Sketches

[TommyPhillips]

This might be obvious to most of you, but it was a revelation to me.

I was reading in the British magazine Wood Carving a couple of months ago, and there was an article that said that carvers should practice more. In fact, that most carvers got all their practice working on their projects. The author (I can't find the magazine at the moment, and I don't recall the name) encouraged the reader to do practice pieces. There was a fairly detailed hand study as an example.

That made a lot of sense to me. The more I thought about it, the more sensible it seemed. Other artists (drawing, painting) create many, many sketches, trying ideas, practicing techniques, then moving on to the next page of the sketch book.

We carvers, especially beginners, on the other hand, tend to have more effort (and blood!) invested in even small and simple carvings, so it is harder for us to just "flip the page" and start over.

Well, I decided to take this advice, and I have been carving a bunch of "sketches" in bits of pine that I had sitting in the garage. I have found it to be an incredible learning experience. Because I think of them as sketches, and because I am using "free wood", I'm not afraid to try new techniques and make new mistakes.

It has been a blast. I decided to go the whole distance, and paint them. After all, if I don't practice painting on my sketches, I'll be making beginner painting mistakes on carvings that I might otherwise be proud of.

Just for fun, I am attaching a picture of some of them. It's a little blurry at full size, but after re-sizing to 640x480 pixels, it's sort of okay.

The short dimension on the pieces range from about 1-1/2 to 2 inches, and the longest dimension is just over 3 inches. They are all about 3/4 inch thick, because they are all 1-by molding cutoffs.

I carry my current sketch around in my pocket, along with my Old Timer and a leather thumb guard, so I can practice carving when I have a chance. When I get close to the end, I use my Flex-Cut knives and gouges to put in a few details.

[Ashbys]

Tommy

Smart idea!

Ash

[squbrigg]

Practice, practice, practice.....that's what makes a carver. Good advice.

Bob

[whitecree]

I still think it is kind of silly thinking of carving in the same terms as a sketch artist. Sketching uses two dimensions, whereas even a simple relief carving uses three.

Practice is, however, the key to improving no matter what you are doing.


I like your kitty cat. Looks like he is up to something...

[Thomp]

Tommy,

as for wood, being in colorado, you should be able to get aspin. i been told its equilivent to basswood or butternut as to the carvability..

also check at lowes and us wood. for whitewood its usualy lathing 2x1 x4-6feet long

why they call it whitewood is beyond me, but you will find a lot of different species from cottonwood to spruce.

although spruse has lots of small knotts i found it easily carved if you can get around the knots..

pine slash and loblolly is pretty grainy the darker grains are as hard as any wood i would ever want to carve and its brittle so you loose pieces from your carving when it gets to the fine details so i wont use it unless for signs and such...

i was raised on and around the contental divide between montizuma, dillon, brekenridge, fairplay, komo Co, dad worked in a small sawmill and the dillon resivore project
before all the yuppys took up skining... and scalped the landscape ...

hope you can still cut your own firewod in the state!

thomas

[artolver]

I started pencil sketching before I learned the alphabet. I would recommend learning how to sketch as you learn to carve. It is a lot cheaper and getting started is a lot easier nowadays if you read a little bit from a book, "Drawing from the right side of the brain".
90% of things I carve is on Cottonwood bark. I use a knife or gouge to "sketch" my subject on the face of the bark.
art

[Kenny_S]

That is so Kewel Art, sketching with your knife. Now that is vision in what you see in the wood. Me, I sketch out the out line of the Bark piece on paper to see if it all will fit.

[Canopener]

Tom,
Absolutely; a great idea, one of the first things I learned was to carve faces, or parts of faces or other things like hands, on a stick. I call them my "experiments". Sometimes they end up as kindling or painting "experiments"; sometimes they evolve into a real carving that is the rough version of an even bigger more detailed carving. I find that I give the big one away because I somehow like the rough one better.
WCI frequently has practice tutorials for eyes, ears etc.
Thomp is right on about aspen, IMHO, a good piece of aspen is hard to beat, carves like ivory butter. You can do a lot with 2-3 inch piece of sapling, and I have a bunch trying to take over my yard.
I can get by with pencil and paper, but never got very good. Clay is also hard for me, but maybe you would like it.
In the meantime, keep makin' chips!!
Jim

[wade clark]

Tom,
Someone once told me the way to learn to chainsaw carve a good bear was to carve 10 of them, allowing yourself 1 1/2 hours each. Do one, study it, then do the next. When done with all 10, keep the ones you like and have a campfire with the rest--it's only wood and 1 1/2 hours of your time. But by then you'll be able to consistently carve a good bear!
Wade