[Kenny_S]

Thomas and Tom,
Nice tutorial and stick. Both of you done a great job.

However, Number 9# never did come through but that is ok as the main picture did.
My Hat is off to you both in salute

[Thomp]

Santa study stick

A Co-op between Tom H. and Thomp both Wood Carving Illustrated members.

Purpose of this document: it is in the hopes the effort of making this tutorial on carving a Santa study stick, or practice stick, that those with basic to intermediate carving skills can accomplish the task of making the project for themselves, then have one to copy from in their hand and continue carving others as practice. Although Not suggested for a true beginner, Who still needs to learn carving safety, how to sharpen, hone and maintain cutting edges, in addition to general carving experience in the basic skills.


SKILLS NEEDED: Skilled BEGINNERS to INTERMEDIATE

• The carver is required to obtain:

1. Carving safety equipment:, Good lighting, (visor, or reading glasses if needed) Kevlar carving glove and finger guards.
2. Tools: a serviceable Sharp Carving Knife, and a Sharp small 2mm Gouge if possible (see scary sharp method for help on this) LINK TO WCI
3. Materials: Box of band aids, 1x1" basswood, White pine, cypress, or other suitable softwood practice stick 12: long. One source is heineckewood < its a Click able link

Proceed: Starting with a blank stick 1"x1"x12" , Divide the stick into 5 equal blocks, 2-1/4" or so" and mark with pencil, now you should have 5 bands of pencil marks all the way around the stick giving you 5 segments to work on opposite corners, as the nose is carved off the corner of the stick..
Each step is a progression it starts where you left off on the prior step and builds a more completed step in the overall carving of a character, leaving the previous step as a record of how the carving was accomplished

1

Step# 1 in this Step what is going on is cutting a small notch for the eyebrow at the bridge of the nose and another lower notch a slight bit larger, below the nose. Keep them small, you can always make them deeper by but you can't add it back.

Make these cuts as Stop Cuts. Each notch is made with 2 cuts referred to as top cut and bottom cut.

"use a slicing cut", or pull the blade as you press it into the wood, small cuts like this will crush the wood sometimes and wreck details, if using a dull knife or the wood is soft.

• NOTE: the angle of each top cut is made first on each of the 2 notch's make the top stop cut at 90° across the block and 90° down into the corner of the block towards the heart.
• the bottom or the meeting cut of each is 50° to 60° .

2

Step #2, "MARK AND CUT THE OUTLINES OF THE SIDES OF THE NOSE AND THE TOP OF THE EYE SOCKETS. mark them in pencil; then, make these cuts with the tip of your knife. Be sure to angle/tilt the knife tip so that the cut slants in the direction that you want the finished cut to be. First, make these cuts on each side of the nose (from the lower nose notch to the top smaller notch). Tilt the knife blade so that the sides of the nose are slanted.
Try to oversize the nose at this point.
Next cut with the knife tip from the top of the nose to the right and to the left to outline the top of the eye sockets.
These cuts will help determine the expression of the finished face. They can be made straight out or they can angle down, or curved.

3

Step #3 Use the tip of the knife to remove the chip of wood between the sides of the nose and the top of the eye sockets.
This will do two things;

1) recess the eye sockets, and
2) begin to define the cheeks.

4

Step #4 Clean up around in the eye sockets, beside and under the nose. Then begin shaping the nose some, Leave the nose too big in this step, you can remove extra wood later.

[Thomp]

5

Step #5 Draw the outline of the hat, head, and beard.

Side view
added to the depth of cut at nose bridge and under nose hard to determine from front view see eyebrow area work apparent in the side view..
6

Step #6 Make a straight cut with the tip of the knife following the outline of the hat, head, and beard. These cuts will serve as stop cuts.

Draw the mustache. NOTE: the mustache may be done in many ways. It can droop down, turn up, be straight across, be long or be short. Santa's expression will be quite different depending on how the mustache is done. Experiment by lightly drawing the mustache in various shapes.

Notice how the mustache begins to actually "curve" around to the right and to the left.


7

Step #7 Draw the outlines of Santa's cheeks. The cheeks may be round or oval. If oval slant them down and out. Regardless whether you draw the cheeks round or oval, the top of the mustache can serve as the bottom of the cheeks. Just be sure that both cheeks are positioned exactly the same.

Make straight cuts with the tip of the knife following the outline of the cheeks and the mustache.

8

Step #8

CARVING IN THE DETAILS

Forehead: Make slice cuts with the knife (use your thumb to push the blade) from the top of the eye sockets / forehead bottom up to the stop cuts that define the brim of the hat. LEAVE A LITTLE ridge at the bottom of the forehead for the eyebrows. FLATTEN out the front of the forehead.

Fold in the hat: Widen and deepen the stop cut that defines the hat where it hangs down over the right side of Santa's face. Cut the fold in.

Mustache: Angle the tip of the knife and make a parallel cut on the outside of the existing cut that outlines the mustache. Try to control the depth of this cut so that it creates a long sliver for removal. This will make the mustache stand out, and give it definition.

Cheeks: Make the same type of cut around the cheek cuts that are already there. You should only have to do this on the outsides of each cheek, from the eye socket to the mustache. Shape the front of the beard too. Remove the corner and flatten it out a bit.


Beard: The bottom of the hat tassel, the bottom of the mustache, and the sides of the cheeks all serve as stop cuts for shaping the beard. Use the knife to cut up to these stop cuts. Be very careful not to slip and cut the mustache off.

Bottom of the Beard: You already have a stop cut that outlines the beard. Use the knife to cut up to that stop cut. You need to remove up to about 1/4 inch of wood up to the bottom of the beard stop cut. It is ok to undercut this bottom of the beard stop cut.


Beard texture: You can either leave the beard as it presently is, or add texture. If you decide to add texture you can use the carving knife or a V tool.

[Thomp]

9

Step# 9


CLEAN UP the carving, in preparation for the painting. There are several way in which to clean up a carving. First, is to carve clean so that there won't be little fuzzes and extra knife marks. As you carve this Santa more times you'll reach that point. However, when you need to clean up a carving, the first thing to do is to use your knife to clean up specific cuts, and to clean out cuts. You can cut small pieces of "Scotch Brite" sanding pads and put them on a mandrel for a rotary tool. Or some folks cut small strips of sand paper and put them in a split mandrel for a rotary tool. The rotary tool and the sand paper and or the sanding pad material will help in cleaning up the carving. After using the sand paper and/or the sanding pad material you can use dish washing liquid soap, water, and a stiff dental brush to scrub the carving. The soap and water will soften the wood fibers (fuzzes) and the brush will remove them. Some folks like to wad up an old brown paper bag and rub the carving with it, to help clean it up. At this point some carvers use water based paints to begin painting the carving.

PAINTING:
It is easier to start the painting with the skin tones first. The second color to paint is the whites of the hair, mustache, eyebrows, beard, tassel on the hat, and eyes. The third color is the red for the hat. Use a damp Q-TIP with a VERY small dab of watered down red for the blush on the cheeks and the nose. Finally use a round tooth pick and dab the blue of the eye. After the blue is dry, use a sharpened end of the tooth pick for a dab of black. Finish the painting up with a pin to place a little pin point of white in the eye as shown.

After the paint is dry you can use the sanding pad again to go over the entire carving to soften the look. After this is done some carvers like to apply boiled linseed oil, some like to spray Deft, some brush polyurethane, and some merely apply wax and buff.


Thanks for the patients

[Joy]

Thank you guys for your work. I plan to try him this afternoon. We all know I need the practice

[Claude]

Tom and Thomp:
Nice tutorial - thanks for showing us!
Claude

[Thomp]

Sorry the pics are so big ill work on that today, if there is a complaint.

thanks folks

Joy THANKS for being the first to use it,
let me know how it turns out, as to enough instruction and all..
thomas...

[R-OLDS]

Thank you Thomp and Tom, you did very well!!
I just copied it all over to word and printed it, now I can carve it.

This morning I just finished my first and only cup of coffee for the day, looking out my front window I see three oak trees, 4 maple, two black walnut, two basswood, and two CorkScrew willow trees.. Beautiful wx here in MI for the summer that is..

Randal

[Thomp]

Thanks Randal,

Sorry for the mis formatting,
Late night rather early morning grog still got me in bed by 12am, then again at 4am, haven't even started my coffee,
I'm thinking i need to re-do this thing and wind up posting it right here at least to get the words and pictures together in the same place..
look for improvements tomorrow if the world don't come crashing through that front door today in the form of a 3 year old grandson...

[Thomp]

the Full tutorial is posted to this thread now,
i will remove it from angelfire..

thanks to all the folks that helped with feedback and especially Tom H. for the carving collaboration and putting this tutorial together,
Thanks tom..