Dumb question about study sticks

[oneshotveth]

So, I love the idea of a study stick, and I want to create some, however, I stink at carving.... Do people usually make their own? After a while when they're good (but if you're good, you wouldn't need a study stick?)

It seems like a chicken or the egg thing....

help?

[Bruutmans]

Hi there,

dumb questions do not exist :-)
I`m a starting carver also and i do not use a study stick. What i do is make study objects in series. And try to see and find where i could go better.
It`s a little boring because you make the same thing over and over,but there is the tric,just do it a lot and you will get better.
Why don`t you try to make a stick until you think it`s good enough. Just have a go at it. I suck too,and incredibly good i might say,but it`s not that,it`s having fun and being busy,making something. That`s the fun of it. And along the way you will get better and better and better.
Ow man i was so incredibly disapointed with my first little work,but after a while something came out and it still gets better.

So have a go at it!
Good luck i say!

Greets Dries

[BrandantR]

I have a study stick tutorial going right now on my blog if you would like to follow and carve along. I have the first two parts up, the nose and the mouth. Here's a link to my tutorials page:
The Old Stump: Tutorials Page
Study sticks are a great way to practice techniques and to work out different ideas such as a new facial expression. Hope this helps.

[rickm]

they is a great tutorial. I dont have a number 9 gouge, so i wish you might have incldued a way to do the same with a knife but thats ok il will study it more, also is there a way to print it out? I like to carve in my chair, and use reference materials there, rather than in the comp room.

[BrandantR]

Originally Posted by rickm

they is a great tutorial. I dont have a number 9 gouge, so i wish you might have incldued a way to do the same with a knife but thats ok il will study it more, also is there a way to print it out? I like to carve in my chair, and use reference materials there, rather than in the comp room.

Rick,
You can do almost anything with a knife that you can do with a gouge. It just takes practice to do it. Making a scooping cut with a nice, thin knife blade will give almost the same effect as a gouge cut.

I recommend saving the PDF file of the tutorial to your computer to work off of since when you pull up the tutorial through Google Docs it distorts the images and colors. Once you download the PDF file, you can print it out as you would any other file. Hope this helps.