Baby Steps into Woodcarving
I’m one of those guys who, if you give him a straight edge and pencil, can draw a line. Give me a square and I can draw lines 90-degrees to one another. I’m really good with circle templates. But ask me to draw a picture and the result is something unrecognizable.
And so it was that while I’ve always wanted to be a woodcarver but never thought it in me. Truth is, maybe it isn’t, but I stumbled on Gene Messner’s efforts and he gave me hope.
Gene is the Johnny Appleseed of woodcarvers. Using YouTube as his platform (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=whittler0507&view=videos), Gene provides the world with something in excess of seven gigabytes of woodcarving tutorials.
Gene makes it look easy and he is truly a master. More important to this tale, though, is that he provides real-time, step-wise tutorials on carving caricatures in the flat-plane carving style. I just had to try it. As the only tool required is a knife and a hunk of basswood, I did just that.
I followed Gene’s tutorial on carving a simple hound dog. I’m not going to win any awards with this first carving but I sure did have fun doing it. It’s finished with craft acrylics and then dipped in an ‘antiquing’ solution of boiled linseed oil, mineral spirits (mixed 2:1) with a bit of walnut stain added to it for flavor.
I had so much fun doing this that I think I’ll do another. My dog needs a friend.
Cheers — Larry
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Larry – I just love him. I am so used to you doing such precise things that is is a surprise to see you do something whimsicle. You know hounds usually come in packs so you need to make more so he wont be lonley. He is adorable.
I think that art requires both craftsmanship and artistic ability. I was sick the day they handed out that artistic ability stuff. And so I am capable of replicating existing things in miniature. When I start doing things like caricatures, however, I’m working with only half a deck I’m afraid and I’m learning that with the carving, I don’t have much of the craftsman part either
But it is fun and I will do more of it.
Cheers — Larry
[...] for the kind responses regarding my foray into the carving world. I really enjoyed doing that little dog. So much so, in fact, that I’ve done little else with my spare time but carving ever [...]