I would like some honest feedback on my carvings I have done so far.

[arttimes]

I did some carving with a knife and chisels about 25 years ago, but gave up because I didn't know how to keep my tools sharp and so just carved a couple of dogs, but NOW there are power tools!!!!

I really need some critiques here since I'm not quite sure what I am doing.

The santa was carved last fall and was my first carving with power. I used a ryobi and foredom to do him. He is done in a cypress knee, nice soft wood, but I messed up his nose and had to use wood putty to fix it. I carved a couple more things out of the cypress knees and liked them pretty well and sold all but one, I'll have to take a picture and post him.

I picked up some wood after the loggers had been in and practiced some on that also with the ryobi and foredom.

Then, I got the Powercrafter and I'm hooked on it!!! It's absolutely wonderful and I feel like I can do anything with it.....

I'm thinking I want to do relief carving on gunstocks, doors and mantles. It seems like it is going to be the most natural for me, as I have been drawing and painting forever and it just seems to be really satisfying. It is hard for me to carve really, really shallow though, as the gunstocks would require. I'll have to figure that out as I go unless someone here can tell me what they do.

The next one I did is the one of the deer, a Lora Irish pattern, with the powercrafter tool which I just love. It makes carving seem like you are cutting through butter. I painted it with oils since it is done on scrap pine and the grain wasn't great for staining. It measures about 5 1/2" x 6 3/4".

The next one I did is the raccoon, again on pine 2" x 3" and I need to paint him.

I finished the squirrel yesterday and I guess I'll paint him too. I really like the look of the carving without paint, but it's pine too so I think it will probably look better with paint I would do it as a fall scene with the leaves being bright. It is 3 3/4" x 5 3/4".

What do you think? Is there anything that looks off and something I can improve on? Please help....

I'll paint the last two sometime this week and post them then...

Sandra

[pallin]

Sandra - I don't know what your carvings were like before, but you seem to be doing well with the power approach. But - don't be in a rush. Stand back and look at your work, including the details. You may find something you would improve.
I think there are some edges that could be more sharply defined. Where you have given texture to fur, consider the finer textures that exist on the undersides or legs.
I am not a power carver, so I don't know the limitations of your tools.

[davidinsarasota]

I dislike the santa, but I dislike all santas.

In the other three, your use of the 'muted' works magic when accompanied by more well defined items like the leaves and branches. Your posing of the squirrel is very natural. And the overall composition is authentically busy and tight. The toolmarks aid in creating a flow pattern for the eye to follow. Goood work.

What is that furry face in the third one?

david "/

[Irish]

Hey Sandra, welcome back to carving!

I love all three works! I can see in just the few examples that you will quickly have total control with your power tools. I do like the refined, smooth finish to the squirrel carving over the slight rough finish of the deer.

What I really really really like is the very bottom edge of that squirrel block! The ins and outs of the flowing line along the bottom adds a lot of depth to the overall effect of the carving.

Remember that you can now go back over the power work and add some fine detailing and crisp up your joint lines between elements with hand tools.

There are some excellent threads here on the message board on how to sharpen your tools ... they might be worth your time to read.

Susan

[arttimes]

a lot y'all. I really needed to kow how they look to others who know what they are doing.

Phil, I understand what you mean about texturing the fur on the body too but haven't yet figured out how to do it so that it is fine and short like it really is on a squirrel. If I paint it, I thought about doing an underpainting on the body with white and then using grey and black washes over it and then coming back with a needle and scratching through the paint back down to the white to get the dense furry look and also add texture to the body that way. I don't have a clue as to whether that would work or not and am a little afraid to do it, but I'll only know if I try and if it doesn't work, then I will have learned not to do that again.

David, don't worry, I don't think I'm a Santa person either. The other furry thing is supposed to be a raccoon looking out of a log.

Irish, are you the Irish who does the carving and the books?! If so, I love your books! and what are joint lines? Where a leaf and tree or background come together? or the squirrel and the tree join? I wasn't sure whether it was normal to carve all the way out to the edges like I did on the bottom where it goes in & out. It's like that on the sides and top too. I thought about leaving an edge around it kind of like a frame, but kind of did that on the deer and so I wanted to try it this way on the squirrel.

[arttimes]

Oh David, I forgot, I raised a squirrel and a lot of my squirrel work is from photos I took of him. It was really great to have a subject that was tame to observe and try to get everything right about squirrels for my work. The flow lines you commented on were an accident I guess since I don't really know what you mean by that. When I paint, I use lines to direct the eye to the center of interest and around the painting, is that the same thing? You know, the composition?

[Dan S]

I'll throw in my two bits. First off you are better at relief carving than I am so take this for what it's worth. I think you need to do a bit more research on your anatomy. You are missing a bit of the details Your work with the fur isn't half bad. I like the squiril's tail. Perhaps you could experiment on some scrap wood to get the hang of the various textures you wish to create. Better resource materials will help.
You didn't do too bad on the santa. Go lighter with the paint. Let the grain show through. Also when painting eyes do not face them straight forward. It makes the carving look dead. Try repainting his eyes looking right and note the difference. Well that's my bit. You are doing quite well and I hope you post more of your work.

Take care,
Dan

[Hugh-P]

Your doing excellent for a beginner, you have a gift and will become a very good carver. I often tell my carving students the story of a hippie sitting on the street corner, a lady approaches him, to ask how to get to Carnage Hall, the hippie replied, Practice baby, practice. There is a great opportunity on this site to learn, good carvers. Cheers

[Joy]

It looks like you have gotten some good advice. It seems you have a natural knack of drawing with your power carver. I would suggest that all you lack are details. The squirrel has a very natural feel, but if you take a picture and look at the picture instead of the carving I think you will find areas that you can make more crisp by adding some details.

[arttimes]

Okay, I didn't get to work on this anymore last week, but I did today...is this looking any better or is it worse? I think it is more detailed now and will continue to work on it tomorrow. I'm trying to follow everyone's suggestions by adding more detail. Oh, this is approximately 4" x 6" and I took it the pics in different lighting....

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Thanks,
Sandra