[Lightningbolt]

Hey everybody! Thought that I'd post a few pictures of my second spirit log in progress that I began this afternoon in a nice dry pine log. You might recall the other one that I posted back in September and ended up fetchin' a cool $260.00 at auction, then a few days later an admiring lady contacted me about doing her one for the same price for a Christmas present so I agreed.

Now with only a few weeks until Christmas I finally found the time to get it going and I suppose that with time running out had something to do with me cranking up that chainsaw. I spent about an hour just roughing it out which is what's posted in the attached pictures. I won't be able to resume progress until next week but I'll update this thread just as soon as I can get back to it. Unfortunately, I still don't have a carving bar so I'll have to do a lot of the finer detail such as the eyes with my hand carving blades.

Fortunately the weather was just perfect this afternoon on the mountain with soothing overcast skies and an air temperature just right for pysical activity. Can't wait to get back to it!

[GaryMc]

Great job Dave, I'll bet she will be very happey!
GaryMc

[Colin_Partridge]

Hey Dave I like that you did a great job. By the look of the log it is a big old pine log or am I mistaken. I guessed that with the blue tinge it had to it. At any rate I am sure she is going to be pleased as punch with it.
Colin

[Irishman]

Hey Dave,

Well done on the carving. I'm anxious to try a chainsaw carving myself.
Patrick

[feb]

Nice one Dave, the wife will have alittle extra xmas money lol. Feb

[S.T.]

Nice looking spirit Dave....Don't forget to post the finish.....
P.S. I made it to Texas and brought my own maple and cedar sticks..
have seen some great work down here by carver Andy Hancock

[wood-whittler]

dave,


great looking spirit, i am sure the lady will be pleased.


bart

[MelNM]

Dave very nicely done. That should be one happy customer. How much time did you put into it so far.
Mel

[Eddy Smiles]

Outstanding job Dave! It's got great character just as it is!

[Lightningbolt]

Hey again and thank's for the comments and anticipation! I did manage to finish this project around Thursday of last week but I couldn't get any half way decent pictures until now. The sun was always shining full strength through the trees producing terrible shadows so I've been waiting for an overcast day or some good clouds.

As of now it still sits just outside my shop where I took these pictures and I won't have time to move it until about Wednesday so it'll be enjoying a low of about 22 F tonight! I carved this one very similar to the last one dividing the hair into an arrangement of "clumps" around the head which is a style that I'm begining to like. I found that cutting fairly deep around each clump of hair produced a good 3-D contrast that seemed to help the overall appearance.

Also, the only paint that I used was the acrylics for the eyes. On these big log woodspirits I just never could get satisfied with the eyes being plain and the painted eyes seem to make the overall carving more powerful. I just put on a cheaper cedar deck stain, since it was available, and sealed it all in with a couple coats of polyurethane.

Mel: I would say that roughing it out (the first set of pictures) probably took me a good full non-stop hour. I then got some help wrestling it into the shop where I spent probably two more full hours putting in the finer detail with my carving knives then staining and painting. Let's just say 4 hours total to be sure but that was spread out over several days as I found time for working on it inbetween a busy schedule. Now if I also had a good sculpting bar along with some more experience using it then I betcha that I could easily do one of these in half the time mentioned above.

Well, it's been a fun one for sure but the weather in these here mountains is gonna be too mega-cold for outside carving during the next few days so it's time for some snuggle-up by the woodheater kinda carving for a while! Thank's for lookin' !