Help what to do Next ?

[carvedbears61]

Hi all,
I made this scan of a carving I want to do the pattern is mounted on
a basswood its 2 1/2" x 4"x 1". I am stumped ? Do I mount the pattern on
the others side. Or do I make chip"s fly.Talking or make it narrow.
When I resize the pic. It's distorted

[GeorgiaCarver]

I am sure others will jump in but.... I would try to trace, copy, draw on the front of the block the shape of the mouse from the front. That will give you two sides to look at for the outline. I would then carve both sides to the outer most lines.

This will give you the shape both in the front and the side.

After that it is a matter of picking which arm is extended, which foot ect. and removing the wood on the other side. For example if the right arm is extended but the left arm is by the mouses side, remove all the wood except where the arm would be on the right side. This would bring the belly and ther other arm in proportion to where you would expect it. Remove the wood from between the legs. After the major portions of wood are removed I would then start to work on creating the actual shapes of the arms, feet, head ect. Detailing is usually last for me.

Clear as mud? As many great carvers have said, "it is simple, just remove the wood that does not belong".

Others will chime in and help as well.

[Tom-H]

For me the most important ongoing step is to visualize the carved piece in "the finished form" or "3-D". I would never loose sight of what the finished carving will look like. Early on in the carving process there may not be much or any detail, but as I carve I keep on adding more detail to the visualization. I hope that makes sense....Tom H

[whitecree]

Resizing can be a bother. If using the little tabs on the sides, grab hold of the one in the corner to get a proportional size change.

I'd cut the profile out the way you have it drawn, leaving a bit extra around the legs which are weak spots. Remove the hard edges, get the head cut out and centered, start rounding the body and developing the lower legs. Take a little off here, a little off there, and keep 'moving around'. Stop every few slices and look at how the piece is coming out.

[carvedbears61]

Do yall think the width is ok at 1" . One help is to bandsaw some more of the wood off. And another is to trace the pattern right on wood is one better than the other.
Many thanks for help.

[Thomp]

carvedbears61,

dont be stumped...
below is a freeby graphic viewer and editor,
download and install, it may turn up to be the best thing yet for resizing pictures yet
http://www.irfanview.com/

Best thing yet is nothing you do to a photo or graphic is perminate,(unless you save it) so you can really do some weird stuff to it along with resizing with propotions intact.

i load a graphic or picture into it and crop it closely so im just working with the actual graphic.

then do whatever editing i need to or turn it greyscale for better pattern without wasting color ink.
dont worry to much about resizing yet.

when you tell the program to print the file you are presented with print options screen,
in this screen click the raido button(little circle)on inches then type in the inch size you want the print,
i select paper size to 3x5 or 5x7, and put in the appropaite paper,(I keep my patterns after i cut them out so the thicker paper stores better.) or i just use full sheet card stock,
or you can print them on plain paper or whatever your desire is.

you may have to adjust the landscape or portrate print orentation but thats about all there is to it, no real fuss...

with a little time spent educating yourself with this software you can be running out patternsof anything you can take a photo likeness of.

when i downloaded the software, it was free postcard ware...
the feller is in hawaii and all he wanted for a payment was a picture postcard from you telling something about your area .

good luck, and if you need help with the software email me ill be happy to give help where i can..

[whitecree]

Hey Thomp! Thanks for the link. I'd heard of this neat-o little graphics package any number of times, but could never recall the name or where to find it.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I can't tell what that animal is supposed to be doing but I can tell you what will probably happen to him. Assuming that the grain is runing from the feet to the head, first his little finger will break off as the grain is running in the wrong direction there. Next the end of the toes will break off for the same reason. Even the nose is going to be a problem due to the grain. Grain problems can be overcome but when you do a figure so small your getting down to the cellular level and the the troubles only increase. I would rethink that design or redraw it to thicken those areas.

[carvedbears61]

It's going to be a bear holding a walking stick. How do I know which way grain is running; any help with that. I have mainly work with roughouts in
the passed this is my first cut out of my own.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Thomp... Thank you for the program website. I down loaded it this evening and have already made a pattern that I've been struggling with for the past two weeks. It's really neat where you can change the picture to greyscale like you said and then use the color enhancement to change the contrast and essentially end up with a line drawing of the object that you need. What got me is the ease of the program.