Monthly Figure Carving Challenge

[ClayB]

I have decided that instead of another contest that isn't really a contest (no judging, no winners etc.) I am going to propose a monthly carving challenge. I will pick a pattern and post it here. Anyone interested in participating can take that pattern and carve it in any way they like. You can change the pattern if there is something you don't like. You can add background if you like. Then carve it however you like. Remember, there is NO one correct way to carve these patterns. Once you have it carved, we'd would like you to post a picture of it. When the pictures are posted, critique, comments, questions are all encouraged. If you like something about how someone carved thier pattern, let them know. If there is something you don't like, let us know why. If you have questions about why someone did this, why they didn't do that, what if you tried this, just ask. I think by discussing the different projects, we can all learn something new. I am sure some people are going to think that some of these patterns are going to be too hard. I would like to encourage you to try them anyway. Bruce Johnson has mentioned doing things "outside your comfort zone". I think you have to do that if you want to improve and there will be people here that will help with any problems you have. I will try and vary the subject matter and difficulty of the patterns each month. I have several figure carving patterns right now, but hope to have a floral pattern to do this with soon. If there is interest, I'd like to do one of each every month.

The pattern for this first challenge was given to us by Tina. She posted a picture of her "Lioness with PMS" a week or so ago. I really liked this pattern because I could see so many different ways it could be carved. She agreed to let us use this pattern and I'd like to thank her for that. I hope some of you will give this pattern a try and share your carving with us.

Here is Tina's picture of how she first carved her lion.

And here is my first attempt at the pattern.

I hope we can have some fun and learn something from this.

[SCOUTER]

Clay, OUTSTANDING! Great concept! Thanks for "doing the legwork" on this. You are 100% right... We don't get any better doing things we are already good at!

Looking forward to starting this one.

Thanks again!

P.S. Flowers are harder then they look!

Edited January 26, 2008 by SCOUTER

[TwinOaks]

AAAAAHHHH!! Homework!!!!!! Run!!!!!!

Actually, it's an excellent idea. It gives us opportunity to develop new skills, and we don't have to worry about the copyright on the pic, as permission is implied when it's submitted.

Or is this just a clever ruse to identify your competition....? LOL!

Looking forward to this carving....as soon as I can get a printer that works.....and I recarve the piece I destroyed with a drop of Feibings' med. brown.

[yaklady]

Clay, as you know, I am pretty much computer illiterate. I have no idea how to print this pattern from this site. Can you give me a little insite on this? Please!

Kathy

[Johanna]

Press control and p for the print command. Clay, would it help if I converted the pattern to another format, like a pdf?

Johanna

[ClayB]

Johanna,

You are asking me if is would help to convert a file? The cold there in Ohio must REALLY be affecting you! Do whatever will make things easier for everyone, that's your job, LOL (the smileys dont seem to be working or I'd insert an appropriate one here)

[Regis]

Kathy,

After you click on the picture (actually any picture) and see it larger, just right click your mouse and a print option will appear. Select print an you're good to go. Of course, this is with MS Windows as I don'tr know about mac's.

[Froghunter]

Wow, what a great idea.....I'm in!

Here is my contribution to this months non-contest.

I had a few extra minutes after carving so I added a little color. I know this was originally a lioness, but I saw a cougar in mine, hence the black area around the muzzle.

I enjoyed this one, it was my first real stab at a realistic animal, at least a real one! I hope I did the original justice.

Lemme know what you think!

[Tina]

Froghunter...This is so cool:-)

It's going to get really interesting to see how different this one can be from the same base. I painted mine, but kept her as a lioness.

[ClayB]

The colored pictures of the lion by Tina and Froghunter are great. I am not going to attempt to color mine. I did decide to try and make mine 3-D. Not sure if I am done yet, but here is where it's at right now.

[Duke]

holy smokes! looks good clay!!!!

[Froghunter]

The colored pictures of the lion by Tina and Froghunter are great. I am not going to attempt to color mine. I did decide to try and make mine 3-D. Not sure if I am done yet, but here is where it's at right now.

WOW....looks Great!!! Darn good job!

Yeah...this is cool!

[Tina]

Hmmmm...Me like Clay:-)

A perfect candidate for this project. I'm so looking forward to see the result.

[Regis]

Clay,

Do you want completed entries posted in this thread or is there some other way to post them?

Here's how far along I am. Little more cleanup and start dying.

[ClayB]

Hi Regis,

Anything to do with this challenge can go here. I was hoping for some discussion on the pattern, the carving process, anything at all that might help anyone out. There was some discussion back when Tina first posted her project in the Critique my work section, and then some of my discussion with her went to PM's. I'll check with her and see if we can bring some of that back into this area. By talking about what we like and don't like, where we are having problems, etc., I think we can all learn more. If we just all post pictures of what we have done and tell each other "nice job", we aren't going to get the full benifit out of this that I was hoping for.

CLay

[Regis]

Hi Regis,

Anything to do with this challenge can go here. I was hoping for some discussion on the pattern, the carving process, anything at all that might help anyone out. ...................................................

CLay

Well, now that you mentioned it........ With 3 or more levels of hair showing depth is difficult for me. Not hard to show 1 or 2 but, on this figure, you come from the side of the nose down the face and neck trying to show that transition is tough. Also moving from fine hair to thick points that we see at the outer edge.

Regis

[ClayB]

There you go Regis, that's what I was hoping for. I thought about taking pictures and showing how I carved mine, but in a way, I think that would defeat the purpose because then it would be easier to just do it the same way. If you look at the uncolored picture Tina posted, she beveled fairly heavily around the side of the nose, the large wrinkle above the nose and below the jaw. When I carved it, I wanted a softer line in these areas so I used a pear shader to do the beveling instead of a traditional beveler. It gives a rounder impression, softer than the beveler. As I have said before, neither way is right or wrong, just different. I don't know how Tina did the hair on her's, but I drew mine on with the pointed end of my modeling tool. It can also be done with a hair blade, a multi blade knife, a sewing needle or awl, a pointed beveler, and probably several ways I have not seen before.

On Froghunter's and your picture, you both put in whiskers which I see I left out. While yours are just dots, and Froghunter cut in the whiskers, either way works. In both of yours, one tooth looks large and out of proportion to me, so I am guessing that is a problem that might need to be addressed in the pattern. I also see that when Tina drew out the pattern, she put in a line on the far side of the mouth that wasn't on her original picture. These are all the different kinds of things that I was hoping to see come out of this, different ways of handling the same pattern, none wrong or right.

[Regis]

I didn't notice the line wasn't there on the side of the mouth (Tina's). I tried NOT to look at finished ones. Whiskers....I'm debating about cutting or dying them...still not sure. I do like your idea of using pear shader. Still some life left in mine to cut so, we'll see. I "almost" made it a lynx!!

Edited January 27, 2008 by Regis

[Froghunter]

There you go Regis, that's what I was hoping for. I thought about taking pictures and showing how I carved mine, but in a way, I think that would defeat the purpose because then it would be easier to just do it the same way. If you look at the uncolored picture Tina posted, she beveled fairly heavily around the side of the nose, the large wrinkle above the nose and below the jaw. When I carved it, I wanted a softer line in these areas so I used a pear shader to do the beveling instead of a traditional beveler. It gives a rounder impression, softer than the beveler. As I have said before, neither way is right or wrong, just different. I don't know how Tina did the hair on her's, but I drew mine on with the pointed end of my modeling tool. It can also be done with a hair blade, a multi blade knife, a sewing needle or awl, a pointed beveler, and probably several ways I have not seen before.

On Froghunter's and your picture, you both put in whiskers which I see I left out. While yours are just dots, and Froghunter cut in the whiskers, either way works. In both of yours, one tooth looks large and out of proportion to me, so I am guessing that is a problem that might need to be addressed in the pattern. I also see that when Tina drew out the pattern, she put in a line on the far side of the mouth that wasn't on her original picture. These are all the different kinds of things that I was hoping to see come out of this, different ways of handling the same pattern, none wrong or right.

Clay, I agree about the tooth, it is out of proportion a smidge, I don't think it's that bad on the original, I think on mine it was me just not "following" the line close enough with my knife.

Since I carved mine from a pattern off the original, it wasn't until I was done that I noticed Tina's "lower lip" actually shows in her carving, and doesn't on the drawing, I tried to add one in, but not until I was done, and it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped.

I would love to critique your embossed version, however I have never embossed anything so I feel I would't have the knowledge. To my eye it looks great!

So anyone who can help me be a better carver, TELL ME WHAT I CAN CHANGE to make this carving better. That way on the next carving I will use those critiques to improve.

I do like your use of the pear shader. It gives a softer "Roll" to the snout, where mine shows a hard line. It really is an improvement IMHO on the original, and If I were to try this one again, I would "PLAY" a little more and not necessarily just carve THE design.

This was a lot of fun, and I think the critiques on those of us who do the challenge will, in the end, make us better at our craft. Some of us have only been carving a short time.

[Tina]

Hi all:-)

And Clay, it's OK for me if you want to post our PM's, no problems. That helped me a whole lot and I think it would help others too.

The line that's talked about (mouth)...I totally missed to copy that before I carved my lioness, but I did remeber to ad it on the drawing for this task. Just a screw up on my part

When I did this drawing, many times I ad stuff as I go along, for example the lines around the mouth and such...Thinking of how cats look like, how their hair is growing, the direction and length etc. I use to breed Burmese cats and had quite a few, now I just hope I remeber right. The hair I made with a dentist tool, a really pointy one.

Now to depth. I try think at least 4 "layers/steps", more if possible. It is after all many times a trick of the eye. Remebering how my cats looked when they where hissing, spitting and growling, the lines on their noses was rather defined and sharp with deep folds. I wish I had a good photo of that, but I can't help but share a few of my all time favourite European Burmese Boobs (looooong story behind the name, lets just say, an Aussie got the last word *S*)

[TwinOaks]

I'm still working on the printer issue....But I'm reading and learning as well as I can. I'm really interested in the embossing. I surfed a bit and found this pic for those looking for ultra realism. The angle is a little different, but I believe all the elements are present.

If nothing else, free hand the pattern and pic then go from there. Say, when does this challenge expire? I might not make a Jan. deadline...

Oh, and Johanna...If you decide to incorporate a .PDF version, please allow the original .jpg to be accesible. Some of like to play with aspect ratios, and do a little digital editing on the side.

Edited January 28, 2008 by TwinOaks

[ClayB]

Tiwnoaks, this is actually the pattern for February. Since the topic was brought up, I decided to go ahead and announce it a little early. So everyone has a few weeks to play with it. I'll post a new pattern around the 1st of March since it looks like there is enough interest in this to keep it going for awhile.

I have worked up a tutorial on embossing (on a different pattern than this) and mailed it to Johanna. I hope I did it in a format that wont be difficult for her to put it up here on the forum someday when she is sitting around with nothing to do. (wish there was a smiley of someone hiding behind a tree)

Froghunter, you dont have to be experienced at embossing to give a critique on my picture. If there is something you think might have looked better done differently, just say so. That's the whole purpose here, that we can discuss the pattern and how it's carved. Your picture looks pretty good, especially if you haven't been carving very long. I think by using a pear shader, you could get more muscle structure to show, making it look less flat. Study how Tina did that in her picture. Also look at how she did the wrinkles above the nose and eye. Some of those lines shouldn't be cut too deeply, or maybe not at all. Beveling them or pear shading them will give you the shape that you want there, and always be careful as to which side to bevel. I remember having a lot of trouble trying to figure that out in any pattern when I was starting out. When Regis goes back and looks at the completed pictures, I think he will see what I mean there too.

[HorsehairBraider]

Well, I decided to give it a try. I drew a picture somewhere between the photo and the pattern. It's kinda small, hence the penny for scale. This is Tandy's "petite tooling calf" which I think is 1 - 1 1/2 ounce.

Many years ago I did about 5 carvings (all pretty crappy) and then recently I did one very small one. I have never done figure carving before. So, I know quite well this is not that great, it's fine with me for you all to say so. But I am hoping I can learn, so that I can improve - so feel free to tell me where I went wrong.

[yaklady]

Press control and p for the print command. Clay, would it help if I converted the pattern to another format, like a pdf?

Johanna

Wow! That works! Clay was nice enough to send it directly to me, but now I won't have to be a pest in the future. Thanks Johanna!

Kathy

[yaklady]

Kathy,

After you click on the picture (actually any picture) and see it larger, just right click your mouse and a print option will appear. Select print an you're good to go. Of course, this is with MS Windows as I don'tr know about mac's.

I have Windows, and the little window popped up like you said, but for some reason, the print mode isn't highlighted, and won't print for me. Jo's advice did work for me, though.

Thank you!

Kathy