publication entitled "Carving Caricature Heads & Faces" written by W. Pete LeClair, who is a member of the prestigious Caricature Carvers of America http://www.cca-carvers.org/

The figures are carved in Lime (Tilia x europaea), are between 6 -9 cms high and mounted on cork bottle stoppers.
The wood is left with a tooled finish, coated with linseed oil, then painted with acrylic paint for the eyes and teeth, and diluted oil paint for the remainder. When dry the figures were polished with beeswax polish then buffed with a brush once dry.