Monthly Figure Carving Challenge

[yaklady]

That's almost as nice as my dead fish, Clay! :angel_not:

[shirleyz]

Okay guys,

I'm not sure if I'm done with this or not. I think I might play with the coloring.

I only did this because Clay called me "blonde".

ShirleyZ

[ClayB]

Well Shirley,

Flattery, begging, and trickery weren't working. It was all I had left! I'm glad it worked. I figured yours would be just a little different and that was the whole idea behind this thing. By not doing any hairing at all, it gives the pattern a different look, clean and smooth, different than most of the others, but still looks good.

I'll apologize right here in front of everyone for the blonde comment, but I am really glad you decided to play.

Clay

[shirleyz]

Clay

I'll be honest, I was going to add hair. I looked all over for the box with my various cutting tools in it. Since I moved I've lost so much stuff it's not funny. So, I couldn't find my hair blade. Hence the bald cougar, mountain lion, puma, whatever it is.

could I hair it sometime in the future if I find the box? If I took the finish off?

Just a thought.

ShirleyZ

[ClayB]

I am not sure if it would work or not. I did a project once that I sprayed a sealer on, then decided I could have done a better job of cleaning up the beveling marks on with a modeler. I wet a small area of the project, and after awhile, the water started soaking in, so I went ahead and wet the whole thing. It took some time, but the leather did take the water, and I did the modeling and it worked pretty good. Then when it dried, it was a blotchy mess. It looked awful. I decided maybe I could dye the background to hide the blotches, but spirit based dye wouldn't penetrate the finish, even though water did. When I finally thought the dye had to be dry, I went over it with antique and the dye smeared all over everything. I thought maybe I could remove everything with deglazer, but it didn't touch the spirit dye. The project has been laying around for a year now, and yesterday I thought maybe I could paint over the whole thing with acrylic paint, which looks like it might work, but not much detail of the carving will be left. The project is pretty much scrap at this point anyway so it works good to experiment on.

If you wanted to just put hair on your lion with the hair blade, you might be able to do that right over the finsih. I think the hair would cut in. But what it would do when you tried to color or finish it, I have no idea. Same with removing the finish. It would probably work, but when you go to finish it again, I have no idea how the leather would accept it. If the project is something you are happy with now, I'd leave it alone and do another. If it's just practice, then experiment and see what happens.

Clay

[gesa]

Now here ist my attempt in carving the lioness and I changed the pattern a little bit.

I will add the wiskers later...

Gesa

[freak]

I think there's alot of peeps here that are better then they think. Here's my excuses up front; i use a really nasty piece of scrap, the leather had alot of hard places in it and i did it way to fast. But for real though i need to do this one about 2 more times to find the effect i'm looking for .

And i'm just gonna throw this idea out there. I know many of beginners and ever others will like this. I'm not sure if i read that there will be a drawing for prizes again or not. But,,,would anyone be willing (Clay) to put there entry up as a prize ?? Say draw 3 names and find 3 people willing to donate there piece ? Or maybe all are up for trade like a white elephant gift trade. I was thinking of this cause seeing pictures is one thing BUT having it in your hand is a whole other level. Anyone, anyone, anyone ???

Sorry Tina for totally defacesing your beautiful lioness .

I give you THE CURSED .

[ClayB]

Geez Freak, when I said no rules, I guess I wasnt' thinking about what you might do. You owe Tina more than an apology for killing the lion. But........ there's something really neat about what you did, in a sick sort of way. Kind of funny, I was looking through a book of drawings of bears yesterday and told my wife I'd like to carve the bear skull in there. She thought it was a little sick. Now I'm here admitting that I think like Freak!!!!

Cant wait to see what you do to the poor flower pattern of Kathy's.

[Roger]

well.. i decided to make something out of mine.

did some antique and just a bit of color.

[Tina]

Freak

Keep it on...It's Cool, I love it:-)

beezachoppa

I just have to ask, on the photo it looks like you have the antiquing color I've looked for, what are you using? I seam to have all the wrong colors at home:-(

[leatheroo]

freak, that is the best....love the way you think outside the box

[Kayak15]

I'm wondering if you could tell me how the leather was painted. Is this airbrush painting or what? Looks great by the way. I'll not address anyone in particular because I would like to hear of the differnt methods if their are differences. There is some really good work there folks.

Kayak15

[ClayB]

I used a brush and acrylic paints thinned down with water and the technique Silva Fox teaches in her Dazzling Color DVD. You color in all the shadow areas first with shades of purple, then just paint your main color over that. No mixing different shades, the shadows are already there. Then just add some highlights and it's done. I haven't used this technique a lot, but should because it really works and is pretty simple.

Some people use an airbrush on leather and get great results. I need to figure out how to use mine sometime.

I hope some of the rest of the people will explain there methods, coloring can be really frustrating.

[Roger]

beezachoppa

I just have to ask, on the photo it looks like you have the antiquing color I've looked for, what are you using? I seam to have all the wrong colors at home:-(

the antique color is mahogany

[HorsehairBraider]

I just painted mine with a brush and acrylics just like I would paint a canvas - except that I allowed the leather color to show through quite a lot and I would not do that on canvas.

[fleabitpokey]

Well I guess you are right,we have to try different things so we can better ourselves. I need to get more confident about posting my work. This is my first cat. I am open for any help.

Stephanie

[ClayB]

Stephanie,

For your first cat you did a great job! You did a nice job on the ear and the mouth and teeth. The eyes are done nicely too. I think the eyes are tricky to do on this pattern because of the way it is drawn. In Tina's original, there are large wrinkles over the eyes that I think have been hard for people to grasp when carving the pattern. You got all the contours of the neck in the right places, but it looks pretty deep with out hair. I think if you added hair, it would tone down the deep impressions and blend everything together nicely. I am glad you decided to carve this pattern and that you shared the picture. I have been impressed with how all of the cats have been turning out, especially for those of you that are new to figure carving.

[Clay]

ok, here is my version of the monthy challenge. i did both the lion and the floral on the same piece of leather. The lion I am not that happy with, I am not satisfied wth the hair on it. I was likeing what I had done, it looked sorta realistic untill I started tooling the hair. It flattened it out a lot. also I did not get the eyes at all. those two are the hardest for me.

The floral pattern was a nice easy one. I changed a couple of things to make it my own but still the same pattern.

ClayM.

Edited February 12, 2008 by Clay

[Regis]

Clay,

Your lines are SO CLEAN. That is beautiful work.

Regis

[ClayB]

Hey Clay,

Your floral carving is awsome, but then that's what we all expect from you

Dont be too hard on yourself on the lion either. It's not bad at all. Like I mentioned on Stephanie's lion, those eyes were tricky. What did you use to put the hair on? It looks like a neat texture. I'd like to see it closer up.

We would cut you some slack since you just found out about the challenge this morning, are home sick and the kids are sick too, but there's no need to, you did a really nice job!

[freak]

lion smion, can you post a bigger pic of that floral Clay. That's freakin tight and clean man. Rapid City here i come !!

[SCOUTER]

ClayM,

What a great idea putting both challenges on one piece of leather! You really nailed that floral! WOW!

[Kani]

I like the ears better. They just didn't seem right to me before. Now they look like the lion is angry. good job. I like the new drawing alot better.

Now here ist my attempt in carving the lioness and I changed the pattern a little bit.

I will add the wiskers later...

Gesa

[Clay]

ok here is a close up of the lion and of the floral.

Clayb the tool I used for the hair ia a f926. I used it like a beveler and walked it acros the piece starting at the bottom and in the areas where there was a change in muscle tone i hit it harder.

ClayM

oops this one is not very clear I will try to get a better picture

Edited March 2, 2008 by Johanna
reduced pic sizes

[howardb]

OK, compared to the rest of ya, this bites dirt. But my kitty-loving daughter wanted it immediately, so it's not all bad.

My first challenge response. I enjoyed tooling it, and did it while waiting between jazz recitals this AM (went mobile...). Some of the middle school kids were fascinated and watched me for a while.

Brent