[Lindy]

Okay, I think I have all my Christmas carving done now so I have been having this image of doing a cougar's head into bark bugging me for at least a week. I found a wonderful supply of thick cottonwood bark and today I started it. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing but it'll be fun at least. No pictures yet as I have just started the roughing out stage. I find these types of carvings so different from the wood spirits and I'm hoping the cougar turns out better than the bear did.

Any suggestions on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

[artolver]

Lindy
How far are you Washington state, I am a member in Quicida club And Northwest Carvers and Spokane All have shows if you are interested. Quilcida is held in Monroe in April. Clubs are fun, Classes, supplies,we can enter carvings for ribbons Sometimes cash awards....? The best thing "Little Shavers" will be there.
Art the barkguy

[artolver]

Sorry, I forgot about the Cougar.. Bark is a very good choice. If you want to do it full image and in the round I suggest glueups . I can help with that
Art

[Lindy]

Hi Art,

I live in the North Okanagan and although I would love to attend the show, unfortunately I wouldn't be able to.

Here are pictures of the cougar in progress - as you can see I've just started. As usual the pictures are a little hard to see due to size but if you go to the link at the bottom of my post and look at the Work In Progress album you'll be able to see them there as well.

The cottonwood bark is about 4 inches thick so I should be okay on depth for the carving. The problem is that I have limited experience in carving animals into bark. Woodspirits and wood sculptures I've done, but limited in this idea so it's a learning experience.

I would however love to learn more about "glue-ups" as I have never tried that either.

Thanks

[Mottles]

Hey Linda, thank you for sharing your cougar work in progress. I've been carving wood spirits on basswood blocks, and have had thoughts of carving an animal too. I haven't carved in bark but I know where I can get some cottonwood. In the mean time I'll be following your progress.
Merry Christmas,
Kathy

[MelNM]

I'm look forward to seeing your results Linda I have about a hundred pounds of cottonwood bark waiting for me to attack it also

[Lindy]

Okay, I've gotten the carving and woodburning done so I'm ready to paint this guy. Here are the current pictures of him.


Mottles - I love doing wood spirits, each one is different and they're fun to do. Have you tried carving them into bark yet?

MelNM - I'm going to try and harvest the rest of the bark from my latest find. The bark is really nice and thick, probably the best I've found so far. I just don't like these stupid little beatles that keep crawling out as I'm working on it.

Oh yeah, the cat you see in the first picture is in love with either this wood or the carving because he was sitting there licking it when I put it down at one point. I felt it appropriate for him to be allowed to be in the picture.

[Kenny_S]

By golly, I think you have it for sure. Great looking cougar. Love the bark as after the outer layer, it is like cutting butter.


Waiting on finish product. Keep up the excellent work.

[MelNM]

Its looking really good already Lindy, are you going to put anything below him in the bare area, I have seen some carvings with the animal tracks leading up to the face that look good?

[artolver]

Lindy... It is looking good , you do know your animals, I can see.
When you are dealing with finishing up, how you blend the outer image into the gray can always be important.... you probably know that
art