Monthly Figure Carving Challenge

[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

[ClayB]

Horsehairbraider,

For not having done any figure carving before, that is pretty dang good. Who told you that it was okay to make the pattern smaller though? Smaller patterns mean bigger magnifying lenses, at least for me. Really thin leather like that makes any carving more difficult, cutting without going through, and tooling to get depth without cutting through again. That probably explains why some of your cuts look really deep. It does look like you got some nice depth though, especially on the mouth and ear. You can see several different levels of depth in those areas. On the nose, I can see knife cuts, and then it looks like you might have used a pear shader instead of beveling. The cuts stand out. To eliminate that, I wouldn't cut the lines, just trace them and then use the pear shader to create the shape. Then I would use a modeling tool to blend the pear shader impressions out. I think it would look a little better if you would add a lot more hair, closer together. The direction and length look good, just need more of it. You are off to a really good start. Thanks for playing along and sharing your picture. (NOTE: I am not really comfortable doing critiques like this, and hope I everyone knows I am just trying to point out things I think might help)

[SCOUTER]

HorseHairbraider! I can't believe the detail you got into that little piece of leather! Is that a real penny? When you go miniature it ADDS a whole bunch of problems to contend with! Like Clay said with a really small carving regular knife cuts look HUGE, but you have a really good handle on it. I guess you use an OPTIVIEW and alot of LIGHT!

I like the really small stuff because of the challenge. Thanks for Posting!

[SCOUTER]

Well, here is my attempt at the pattern... I am a little short on Leather so I found this piece with a lot of tools I bought on E-Bay. I have never worked with such thin leather (less then 1/8) so I rubber cemented it to a piece of plexiglass and began carving. (The leather was so thin that the thinner from the rubber cement came up thru the leather and wet my graphite paper) I started at 4am and it took me 3 hours. (I'm a night owl) The color and hair all done with pyrography. (heat) My only dilemma, WISKERS... I want to add wiskers but one mistake and, well you know. I have to ponder this...

[HorsehairBraider]

The trend seems to be to add color somehow, so I decided to paint mine. I thought - "Hey! How could I possibly make it worse?" I painted sparingly because my taste is for leather paintings that you can tell are still leather.

On doing it so small: first, I know I'm not very good, so I am messing up less leather this way! Second, my tools are not real leather tools. They are meant for stamping sterling silver. (I'm a jeweler.) So they are quite tiny. I don't have a swivel knife for example, but I do have a scalpel so that is what I used.

Clay, you should not feel uncomfortable saying your opinion - isn't that the whole point? For my part I accept what is said here in the spirit I hope it was intended - in the spirit of friendly helpfulness. I hope anything I might say would be accepted the same way! I certainly intend it that way. Clearly I am no expert - but I still have an opinion, and I am sure everyone else does as well.

From what has been said, I gather I should strive to make shallower cuts and perhaps fewer of them, and maybe add a few more details in things like the hair. I'll try to improve!

Scouter, how did you do the nose? Did you cut it? Because you can clearly see it but it looks much better than mine. Personally, I would add whiskers but I would do it with a knife. Do you have a scalpel? :D MIne worked like a charm! I never thought of adding color with heat. I'll have to try that! It turned out very nice.

[ClayB]

Horsehairbraider,

I was told once that good color can improve a not so good carving and in this case, your coloring really adds to your carving. Then on the other hand they also said poor coloring can ruin a good carving which is more often true in my case.

I'd be really interested in seeing a picture of the tools you are using if you could share one. I use a scalpel for some things on my pictures, but I cant imagine trying to carve the pattern with it. It has to be challenging to try and do this with tools that were designed for something else.

Yes the idea here is to share our opinions and try to help, I just dont ever want to discourage anyone or cause any hurt feelings. Sometimes when typing, it's hard for people to tell exactly what the intent is.

Scouter,

The coloring with the woodburning tool looks neat. I have a couple of those that I thought I would try using on leather, but haven't gotten around to it yet.