tributesinwood

Wood Carvings by Mark Sheridan

Archive for the tag “carving caricature”

26 Dec 2014
5 Comments

Pretty Tough

Here’s the image that I found that is sort of the inspiration for this particular carving.  It’s basically going to be a bust, in a fashion, with the penalty box boards being the pedestal for the bust.  Should be interesting.

Emily is wrong

Our little fighter is looking pretty tough but definitely has a soft side to him…just look at that toothy grin.

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The helmet is being carved in two separate pieces…a top and back…so that it conforms tightly to the head.  I could have carved this as one piece, but I just like the way that a hat, or in this case a helmet, looks when it’s carved separately.  It just sits nicer on the head with a realistic gap between the headband and the head.

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It’s left-over turkey today for dinner.  My second favourite meal of the season!

Posted in Two Minutes for Fighting and tagged , ,
23 Dec 2014
4 Comments

Two Minutes – Fighting

That’s the theme and name of my next carving…”Two Minutes – Fighting”.

My little hound painting is coming along nicely so I thought this would be a good time to start the carving portion of my next project.  “Two Minutes – Fighting” is inspired by those who find themselves in the penalty box and will feature a pretty rough looking hockey player with an even rougher-than-usual look about him having very recently taken part in his favourite hockey activity.

I did a very quick sketch of what I’m shooting for and am starting off with carving the head.  My plan is to have quite a square-jawed character with quite a swollen eye…which is fun, as it’s a bit different from the other faces that I’ve carved.  In fact, Peggy often tells me that my carvings could be brothers as they look a bit alike.  Well, I’m going to do my best to ensure that this one will not be mistaken as a brother.

I started in my usual fashion with a basswood blank.  I’ve cranked the jaw forward quite a bit and the neck back as my plan is to have him stretching his head beyond his shoulder line as he sits behind the penalty box.

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I started with his many-times-broken nose and ensured that it was good and crooked.  My plan is to carve a piece of white medical tape across the bridge of the nose.  You can see the start of that in the last photo.  His less than toothy grin just shows that he knows that it’s just a big game and the fights are as important to him as the goals.  The cheekbones and jaw line protrude quite a lot right now and you can see some swelling in his left eye and eye-brow.  It might get worse.

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Still lots to do on his facial expression.  My plan is to do the helmet separately similar to the way that I’ve done the hats that I’ve carved.  I’m looking forward to carving the helmet almost as much as I looked forward to carving the banjo!

On a more peaceful note, Emily has arrived and our Christmas festivities have started!

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Posted in Two Minutes for Fighting and tagged , ,
20 Dec 2014
3 Comments

Some Painting for the Country Pup

Here’s a quick first peak at the little pup with much of the painting completed.  This weekend, I’ll apply some satin clear urethane to seal and brighten the colours and that should be about it on the figure before I start into the base on which the rocking chair will sit.  I have some ideas for that but I’m sure they’ll change as I get started and add more to the scene.

So, here’s what I’ve been up to…

The hound got a base coat of ivory lightened with a bit of white.  Then, in many individual washes ( very diluted paint ) of alternating milk chocolate and asphaltum browns, he got his colouring and little “spots”.  Then, the figure received a very dilute wash of asphaltum brown over everything to bring out all of the little contours in the carving.  Finally, I applied some yellow ochre and raw sienna in little smudges just to show that his paws, in particular, are a bit dirty here and there.  After all, he is a Country Hound and should have spent at least a little bit of time close to the earth!

The overalls were  painted in several washes of midnight blue.  I darkened up the recesses and wrinkles with extra washes of the same colour, and then added some whitened blue to show where the high points were and where those denims may have been worn away a bit.  I also added a nice green and yellow plaid patch to the knee patch that I had carved earlier.  After a few hints of yellow ochre and raw sienna “dirt”, a dry brush of slightly darkened ivory was used to give the overalls that dusty and worn look that I like on the clothing that I carve.

For those interested in seeing these methods used in outstanding fashion, be sure to watch one of Lynn Doughty’s videos which you can link to off to the side of this page.

Well, that’s about it for now…hope you enjoy the progress so far and are having fun with your Christmas and Holiday preparations.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , , ,
12 Dec 2014
6 Comments

All Prepped for Paint

Well, I think that I’ve done about as much as I need to before putting a bit of colour to this little hound.  Let me tell you what I’ve done since my last post.

The little handkerchief got a bit of checker-board paint.  The colours are barnyard red and butterscotch, with a bit of highlighting over the butterscotch with bright white.  Finally, the whole thing got a dry brushing of ivory to make it look a bit used.  I still need to put a coat of urethane on it to brighten up the colours further…but, I like the result so far.

I also carved in a hint of some claws on all of the paws and then epoxied all of the pieces in place…the ears and the one back paw that cuddles the banjo.  After that I gave the whole thing a coat of very thinned gesso.  Again, I like to use the gesso where many others like to paint directly onto the bare wood.  For me, the gesso serves to seal the wood and make a good base for the acrylics and it also tends to highlight any imperfections so that I can deal with them before the final paint.  Normally, the imperfections are little stray knife marks or some wood “fuzz” that I don’t like.  Normally.

This case wasn’t normal…once I put the gesso on I noticed for the first time that I forgot something…a tail!  I guess that the overalls threw me off…but I corrected that after I stopped laughing.  I made the tail in my typical fashion with some copper wire twisted together and coated with epoxy.  I wrapped it around the back of the chair and I like the way that it balances the handkerchief on the other side of the carving.  I’m still chuckling a bit because I have been accused in the past of omitting tails!

Hope you like the way that it’s turning out…I’m enjoying it.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , ,
25 Nov 2014
4 Comments

Some Final Fitting

The banjo is looking so nice that I couldn’t resist doing some final fitting with everything together.  I added a bit of colour to the skin of the banjo to make it look well used.  I also added some of the aluminum tape to the frets to give them a metal shine.  To make the frets, I had started with a wood burning tool and a bit of silver paint, but just wasn’t satisfied with the look.  So I carved out small channels and inlaid the metal tape.  I’m a lot happier with that look.

If you remember the term “letraset”and the letters, numbers and figures that came with this product, you’ll remember this print application that basically rubs off on the item that you want to add some printing on.  Well I have a bit of that left in my shop and found a little swirly application that I added to the head of the banjo.

Still quite a bit of work to do on the banjo but I’m also getting very close to starting the painting on the hound.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , ,
23 Nov 2014
5 Comments

Gotta Love a Banjo…

I’ve been looking forward to working on this banjo ever since it was suggested to me…and now with the Hound’s ears well underway, I’m going to turn a bit more attention toward it.

You’ll remember from an earlier post that I used a bandsaw to carefully cut out the basic shape of a banjo from a piece of oak.  With that rough out, I did a bit of carving, but mostly sanding to get it to the shape that I imagined.  This will be a five string banjo, which means that four of the mechanisms ( ears ) will be on the head of the banjo and one mechanism will be on the neck.  If you look close, you can see that I made a little indentation on the neck to fit that fifth mechanism.

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Now, comes the fun part.  I want to put in a lot of metal looking parts on the body of the banjo in particular.  If you take a look at a picture of a banjo, you’ll notice that one style has quite decorative “tin” around the stretched banjo skin and is held together, or tight, with long-ish bolts.  This is the look that I’m after.

So, I’ve first started with the tin pieces.  My version is made with metal tape that you commonly see used on ductwork.  This is an aluminum tape with a strong adhesive back.  One nice thing about the tape is that it can be burnished ( rubbed ) with a tool to flatten out completely and to some extent accommodate small curved sections.  The other nice thing is that it can take an impression by pressing into it.

So, with the tape in hand I went about creating what I’ve seen on some of the banjos that I like.  After the burnishing, I used a few small tools that I had lying around to make little impressions that look like screw heads and the general decorations that you see on a full sized banjo.

Still a long way to go, but I like the way that it’s turning out so far…and, it’s fun.  My goal is to be able to play at least one tune on it before handing it over to the little hound.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , ,
22 Nov 2014
3 Comments

Trimming of the Ears

Some ear trimming was the next step for our little hound.  Basically, I just picked up where I left off earlier with the fitting of the ears to the arm and body contours using pencil lead as a marking tool to highlight the high spots that needed to be removed to get as tight a fit as possible.  Today, I shaved down the outside of the ears and added a bit of a fold at the front of the ear and a bit of a wave where the ear flows around the front leg, or arm, in this case ( because who ever heard of playing a banjo with a leg ).  Trimming the ear down went a long way to making the ear look soft and flexible like hound’s ears happen to be.

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The other fun item was working the handkerchief a bit more.  Again, the inner fitting had been done earlier and now it was just a matter of creating some interesting folds and waves on the outside of the cloth.  Again, I tried to trim it down enough to make it look like how you’d imagine a bundle of light cloth to lay.  I’m already thinking of a nice checkered pattern for this handkerchief similar to the way that I painted the hobo bindle used on my carving of Hobo and Ned.

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And lastly, I put a coat of satin urethane on the rocking chair and cushion to finish it up.  The urethane brought a nice glow to the wood and also made the “barnyard red” coloured cushion come to life a bit more.  I still want to add some cushion ties on the back, but, other than that, the rocker is complete.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , , ,
17 Nov 2014
1 Comment

It’s All in the Details…

I had a chance to start a bit of detailing on the little hound yesterday.

I removed the ears to detail in the face.  Remember, that I only used a glue gun to lightly tack the ears in place for some initial roughing in.  I removed them again to add some wrinkles to the face and to carve the eyes and eyelids.  I’ll do some additional facial detailing then re-attach the ears permanently to carve in some detail lines and folds to them.

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I also included a few more wrinkles and folds in the legs of the hound’s overalls.  On this particular leg, a patch has also been added just for some additional interest.  It’ll look really good and stand out nicely once I paint it to contrast with the colour of the overalls.  I originally had the idea of a chest pocket…but, as it turns out the banjo is going to completely cover it anyway.  We’ll know it’s there though.

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The other leg also got a few wrinkles and folds.  You’ll notice that it also has a very deep and open pocket…which will contain a handkerchief very shortly…draped out of his pocket and hanging below the rocking chair seat cushion.  A wise country hound always carries a handkerchief.  Everyone knows that.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , ,
12 Nov 2014
2 Comments

Hound in a Hat…

I’ve carved in the cushion for the rocking chair and have added a nice barnyard red to it to provide that country look.  With the bit of dry-brushing that I did on the cushion, I’m thinking that it’s looking sufficiently worn like a good rocker should be.  I put a darker stain on it and then pulled away some of the colouring on the high spots, again, to give it a well used look.  When I get a bit of urethane on it, the colour of the cushion and the grain in the rocking chair will really stand out.  I’m also planning to add some cushion ties when things are in the final stages to really give it a complete look.

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I also did some roughing-in on the hat.  I was shooting for something that looked like a big straw hat somewhere between a cowboy hat and a sombrero.  I think I’m pretty close.  The trick was to ensure that the hat looked like a good fit on the Country Hound…and fit around the back of the rocking chair.  Took a bit of fitting back and forth.  In making the hat ( two pieces ) and fitting it to the Hound’s head, I used the process of scribbling pencil lead on one of the two mating parts and then cutting away the high points where the lead marked the clean mating piece.

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With all of the individual pieces together, our little Hound is coming right along.  Time to start adding some detail next.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , , , ,
06 Nov 2014
2 Comments

Ottawa and Progress on the Country Hound

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be heading out to Ottawa to drop off my carvings for the “Poetry in Wood” Carving Show and Competition.  I’ll bring along the same carvings that I had entered in the Pickering Show of a couple of weeks ago: Hobo and Ned; and, the Three Louisiana Hounds.  I’m sure that they’ll be enjoyed in Ottawa because it’s a great group of people who meet there for the show.

My location in Kingston and my links to Southern Ontario are quite nice from a carving standpoint…the Pickering Show which is a couple of hours away brings in carvers from central Ontario around the Toronto area; the Ottawa Show which is a couple of hours in the opposite direction brings in carvers from Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec; the Hamilton Show at the beginning of next year brings in Central and Western Ontario and is located almost in the backyard of my daughter’s home in Ancaster; and, the Niagara Competition brings in carvers from Southern Ontario and is a stone’s throw from my Mom’s home.  So, I pretty conveniently take in the major competitions around the province.  There is one other great competition that I know of in Kitchener which is in Western Ontario…hmm…I do have an Aunt who lives in those parts…just thinking.

Here’s a quick couple of photos of the Country Hound.  Not much changed since my last update although I’ve detailed the rocking chair a bit more, added in some cross braces on the legs and did some wood burning on the upper-most head piece.  He’s coming along.

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Posted in Country Hound and tagged , , , , , ,

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