Cutting Corners

Given a square piece of wood, it’s easy to mark off where the features belong on the block.

Grain direction has to be decided before carving. The arrow points to the front of the piece. With the grain running toward the front, I don’t have to worry about breaking off the nose or the peak of the cap.

By cutting away v-shaped pieces of wood, I quickly establish where the transitions and anatomical changes are: head to body, bottom of the coat, bend of the knees, tops of the boots.

I get the body generally shaped using a leverage cut. With the knife held in one hand, I use the thumb of the opposite hand to push on the back of the blade. But I don’t push the blade into the wood. Instead, I position the blade near its tip and, as I push the blade into the wood, I work it toward the base of the blade. It’s what I call a skewing motion. I have both control and a mechanical advantage.

I next draw in the bend of the legs using my pattern as a reference.

I not only push the blade but I can also pull it toward me so I don’t have to keep turning the block around in my hands. Notice that I use the thumb of the opposite hand for control.

It is easy to separate the legs using a small gouge.

I give definition to the legs and boots using simple cuts with the knife. I now locate the arms on the wood.

The arms don’t require much work. I can define them by making v-shaped cuts that efficiently and quickly pop out the waste wood.

I next turn to the head and locate the ears. I also need to draw the hunting hat which is tilted back on the head.

The ear is easy to shape using a small gouge.

I use the same gouge to define the ear flaps of the cap.

We are used to putting a hat on our heads last when getting dressed. In carving the hat has to be reckoned with first. Otherwise it invariably turns out too small. Once the hat and its peak are shaped, as I am doing here, I can turn my attention to the face.

I make sure the forehead is under the peak of the cap. This requires undercutting slightly.

I make a cut halfway between the tip of the chin and the peak of the hat to locate the bottom of the nose. The location of the rest of the facial features will be determined by that line.

I make what I call open V cuts on either side of the nose to locate where the eyes will be.

After flattening the forehead and rounding the cheeks, I remove wedges of wood to create what I call the smile or expression lines.

The separation for the lips and mouth is about halfway between the chin and nose.

After I scoop out wood under the lower lip to make it more prominent, I shape the chin and jaw.

I cut out small chips of wood to represent the eyes. I line up the center of each eye with the corners of the mouth. If I want to make crow’s-feet around the eyes and bags under the eyes, I use a small V tool.

To define the eye lashes, sideburns and other hair, I use a Speedball no. 1 linoleum knife.

I make the shotgun from a 1/2" thick piece of wood, carving the barrel to 1/4" across. I then saw it in two and carve what looks like a round dowel on both pieces.

After drilling a hole through the crook of the arm, I work at fitting the pieces in place, removing some wood on the figure so that the barrel and gun stock fit snugly. If I want to disassemble the pieces later, I use floral clay for a temporary bond.

I use thinned down acrylics to paint my figures. But to create the plaid look of the hunting jacket, I use a black permanent marking pen over a maroon base coat.

I find that after I paint one of my figures it looks pale. I put a finish on the wood using boiled linseed oil darkened with Minwax® walnut oil stain. It’s a sparing mix: only one teaspoon per gallon.