[Merrill Sanders]

I've been carving for about a year now and have some training in caricature carving. But I'm always using someone else's pattern or roughout. I'm interested in designing my own. I cannot draw and so it is almost impossible for me to come up with a pattern from which to make a bandsaw cut-out of what I want to carve. Is there anyone that provides training in the design of caricature figures?

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Merrill......Look under my name for the thread on Caricature manikins. I use them when laying out a figure on the block be fore I head off to the bandsaw.

I have a whole library of notebooks filled with cuttings from magazines, newspapers, etc., that I save for reference. One notebook is for s, another for Indians, Horses, dles, Boots, you name it and I have a notebook full of reference photos that deals that that idea. As I deal mostly with old west figures, I subscribe to a number of magazines of that theme. I'm always on the lookout for new material.

If you have an idea for a figure, get on the internet and start searching for photos and other material that will help you flesh it out. Anymore, I spend as much time on this computer as I do making chips down the hill.

Good Luck!

[Merrill Sanders]

Lynn,

How do you make your manikins and what do you do for a front view?

[MelNM]

Hobby Lobby, Michaels or any art supply store also has the manikans that you can manipulate.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Merrill.....Click on my Name and then click "All ings" ... On page 2 look for my Manikins posting that will tell you how I do it.

As far as the front view goes. Just draw it from the lines of the size view. That will give you a cutting line for the front. Just think of the body as a rectangular block with smaller rectangular blocks attached!!

[Mitchell]

Hummmmmm.....

I have been working on how to do this very thing - Teach someone without drawing skills a method to design their own patterns. I am about 1/2 way through. The key is proportions - at least to make a caricature look "right". I've got that part finished - I'm working on how to transition the original idea from a draft into a finalized piece.

A little credit - If you look at Lynn's carvings, his proportions are what I would describe as "text book".... if there was a text book. While his work has remarkable detail, I really believe that his proportions on full body caricatures is part of what makes his work excellent. It all starts with the original design.

My only problem is that I don't know what I'm gonna do with the instructions when I'm done with getting them "cleaned up".