My first attempt at carving began at secondary school and was a somewhat short lived experience for although I enjoyed the little I learned of the process I soon lost interest when on taking my proud creation home at the end of term it was generally agreed by all my family that what was supposed to be a short eared owl looked more like a cat than a bird of prey.
On reflection maybe if I had removed the short ears I might have been nearer to the intended subject, however my confidence subsequently ebbed away rather rapidly and adding the fact that, other than when at school, I had no facilities or tools to continue with anyway. Thus it was many years before I made a second attempt at carving.
I have read many books and articles that list and explain the tools required, the sharpening processes and maintenance and handling, let alone the techniques of each cut etc.
But I can tell you from experience that you can produce a decent bit of carving with very little outlay indeed.
Of course it is nice to be able to purchase a good set of knives or chisels but I think that if you begin with the minimum tooling and even a piece of timber that is sourced naturally rather than from a specialist timber supplier your progression and experience will be the better for it as well as more logical and natural, that has certainly been the case for me.
Indeed my second attempt many many years later was a simple dolphin copied from a bathroom pottery ornament and produced entirely with a single bladed Swiss army penknife which admittedly did have a small saw blade that did the brunt of the work as I remember and the wood was a small log of Ash picked from a pile of freshly chopped logs collected on a woodland walk with the dog !.
I am anything but an expert, being entirely self taught, but I have produced many different carvings of all kinds of standards and in each and every project developed and honed my skills and techniques, a process that is and will be forever ongoing. Nowadays I have more tools to speed up the initial processes that get you to the point of carving for real, ie the part where the real sculpting starts, the flair bit and really the most enjoyable part of carving.
I hope in this article to show you how to set about a project of any level and get you into a great hobby.
For my example I have to admit that I have copied a project as I pretty much always do because I am not a naturally gifted artist and neither do I possess real artistic flair, and so I have to be inspired by something I've seen, Usually another artists creation, and I start out to copy it and somewhere along the line my own interpretation takes over, and this is what will happen to you so don't be embarrassed to blatantly copy another persons creation because when your own skills have been applied to the project your finished creation will have an appearance of it's own and reflect your skills and your flair.
So full steam ahead, I start by tracing out the project from a plan, or simply drawing around both a side and top view of the chosen item, these drawings can then be enlarged if required by use of a scanner or photocopier to get the finished size.
Chose your timber and transfer the outline drawing so you have a front and side view, as in the photo.
The next stage depends on the tools you have available.
I have an old small band saw and my preferred approach is to make many cuts from the outside of the timber up to the pencil line all the way around the drawing, this is done on all sides,leaving you with thin slices of timber that can easily be taken away with a chisel or knife and in many cases simply by the fingers.
Already we are in a position where we have an idea of what our finished project is going to look like, it's time for the knife, chisel or rasp !.
So take a while to look at the reference
(photo, model or drawing) and choose a start point. Keep your pencil close to hand to replace lines that are lost as you carve the depths away.
I just start wherever it looks the easiest and take it easy not removing too much timber and constantly checking against the reference and constantly replacing lost pencil lines and before long it will start to take even more shape. Before long I find that there is no longer a need for constant reference as I begin to make the sculpture my own.
Don't be worried if you think you've made a mistake, I find that in most cases they can be fairly easily overcome with a bit of ingenuity and anyway mistakes help you to learn.
I used to lose interest in a sculpture on which I had made a mistake and consequently have a box full of unfinished projects, but every now and then I'll retrieve something from the box and take up where I left off with a renewed enthusiasm as I said usually overcoming the 'mistakes' - and, if all else fails reach for the pot of glue !.
Anyway back to the cowboy, once you've made a start your
enthusiasm will take you from one spot to the next and I find that I keep looking at the sculpture and the difficult bits ahead and think about them as I work on, and as it takes shape in one place it seems to make those dreaded bits less and less daunting and usually by the time you get on to them you are looking forward to tackling them !.
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