Napolean in Progress

[dbowerswoodcarver]

Ashby--Very complicated piece of work. If Napoleon would have had a winged horse in reality, I'm pretty sure his enemies would have been even more frightened of him. Good work! Life does get in the way of carving. But when you finally get back to it, it is great once again!

[Cottonwood]

Ashby, I have been following your progress on this and I must tell you I have learned a lot from this post. What a GREAT carving!

[Dusty1]

As a new carver, it really helps to see the stages of progress and elements such as drawing layout and gluing in stages. Thanks for sharing this project. Admirable work!

[Colin-Partridge]

Yes but its been so long now and we never saw the finished carving. Knowing Gary its probably under two feet of wood chips and dust in his workshop. How about it Gary how about dusting it off and let us see how far you got. I should talk I have about 20 carvings that are under the same amount of sawdust probably older that Gary's in my workshop all sitting there unfinished.
Colin

[Bobla76]

It does me good to see that other carvers have more than one project going at any moment! I have several that I thought were done and later, some times much later, I look at them and see many things that need work (or at least I feel that they do), and I start work again.

[mikedon]

Hi Iwish Icould like that . but getting too old now . but like seeing others work . great . Mikedon. p.s. new member.

[mflynn7491]

Originally Posted by Ashbys

Susan ,

I guess you like it. =)

I really didn't know if I should , it is still in the firewood stage, and the first carving of any size I have attempted in a little over a year , lots that can be wrong at this point.

But it is a carving for myself and that makes it different then most carvings I do.

For Ron's Benfit,

The carving should finish at 22 inches x 19 x x 6- 3/4. It is Napolean crossing the alps. The painting was produced 6 times from 1804 - 1814. The painting depects Napolean as larger than life upon his horse.

Doing the research I noticed a lot of unusal concepts which were employed. On of the first is his size. The warmblood horse he is on will stand between 15.2 hands and 17. The average would be about 16.1. That will convert to about 5' 2 - 6' 2 at the front shoulder. Because the horse is rearing into the air , his leg sits down almost the the horse knee, and is still bent. This would make him roughly 6'3 inches tall.

The next noticable odd thing is his lower leg is longer than his thigh, and his shoe size would be about a 14 , this is highlighted as the foot is pointed into the sturrip. The cloak he wear is blowing in the wind but gives the impression he has massive shoulders. It is easy to understand why Napolean loved the painting. Anyway I hope to capture all those traits, and convert a 2-d painting into a 3- D cavring. My good friend Goody gave me the mahagony to make the build up .

Anyway I am about 7 hours from the glue up into it, and in the traditions of doing relief carving , I am carving it in relief.

Garry ( with 2 r's )

Napoleon. NapoLEON.

[Dusty1]

Garry:
So great to see the stages here through your project. I'm a beginner who thought a standing draft horse would teach me a lot about finding the forms beneath the surface. Had not thought of my approach as relief work, so I'll be following your progress from that perspective. Also, discovering it is a challenge to find the tools for reaching tight spaces at the desired angle. It really helps to see another's approach to a problem. Challenges are often humbling, but certainly can build respect for those who master them...
Thanks for sharing.

[Ashbys]

tools will always be a issue. Sometimes you just need to make the one you need.

Perspective drawning help a lot, with shading of the picture , it will show you highs and lows twist and turns , making it eaiser to see the way things move.

Ash

[Ashbys]

Took some time to finish the main carving work , still the bridle and cleanup and mount , but I will finish it all next week .