How to Carve A Round Shape for Head?
Quote from Deleted user on May 21, 2018, 11:22 amHi All,
My name is Alp, It's nice to be here, as I newly discovered the website and the forum. I am 24 years old and I am in love with people creating amazing shapes, figures on the wood or with the wood. I must admin I take after my father who was making money from the wood, unfortunately I couldn't learn very much from him about the woods, since I was child, now even though I want that so bad, it is not possible after his loss.
I have gathered the tools that I could afford, a gouge and a whittling knife of Pfeil, a few Basswood blocks. I just wanted to whittle a cat to my girlfriend (she loves them! and wanted to give her new fancy bracelet equipped to a wooden kitten). But the thing is that, I cannot make a good round shape or a face of a kitten, shame... I got stuck, can't make a head from a wooden rectangular... I think it is time to take advices...
Thank you so much from now...
Kindest regards
Hi All,
My name is Alp, It's nice to be here, as I newly discovered the website and the forum. I am 24 years old and I am in love with people creating amazing shapes, figures on the wood or with the wood. I must admin I take after my father who was making money from the wood, unfortunately I couldn't learn very much from him about the woods, since I was child, now even though I want that so bad, it is not possible after his loss.
I have gathered the tools that I could afford, a gouge and a whittling knife of Pfeil, a few Basswood blocks. I just wanted to whittle a cat to my girlfriend (she loves them! and wanted to give her new fancy bracelet equipped to a wooden kitten). But the thing is that, I cannot make a good round shape or a face of a kitten, shame... I got stuck, can't make a head from a wooden rectangular... I think it is time to take advices...
Thank you so much from now...
Kindest regards
Quote from Matthew Mizner on May 21, 2018, 9:13 pmAlp,
Welcome to the forum and to wood carving. First off, sorry for the loss of your father and that wealth of carving knowledge also. It’s nice that you are still wanting to continue on in something that he worked hard at.
As for the cat carving, is this your first carving? Very ambitious if it is! A few things: you said you started but are stuck...can you post a picture for an idea of what direction to point you in? Carving in the round can be very challenging and just takes a lot of practice.
Not sure if you are in a time crunch for getting this carving done for your girlfriend, but maybe just take some square pieces of basswood and practice carving them into eggs or circles. That would be a good place to help you work on getting rid of squared edges. Then you can progress into forming facial features for a cat’s face.
I’ll stop rambling...good luck in your practice and post a pic if you get a chance.
Regards
Alp,
Welcome to the forum and to wood carving. First off, sorry for the loss of your father and that wealth of carving knowledge also. It’s nice that you are still wanting to continue on in something that he worked hard at.
As for the cat carving, is this your first carving? Very ambitious if it is! A few things: you said you started but are stuck...can you post a picture for an idea of what direction to point you in? Carving in the round can be very challenging and just takes a lot of practice.
Not sure if you are in a time crunch for getting this carving done for your girlfriend, but maybe just take some square pieces of basswood and practice carving them into eggs or circles. That would be a good place to help you work on getting rid of squared edges. Then you can progress into forming facial features for a cat’s face.
I’ll stop rambling...good luck in your practice and post a pic if you get a chance.
Regards
Quote from MaryMay on May 22, 2018, 12:24 amWelcome to the forum, Alp!
There are quite a few Youtube videos on "Carving in the round". You may be able to find what you are looking for by googling "Whittling animals" or simply "whittling videos" or something like that. Much of what I teach is usually clamped to a bench, but I'm guessing what you are looking for is more in the whittling category be using carving knives or small gouges and holding the carving in your hand.
A good way to get started in carving "in-the round" is by taking a bar of soap and carving the cat by scraping it with a stick or knife. Get an idea of what you are trying to make, and then carve the same detail in wood. The wood is obviously going to be much more challenging, but the soap carving is a good way to visualize the 3-dimensional details and it's easy and quick.
Good luck! And have fun!
Welcome to the forum, Alp!
There are quite a few Youtube videos on "Carving in the round". You may be able to find what you are looking for by googling "Whittling animals" or simply "whittling videos" or something like that. Much of what I teach is usually clamped to a bench, but I'm guessing what you are looking for is more in the whittling category be using carving knives or small gouges and holding the carving in your hand.
A good way to get started in carving "in-the round" is by taking a bar of soap and carving the cat by scraping it with a stick or knife. Get an idea of what you are trying to make, and then carve the same detail in wood. The wood is obviously going to be much more challenging, but the soap carving is a good way to visualize the 3-dimensional details and it's easy and quick.
Good luck! And have fun!
Quote from Deleted user on May 22, 2018, 11:05 amQuote from Matthew Mizner on May 21, 2018, 9:13 pmAlp,
Welcome to the forum and to wood carving. First off, sorry for the loss of your father and that wealth of carving knowledge also. It’s nice that you are still wanting to continue on in something that he worked hard at.
As for the cat carving, is this your first carving? Very ambitious if it is! A few things: you said you started but are stuck...can you post a picture for an idea of what direction to point you in? Carving in the round can be very challenging and just takes a lot of practice.
Not sure if you are in a time crunch for getting this carving done for your girlfriend, but maybe just take some square pieces of basswood and practice carving them into eggs or circles. That would be a good place to help you work on getting rid of squared edges. Then you can progress into forming facial features for a cat’s face.
I’ll stop rambling...good luck in your practice and post a pic if you get a chance.
Regards
Thank you so much for your kind words... Just tried wood spirits few times that's all 🙂 I mean with the start some sketch-up and few corner cuts. Actually she could wait for a perfect gift, but that may result higher expectations. I think I am misunderstood by carving in the round; it is amazingly beautiful but far away from my project... What I do is just a animal figure, I can share an image when I get to home.
Quote from MaryMay on May 22, 2018, 12:24 amWelcome to the forum, Alp!
There are quite a few Youtube videos on "Carving in the round". You may be able to find what you are looking for by googling "Whittling animals" or simply "whittling videos" or something like that. Much of what I teach is usually clamped to a bench, but I'm guessing what you are looking for is more in the whittling category be using carving knives or small gouges and holding the carving in your hand.
A good way to get started in carving "in-the round" is by taking a bar of soap and carving the cat by scraping it with a stick or knife. Get an idea of what you are trying to make, and then carve the same detail in wood. The wood is obviously going to be much more challenging, but the soap carving is a good way to visualize the 3-dimensional details and it's easy and quick.
Good luck! And have fun!
Thank you so much for your reply Mary. That's right, it seems a little bit easier for a beginner. The soap idea sound perfect, I am going to try as soon as possible. Sometimes I feel it's hard to remove excess wood as trying to make a head, and the people in the YouTube are doing it like peeling an apple...
Again thank you very much for your replies, I apologise for my English skills...
I will be following the lessons and the forum!
Wish you a great day!
Quote from Matthew Mizner on May 21, 2018, 9:13 pmAlp,
Welcome to the forum and to wood carving. First off, sorry for the loss of your father and that wealth of carving knowledge also. It’s nice that you are still wanting to continue on in something that he worked hard at.
As for the cat carving, is this your first carving? Very ambitious if it is! A few things: you said you started but are stuck...can you post a picture for an idea of what direction to point you in? Carving in the round can be very challenging and just takes a lot of practice.
Not sure if you are in a time crunch for getting this carving done for your girlfriend, but maybe just take some square pieces of basswood and practice carving them into eggs or circles. That would be a good place to help you work on getting rid of squared edges. Then you can progress into forming facial features for a cat’s face.
I’ll stop rambling...good luck in your practice and post a pic if you get a chance.
Regards
Thank you so much for your kind words... Just tried wood spirits few times that's all 🙂 I mean with the start some sketch-up and few corner cuts. Actually she could wait for a perfect gift, but that may result higher expectations. I think I am misunderstood by carving in the round; it is amazingly beautiful but far away from my project... What I do is just a animal figure, I can share an image when I get to home.
Quote from MaryMay on May 22, 2018, 12:24 amWelcome to the forum, Alp!
There are quite a few Youtube videos on "Carving in the round". You may be able to find what you are looking for by googling "Whittling animals" or simply "whittling videos" or something like that. Much of what I teach is usually clamped to a bench, but I'm guessing what you are looking for is more in the whittling category be using carving knives or small gouges and holding the carving in your hand.
A good way to get started in carving "in-the round" is by taking a bar of soap and carving the cat by scraping it with a stick or knife. Get an idea of what you are trying to make, and then carve the same detail in wood. The wood is obviously going to be much more challenging, but the soap carving is a good way to visualize the 3-dimensional details and it's easy and quick.
Good luck! And have fun!
Thank you so much for your reply Mary. That's right, it seems a little bit easier for a beginner. The soap idea sound perfect, I am going to try as soon as possible. Sometimes I feel it's hard to remove excess wood as trying to make a head, and the people in the YouTube are doing it like peeling an apple...
Again thank you very much for your replies, I apologise for my English skills...
I will be following the lessons and the forum!
Wish you a great day!