What do YOU like about figure carving?

[VYO]

Disclaimer: I am a total newbie to carving which will be obvious from the photos below. The items below are examples of the beginnings. I love carving but need much more practice. 

I hand drew the dog from a photo. While I got the essence of the shape, I didn't capture the depth in most places. I was ok with this one as I did at least capture the shape. 

The horse hat was based off a photo I saw somewhere on the internet. I couldn't find that photo again when I drew the horses so I did my best to capture the shapes from memory and reference photos of horses. I think this was my second carving and was as a whole a much larger project than I should have attempted at the stage of experience in leather craft I was at the time. There is minimal detail - I was just happy I could get a basic shape right enough a person could tell what the shape is.  And I am lucky enough to have someone who wasn't embarrassed to wear the hat in public so it made the effort worthwhile in that way beside the learning experience.

To date, I've more been practicing with cutting, beveling, and shading with craftaids for the most part. I'll try another hand sketch once I get a bit more experienced with drawing and the tools.

I can do some passable stuff (lots of throw aways) but I really do want to take it to the next level and do some really nice work. There is something peaceful about figure carving. I bet it's an even better feeling when you finally know what your doing and put out work like some of that I've seen here on LW - beautiful work that makes a person want to work harder to learn. Just a matter of time, practice, and experience.

Edited February 9, 2019 by VYO

[kiwican]

looks great to me!

[ScoobyNewbie]

Very nice.

I’m buying the Stohlman books bit by bit and I’ve been very impressed with how thorough the instructions are.

You guys make it look so cool and personal! I’m just kind of concerned with how many of the tools that have gone missing, leaves, veiners, camouflagers... it kind of feels like we have to reinvent the wheel again to get the right shapes. Or am I over thinking, and the tools are out there, I just haven’t gone much farther than Tandy?

[immiketoo]

11 hours ago, kiwican said:

So I've been insanely impressed with these 3d carving and sculptures. So much so that I've tried my hand at a koi fish. For an experiment it turned out OK.  I'll upload a pic when I figure out how to resize things. But I'm really interested to know how to make it pop. How to really make the relief stand out. And how to keep the flat bits flat and formed bits formed! So far I've just used a swivel knife and modeling spoon. Tips and advise really really apreciated! 

The hardest part about a Koi fish are the fins.  Or maybe coloring them, since white paint has a tendency to make things look like 3rd grade art class.  As for relief or pop, you may want to try raising your formed bits and then go back and re-bevel the lower bits to put them back in perspective.  3D carving is a dance between embossing and making the rest of the picture stay flat.  You can do it all with only those two tools, but a few specialized bevelers will make your life a lot easier.  Steep and regular figure bevelers are invaluable with this kind of carving.

4 hours ago, ScoobyNewbie said:

Very nice.

I’m buying the Stohlman books bit by bit and I’ve been very impressed with how thorough the instructions are.

You guys make it look so cool and personal! I’m just kind of concerned with how many of the tools that have gone missing, leaves, veiners, camouflagers... it kind of feels like we have to reinvent the wheel again to get the right shapes. Or am I over thinking, and the tools are out there, I just haven’t gone much farther than Tandy?

As I mentioned above, you can do it with standard tools if you work at it, but figure carving tools really make a difference.  

[kiwican]

Thanks Mike. For sure it's a dance between the pop and flat! Good to know I'm on the right track as that was what I was doing. Raise and form and smooth down. 

Thanks for the advise folks. Much appreciated !

[VYO]

9 hours ago, ScoobyNewbie said:

Or am I over thinking, and the tools are out there, I just haven’t gone much farther than Tandy?

I got a bunch of the older tools on Ebay. Watch closely there though because some listings on Ebay say they are discontinued tools but when cross checked at Tandy or Springfield 'some' of them really are not discontinued.

[immiketoo]

4 hours ago, VYO said:

I got a bunch of the older tools on Ebay. Watch closely there though because some listings on Ebay say they are discontinued tools but when cross checked at Tandy or Springfield 'some' of them really are not discontinued.

Craftool's old pre-letter tools are worth investing in.  The figure tools have the correct (read useable) shapes for figure carving.  There are 5 different tools and all are useful, but the larger sizes are the most useful.  If it has a letter in front of the number, i.e. F897 as opposed to plain old 897, pass and keep looking.  There is that much difference between the two.  Expect to pay about 10 bucks per tool for old ones.  Well worth the investment.

[VYO]

1 hour ago, immiketoo said:

If it has a letter in front of the number, i.e. F897 as opposed to plain old 897, pass and keep looking.

Great tip! Thank you.