tributesinwood

Wood Carvings by Mark Sheridan

Archive for the tag “wood caricatures”

20 Dec 2015
2 Comments

Movin’ Mervin Slims Down

Well, it’s going to be Mervin.  And he, in fact, is slimming down a bit with some detailing.

Using knives and chisels, now, I’m taking some measurements from the clay that I produced and transferring them to the wood carving.  I’m not getting too hung up on precision but am trying to use the clay sculpture as a general guide for the pose.

His face got a bit of detailing too and I like the way that he’s starting to look.

Back to helping Peggy with the Christmas baking…she really can’t do without my taste-testing!

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Posted in Moving Day and tagged ,
17 Dec 2015
4 Comments

A New Tool!

Actually, it’s a tool that I have had for almost a year but really haven’t given it a project yet.  It’s a Proxxon reciprocating chisel and a tool that I had the pleasure of winning at the last Ottawa Carving Show and Competition.

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This unit comes with three interchangeable blades that move back and forth at a very high rate of speed with little vibration and just a gentle “whir” from the motor.  Actually, the thing that you hear is the hammering of the reciprocating mechanism which is very slight in my opinion.  Best of all, it cuts like a hot knife through butter.  If you’ve ever been prone to soreness in your wrist from the heavier cutting associated with roughing-in a carving, you’ll want to at least consider this item.

I started roughing in the bandsaw-ed profile with a large Typhoon bit on a Foredom tool.  You can see the roughed up basic shape, here.

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Then, I turned to this little gem of a tool for the final roughing.  What you see, here, is the Proxxon effect with a gouge blade as well as a little additional detailing with a regular carving knife on the head.  I’m on my way, now!

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Posted in Moving Day and tagged ,
14 Dec 2015

On With the Carving

It’s time to put the clay aside and start some carving.

I glued a couple of pieces of basswood together to get the right thickness and used the clay sculpture to come up with a pattern to cut out on the bandsaw.  Again, I’m doing the head and body separately.  I’m also going to try to do the body in one piece and so oriented the grain in a way that will run up and down the arms as they’ll be fairly slight once the carving is finished and will require a bit of strength.  Another weak point will be the legs, and the grain is running in the right direction for their strength as well.

I’m cooking up a couple of ideas about the load that he’ll be carrying and how part of that load might be touching the ground so as to provide another contact point for the carving.  More to come on that.

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Posted in Moving Day, Uncategorized and tagged , | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2015
2 Comments

A Little More Detailing

This little hard-working fellow is getting a bit more detail in clay.  I’ve added some facial features, a couple of rolled up cuffs on his open, outer shirt, and some clothes wrinkles here and there to show some stretching going on under that load that he’s going to be carrying.

A little bit more detail and I’ll be ready to start roughing in the wood carving.  This clay sculpting is really helping me visualize what the wood carving will look like and will give me a bit more confidence that I’m removing the “right” pieces of wood once the knives and chisels come out.

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Posted in Moving Day, Uncategorized and tagged ,
03 Dec 2015
4 Comments

“Moving Day”

This next carving is going to be called “Moving Day”.  I came across an image of a guy crouched under a heavy load and it led me to think about a one-man moving task.  I’ve always admired the professional movers who are able to cradle a heavy box on their back and run up a set of stairs with it.

This little guy, yet to be named, won’t really have the physique needed for the job but through sheer will manages to move his belongings all on his own.

I decided to start with a clay sculpture again to make sure that I get the form right.  The packages and articles that he will carry won’t be sculpted in clay first…I just wanted to get the body right before tackling it in wood.

I started by stripping house wiring and twisting the three copper wire lengths together using my battery operated drill.  I then fashioned the basic body form and soldered the joints together.  Then, I just started applying modelling clay.  Still a ways to go before I start carving.

Let me know what you think!

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Posted in Moving Day and tagged ,
24 Nov 2015
4 Comments

The Beach Basset Completed

Here’s the completed carving of the Beach Basset.  Enjoy!  I’ll get some more photos on he Flickr Site shortly.

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Posted in Beach Basset and tagged , , ,
19 Nov 2015
4 Comments

A Little Reading Material

Well, here’s something new for me.

You’ll recall from an earlier post that I fashioned a newspaper out of a light sheet of brass, with some soldering and “newspaper white” painting included.

Now comes time for the printed sections.  I knew that the printing couldn’t be readable given the size of the paper (!) and that I only needed to provide some chicken scratch for the articles, but, I wasn’t completely sure how I was going to do it.  I eventually decided on using a mechanical pencil with an HB lead ( read: small, soft and dark ), followed with a light mist coating of a matte finish urethane to prevent things from smudging.

I’ve completed the front of the paper and even included a couple of advertisements and a “photo” of a doghouse to go along with one of the articles.  I’m pretty pleased with the Daily News so far!

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Posted in Beach Basset, Uncategorized and tagged , , , ,
17 Nov 2015
2 Comments

A Sandy Base

I’ve been poking along on my carving in between raking leaves, cleaning windows, raking leaves, getting the house ready for winter, raking leaves…did I mention raking leaves?

The base is my usual 1/2″ oak and I’ve added some sand for the beach scene.  The sand is once again a polymer mixed with aggregate that is used in the patio block laying business.  The nice thing about the mix is that once I screen out the larger pieces and am left with the “sand”, adding a little water activates the polymer and sets it rock hard.  I actually mix it with a bit of white glue and water to give it greater sticking power.

Here’s a photo of what it looked like while it was still drying.  Once dry, I’ll give it a couple of coats of sand coloured acrylic paint.  By the way, I’ve added a little sand pail and shovel along with some small shells.  The shells almost look real because…they are.

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Posted in Beach Basset, Uncategorized and tagged , , , ,
24 Oct 2015
2 Comments

A Pair of Reading Glasses

This is my first attempt at making some wire frame glasses to go along with a wood carving.  I started by making a round loop in some copper wire by wrapping some soft copper wire around a dowel of suitable diameter.  I then used a very fine saw that I have to “miter” cut the excess wire so that I’d end up with a fine and tapered joint to solder against.  I left enough excess wire to fashion the arms of the glasses.

That excess wire was then bent back at 90 degrees to begin to form the arm of the glasses.  A second loop/arm arrangement was made for the other lens and arm of the glasses.  Notice how the solder was filed down to give some shape to the section of the glasses where the lens frame meets the arm.

Lastly, a nose section was made and used to solder the two lens frames and arm “assemblies” together.

With a little bit of filing and smoothing, some “worn penny” acrylic paint followed by a coat of urethane…and we have a pretty presentable set of reading glasses.

Posted in Beach Basset and tagged , , , , ,
23 Jan 2015
2 Comments

The Cowboy Hat

Now that the head is at least roughed in for our little cowboy hound, it’s time to start thinking about a hat.  The hat is made in two pieces along the same lines as described by Lynn Doughty on his website OutWestWoodcarving.  Basically, the side view of the brim was outlined on a piece of basswood with the grain of the wood running from the front to the back of the brim.  After cutting out this profile, an elongated oval was cut ( looking from the top of the hat ) so that I ended up with the cut-out shown in the second photo, below.
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Following that, I took a little bit off of the top of the hound’s head to make a flat area to sit the hat upon.  Using the method of applying some pencil lead to the top of the head and slowly chiseling away the impression of the lead that’s left on the hat, I ended up with a depression on the bottom of the hat brim that made a nice tight fit on the head.  This might seem a bit unnecessary to you, but you’ll find that having this depression makes the hat sit nicely on the head in a way that leaves you with the impression that the hat is fully covering the head and not just sitting on top of it.

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The crown of the hat was pretty simply made…just a quick cut out of an almost rectangle on the bandsaw and then some knife carving to get the rounded shape from the top view.  I say, rounded, but it actually is round with a bit of a point at the front.  That just seemed to look about right to me.  Then, I just used the same method of applying pencil lead to the brim and let it rub off onto the bottom of the crown so that all of the high points were highlighted by the lead markings.  A few ( actually, quite a few ) swipes with a shallow gouge removed those lead marks and ended up with the crown sitting nicely on the brim.  I should also mention that I added a hat band using a carving knife and a quick pass with a burning tool.

Hope you like things so far.

 

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Posted in Wrangler Hound and tagged , , , , ,

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