woodspirit almost completed

[Treever]

Took a stab at carving a woodspirit...loe and behold it's also featured in the current issue of Woodcarving magazine...guess I need to be a bit more creative!

Anywho-carved from 5/8" pine board I had lying around the garage. Glued two pieces together to get the thickness I thought I needed. This ended up being a thick monster to carve out, but I got it done.

Still not sure how to finish it, yet. Questions? Comments? Concerns?

[Thor]

Very fine results! I look forward to seeing it again when you get a finish on it. Then your detail work will really be shown off.
Thor

[Eddy-Smiles]

Neat carving! I'll bet the grain gave you fits!

[Alice in Wonderland]

Beautiful done ,all those neat details, what kind of wood is it? does it have a nice grain?? If you put some boiled linseed oil on to see the grain? please if you do ,wipe it off after 20 minutes or it turns gueeeee. See how the wood looks.Of course I should not comment since I do like all my wood natural.
Alice

[woodtrapper]

I can see some pretty grains from your picture.I seal a lot of my projects with a clear wood finish and I get good results with the grain.I like it.Davy

[Banjo]

Oh, he's nice! Very well done. Can't wait to see what kind of finish you choose for him!

[Irishman]

That's a very nice piece. I would put that in the category of a Greenman Treever given the style of carving. I'm curious how you found working with pine as I did a relief of a flower in pine and found it chipped quite a bit on me. I used a mixture of tung and thinner on the flower and it gave it a sort of golden brown color which turned out OK.
Patrick

[Treever]

Thanks everyone-one thing about this board is that everyone is very supportive and seems to give honest critiques. If you've been holding back-please don't, as that's how we learn/grow.

Those interested in the grain...it's pine and pine is pine. At times the grain seemed to work in my favor, and then it would turn on me! If the photo were clearer you would see where some troubles occurred. I have only carved basswood one time, and when I did I nearly put my gouge clear through it...I was so used to pine! It does chip/splinter at bad times, but that just means you go a fuzz deeper to remove the defect, I guess.

He's sitting on the bench until I have something to finish him with.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Right on Treever.... Improvise... Adapt ...Overcome!

[Mark N. Akers]

Treever:
Great job on the tree spirit.