Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP

[Irish]

Step 161: As I have been working the beard to drop it to it's level and then smooth it out I have lost several ridge lines from the tracing pattern. I am marking new guidelines now.

Step 162: The v-gouge is used to create a nice deep trench along the ridge lines. These lines will be worked the same way as we have worked the leaf veins but I want them to stand out a bit more so I am going fairly deep with that v-gouge.

Step 163: With your chisel round over the sides of the v-gouge trench in the beard ridges.

[Irish]

Step 164: I was getting this image ready for the quick earaser clean up and took a
moment to really 'look' at the photo! Obviously I have tucked one side of the new beard ridges under the other side when I was rounding over with the chisel. So ...

Step 165: While you have your chisel in hand tuck the right side of the beard under the left side where they join near the beard tip.

Now that's how pieces of the instructions get left out of tutorials ... I've been doing some styles of carving so long that without a conscience thought I went ahead and did what I have always done ... tucked one area under another at the joint line. I don't have any photos ... I didn't even realize I had done this until I looked at the photo.

(You must have been out in Lah Lah land, Susan)

[Irish]

Step 166: I am starting the v-gouge work for the mustache and beard hair. There are three points for this photo.

1. Notice that my areas, the ones where I am working, are not pristine smooth or
perfect! Why go to all that work when I am about to mess it all up with lots of little gouge cuts ..... ?

2. I am going to work this hair area in lots of short, little 1/2" to 1" long cuts. I
am not attempting to go all the way from his lip to the tip of his beard. As you do
more carving you will learn how to go the whole length with one moving, sweeping,
twisting v-gouge cut. But I am assuming here that you are new to relief work so ... short cuts with the v-gouge are more controllable than long ones.
This hair areas has so many ups and downs because of the wide sweep gouge work in the levels cutting and any area can have a grain direction change because of the curve of the hair cuts ... So, again lots of short cuts instead of one long cut make this gentleman's beard and mustache.

3. Each and every v-gouge cut has a little bit of a curve to it. You will see as I
work in the hair that I try to follow the curve of the area for the curve of the hair. And don't be concerned if your hairs seem to go in every direction. That will keep your oakman wild and woolie.

Step 167: Take those v-gouge hair strokes right into the adjacent elements. In this case it's the lip beard.

Step 168: Where the v-gouge cuts run into the nose, I let them run right into the nose tip then I go back with my chisel to clean up that nose tip. This means there is no space or break between where the mustache hair starts and the tip of the nose.

Step 169: Some areas of the beard and mustache change level or height. So for many places along the edge of these hair areas it's easiest for me to cut that hair section in two cutting so that each cut is flowing down into the wood.

Here I have turned my project upside down to work so that I can cut the high section of the lip hair ... that keeps my v-gouge cuts in a down direction.

Cutting into a higher level of wood with the v-gouge means that your gouge digs deep. It wants to stay with the grain level and you will find yourself trapped or dug-in. If that happens don't try
and push on through the cut. Instead back your gouge out, flip the project around and then cut back into that dug-in point.

[Irish]

Step 170: Turning the project up side down gave me a new view of the tip of his nose ... I just couldn't stand it so I grabbed my finger nail file and did another quick clean up there.

Step 171: Because of the sweep of the lip beard, low at the lip and high at the tip, this area was done in two directions also.


Step 172: That little spit of hair on his liip beard goes completely against the grain. So instead of using the v-gouge which would tear out all along that cut I grabbed my chip knife and am cutting the hair with two free style chip strokes. This is the first side of cut one.

Step 173: I am re-cutting that exact same line of hair but this time I have angled the chip knife slightly. That new angle shaves a thin strip out of the first cut and makes a great hair stroke.

[Irish]

Step 174: I am doing the same type of free style chip cut hairs on the lower pointie out beard bits.

Step 175: Right now the edges of my hair areas are fairly smooth. I am going to serrate those edges, add small v cuts, to imply hair strands. This will be a two cut chip.

Simply push your chip knife or bench knife into the edge section. Then make a second cut about 1/16" to 1/8" away that angles back into the first cut.

Step 176: You can make as many little v-cuts as you want along the edge of your beard and mustache. The more you make the wilder and woolier he will become.

[Irish]

Step 177: I am doing a quick clean up along the joint line of the two hair areas and am healing a deep stop cut.

Step 178: The mustache and beard are done.

Step 179: Here's a quick check of where we are at in this carving.

While you are working on cutting and v-gouging your hair areas I am off to work on the leave stem and start finishing the back roll of the plaque.

If you finish before I get back you might enjoy this little dude.

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/proje...oody-intro.htm

He's posted here on the WCI Message Board somewhere but I couldn't find him this morning. So I am sending you over to my site ...

There's a free pattern of him there and once we are finished the oakman you might enjoy carving Woodie ... besides he has lots of wild and woolie hair!

Susan

[Bandaid]

An excellent tutorial Susan. Many thanks for the time and effort.

Reg

[BobD]

Susan,
What are you using to hold the carving while you carve? Is that some sort of modified bench hook?

Bob

[Irish]

Excellent question, Good Sir!!!

I have a simple home made bracing bench, also called a bench hook or bench dog. It's made out of scrap plywood with a carving area surface of about 10" wide by 15" long.

Two sides, the back and the right side of the carving surface has walls about 2 1/2" high. These walls trap the carving into the corner as I push the cut strokes. I did the right side wall because ... I'm left handed and that's the natural direction of my push.

The front edge of the brace has a leg about 2 1/2" wide that drops down from that edge. The leg then catches the side of the working table so that the bracing bench doesn't move.

There's clearer instruction here on my site ... I'll take some photos in this afternoon's carving seesion to include here as well.

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/brace.htm

That was a gooood question!

Susan

[Irish]

Step 180: There's my bracing board, bench hook, bench dog table. The leg catches the table and the back walls brace the project as I work. It acts like a third hand that keeps the carving from slipping.

My bracing board is fairly small so it's perfect to keep in the studio so that I can carve while tending the website. For larger projects I can prop the side of the project that sticks beyond the table with scrap basswood. You can see the abuse this poor thing has taken over the last ten years of hard work. Everyone of those nicks in the back wall is one time that I did not stab myself with the bench knife ...

Behind the board I have my small working basket where I keep the tools that I am
currently using during a session and my honing tools.

Darren (Tidewater) has a wonderful bench hook shown on his photo site. It's well worth slipping over there to see it!
It's big, it's huge and it's adjustable!