New to carving

Messages
14
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Hello All,
First off I would like to say thank you to Lora Irish. I just decided to get into wood carving about three weeks and have been scouring the Internet for credible information on the subject and how to begin. This search led me to Lora's webpage and gave me a starting point. After reading the information on her page I purchased a starter set of Flexcut tools, went to Michael's where I purchased two pieces of basswood and began carving. The first two carvings (pics included below) were from Lora's patterns and enjoyed it thoroughly. Which once again led me to Lora's webpage and ultimately here to Family Woodworking looking for the next project.

I am very excited to have found this community of impassioned woodcarvers and I apologize now for all of my newbie questions. I have been reading through past threads where I have found a plethora of projects to continue to feed my new addiction. As such I have ordered a grab box of basswood from Rockler's and cannot wait to start carving. Maybe wooden pliers or a spirit face. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Now for my first question... Sorry I'm not an artist and this is probably art school 101.
My first carving was the flower. During this carving my goal was to, 1) learn how to use my new tools, 2) carve a low relief and 3) give the appearance that the flower is raised from the board. Would simply undercutting each pedal and not removing background material give the appropriate shadows to give the 3D illusion? Is it the shadows that give the impression of depth?

The second attempt at carving was the barn and silo pattern that was also on Lora’s page. During this carving I learned a few things. Always go with the grain and take a little at a time. This was learned during roughing or should I say splitting out the silo, which consequently sits back a little lower than originally planned.

Wow...just realized how long my rant has taken my first thread so I will stop now. Once again thank you Lora for the great resource and to the group for all the future input.

IMG_2572.jpgIMG_2575.jpg
 
Welcome to the family, Dennis! It might take a while to get an answer to your question because some of us are recuperating from our annual gathering. You might consider adding your location to your profile, just in case there is someone nearby that can help. Glad you found us.
 
Hi Dennis.
Welcome to the family!

Looking a your first pieces I would say that they are a very good start, and to answer your questions: Yes, undercutting is what gives you stronger shadows and makes the relief pop out from the background, on yours what I would do is to eliminate those strong gouge marks of the background as they take the attention away from the flower. You don't need to carve away all the background wood, but it would look better if you could shape the rebate in a shape of an ellipse for instance, and subdue those gouge marks as I said.

There is no need of going always with the grain, in fact most of the time one goes across the grain. Baswood is great for carving but tiny or thin details tend to break or split easily, and each one of them has to be worked accordingly with or across the grain.
 
Ted - Location has been updated and thank you for the advice.

Toni - Thank you for answering my question. I see what you mean about the gouge marks. When I get back to the workbench I will smooth out the gouge marks and give the rebate an elliptical shape.
 
Howdy Dennis,

Excellent start on those pieces, the barn/silo is imho really well done!

I think Toni has you covered on the questions on the current carvings :thumb: The cross grain thing was an epiphany for me when I finally figured it out, vastly easier to get an accurate cut.

As far as what, play around and see what you like :D I might suggest trying some pieces with more dimensions (sprite or similar) or maybe try a bit of chip carving, or just keep rocking the reliefs!
 
Ryan - Thanks for the feedback it is appreciated.

How do you all suggest removing pencil lines from the wood after carving? I assume that after fine details are applied you would not want to run back over with sand paper. I tried the pink eraser on the end of the pencil which proceeded to do a nice job smearing the pencil marks around and making a nice mess of things.
 
Welcome Dennis. Fellow rookie carver here that is also addicted.

I have just had some one on one tutoring with Toni (if you want to see some work of his to get an idea of his credentials take a look at Toni's website link on his signature) and one process i experienced that has significant value to me is practicing cuts using your gouges. Learning to make good quality stop cuts. Not implying you don't know this just sharing what i learn't and will subsequently be practicing.

Not in a position to show a pic right now but will return with one later.

Btw just as a point of order...for this forum since inception you do not need to apologize for your questions. The guys that hang out here are usually more than willing to share what they know or even try direct u in the right direction if they don't so ask away.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
White erasers from the art department will do a much better job. Or a sharp scraper and a light touch.

That's about what i do as well, although I prefer to avoid the eraser if at all possible and carve or (less so) scrape away the lines instead.

Side question for Dennis, you seem to have a pretty good handle on the art part (perspective and drawing) so I was wondering if you'd had much prior art experience and if so what kind. Actually being able to draw things out is a huge advantage from what I've seen and something I'm just not really good at (actually find out easier to work on wood, but end up having to be pretty conservative on my cuts compared to someone with a better view of what they're shooting for).
 
I usually use the white eraser, but somewhere I read that denatured alcohol (DNA) would remove pencil lines. When I made some inserts for my daughters jewelry box I tried DNA on a Q-tip to remove lines from some Spanish cedar and it worked OK. Don't know if it would work on a light colored wood like basswood, but if you try it please let us know how it does.
 
Dennis, welcome and thanks for joining us. This is a great place. Carving is one of my interests but also something I have little talent for. I am a sit around the campfire and whittle type. I am slowly gathering some knives, and hope to get time to follow Lora's tutorial on carving wood spirits. I have her site bookmarked and look often, but not often enough. Too darn many interests. Anyway, glad to meet you and do not hesitate to post, show what you are doing and tweak everyone's interest. I am one of the few scroll sawyers here, but that tolerate me and make me feel good about what I do....
 
That's about what i do as well, although I prefer to avoid the eraser if at all possible and carve or (less so) scrape away the lines instead.

Side question for Dennis, you seem to have a pretty good handle on the art part (perspective and drawing) so I was wondering if you'd had much prior art experience and if so what kind. Actually being able to draw things out is a huge advantage from what I've seen and something I'm just not really good at (actually find out easier to work on wood, but end up having to be pretty conservative on my cuts compared to someone with a better view of what they're shooting for).

My art experience was limited to that provided by the California public schooling system during elementary school and a photography and drafting course in high school. I have never been the best at drawing.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a intro to drawing book that would transfer over to carving?
 
I do not erase pencil lines on my carvings using any eraser, I do carve them away. One of the things that I've found is that pencil lines tend to smudge and rend your carving dirty, so I use either a ball pen or a fine tip marker.
 
I do caricature carvings. Before I finish with water based paints I wash them with dish soap and a brush to get the oils from my hands as well as the pencil marks off. Works well for me. I do try to cut as much of the marks off as I can of course, but if you are like me you tend to miss a small mark somewhere until you have started to paint. I find that this seems to smooth the carving some what. Figured I would have to deal with raised grain but have not found that to be the case. Carvings are basswood.
White eraser also works by the way.
--bill
 
Dennis and Bill why not post some of your work we need more carving threads to show them spinny guys we carvers exist. Lol.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Rob - I think that is a great idea. I would love to see everyones carvings. Maybe the moderator can build a permanent thread for everyone to show off their completed works.
 
Hi Dennis....I'm fairly new to this form also...I joined last year in October...so from one newbie to another wecome!.....I have only done three pieces of relief carving so I'm by far not an expert....my biggest thing is carving jointed dolls. In the relief wood carvings you have here, you have done a very nice job for your first and second pieces. The one thing I would suggest is to undercut the flower and you will see it pop out and for the barn and silo, I would give some depth perception of space between the barn and silo and you will see that also pop out....And you can do the same thing with the trees and silo....That's three levels of depth perception that gives you and others a visual ability to perceive your small carving world, that you have created, in three dimensions....Also I did take architectural drawing way-way back in high school where I learned how to draw in three point perspective but I'm far from being an expert. I know that in 1 point perspective drawing, lines meet at one vanishing point; In 2 points perspective drawing, lines will meet at two vanishing points; In 3 points perspective drawing, lines will meet to three vanishing points....Actually I'm been thinking about doing a relief carving of a town setting....Good luck with your carving!....You can take a look at the ones I did on this form...they are more about the human body.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forum. And, congrats for starting woodcarving. It is a wonderful art form. And (for some) a relaxing avocation. I belonged to our local carving club for several years but gave it up when I finally realized I don't have the vision to carve well at all.
But, I may be able to offer a couple tips to help you start.
1. Look for a local club. I'll betcha you do have one in your community.
2. Learn to sharpen. When you sharpen your tools, feel them. If the feel sharp, they aren't sharp enough.:eek: Do again until you learn what sharp really means. When you get there that cross grain carving will no longer be as big a problem.
3. When shopping for basswood, check out http://www.heineckewood.com/index.htm They are far and away the best source for really good basswood. Even with shipping charges you will save by having less waste and dissapointments than with bad wood.
 
Does anyone have a suggestion for a intro to drawing book that would transfer over to carving?

Not really in specifics, although I'd be interested as well if anyone else does :)

I have worked through parts of several general art books (figure drawing and the like) as well as have had generic drafting classes back in high school (which was a while back) and in general I think all of them helped to soem degree or another. The ability to visualize how something will look prior to creation seems to be a fairly portable skill set between different media.
 
Top