Your Carving Process

[Rod L.]

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious about your carving techniques. I figure that most of this more applies to the organic material carvers, but I guess it could apply to you stone carvers too. Do you go through a major planning stage when you carve? Do you refine sketches of what you want to do and make sure that everything is all balanced, just so, or do you pick up and start carving and and let the piece help dictate how it will turn out?

 

I know that I personally tend to lean mostly towards what I call free handing, or zen carving. What I mean by this, is having a vague to no idea exactly what is going to come out in the end. Little to no preplanning is required, and the piece just talks to you as you carve. I have had carvings that when I went in to carve something very specific has kinda Said no I don't wanna be this, I wanna be something else, instead. Usually when I listen to the piece it turns out to be something really cool, and one that I am really proud of. Yes I have had pieces that after spending several hours of work into them have gone into the scrap pile, but it has kinda turned into a meditative process when I carve. The way I feel, and how the piece of material that I am working on at the time tend to dictate what the final product becomes. It occurs to me that I can't be the only one that does this. It really allows for my own creative energy to flow into what I do, and in the end you can almost feel the creative spark vibrating within, the piece itself. Does this make sense to anyone?

 

Also, do you ever have those carvings that after you have finished it, that you look at them and shrug, thinking Meh, maybe someone will like it. Those that you just really just don't care for, but are too nice and have too much time invested to just throw them in the scrap heap.

 

Sometimes I feel that if I were to preplan my carvings more thoroughly I might advance faster as a carver, but I will say that the journey to this point in my carving "career" has been a lot of fun, and an incredible journey, and an adventure, that I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

Peace,

Rod

[Josh Murray]

Coming from a commercial background the layout and the Geometry aspect to carving is built into my DNA, but when I do my own pieces I keep the math but tend to lay out my patterns on the actual medium and do less sketching. I do recognize the freedom of just carving, I have fun whittling on a stick as much as the next person.

[Ed Twilbeck]

I do both sometime I plan what I want and some times I let the Wood help me find the way. Most of the time I have a plan on what I want to carve ,, but I look for that piece of wood that looks like it will let me find what I want.

I make a lot of small pendants for necklaces ,, most are dragon flies ,, etc some are leaves that have fallen and dried.

I will outline the carving and some times use a center line ,, and I try to have a drawing or a picture or a model of what I want to carve ....

[Rod L.]

Well Josh,

your answer doesn't really surprise me all that much, I have been watching you an deviantart for a while now, and I have seen the really cool stuff that you make. To be honest you are one of those guys that inspired me to get back into carving. Hopefully some waxes will be coming off of my desk in the near future, and I will post them up when they do. You, Phillip Montgomery AKA bonecarverpm, and a guy by the name of William Lloyd, are like, Oh My God talented as far as I am concerned. I was actually quite glad to see you and Phillip were a part of this forum.

 

Peace,

Rod

[Billy]

I'm a true believer in free-carving. More often than not I decide what I'm going to carve, often representing a legend or ancestor from yesteryear, then think of the design in my head for a number of days depending on the size of the piece, then I design straight onto it. I rarely sketch these days. I like to think of the design in my head, then see how it unfolds on the piece. I often make subtle changes as I go, but never losing focus of the story I'm trying to convey. This way I feel the spirit of the medium is having a little say in what it will become. My career has been based around illustrating, graphic design and art directing, and i feel this has a major influence in how i approach my carving. One of NZ's most established bone carvers, Owen Mapp, does completely the opposite. He sketches his designs first, then carves it exactly how he has drawn it. So I certainly think that it's each to their own. Cheers, Billy.

[Mark Strom]

My methods go both ways. Early on I just went into the piece without preliminary planning and it was hit or miss with the results. The good were really good and the rest were just attempts.

 

In the middle of my career there was a combination of both with loose sketches for concepts with details worked through as the carving went along. Doing mainly commissions that method worked for awhile but as the price went up the details had to be more clear. Clear mainly for the client that is. This went on for years and was what I called creativity on demand. A client would walk in and we would talk while I was formulating a design. Before they left there was a concept with parameters which were worked through and then drawn into a formal design. All through these processes there was the freedom to adapt and modify the work if I felt it was best. Overall though the design was followed through pretty close to the drawn design. The cost of that was that my creativity was bound by the price. Did not matter what I envisioned or what the piece could be but it did matter when it came to following the original design and working within the time frame and budget. Guaranteed money at the price of creativity.

 

Now days there is a great deal more going on. I am going to be carving a chipmunk soon. I thought about the design and layout and then thought about what my intent was with this piece. What was I trying to do, what kind of mood, what kind of look was I after. What color scheme, what separates this from the last carving. I drew out a design that was oversize while making notes. I then looked at it as a vertical and a horizontal format in different sizes. During this process the chipmunk was modified, things were shifted around a little before the design was complete. Next step is to enlarge the design to actual size. My whole point is that I am composing the entire piece from animal posture, to how everything relates to each to the color composition.

 

What this is doing for me now is combining all the techniques and skills that I have learned over the years and consciously applying them to my work. What is different more than anything else is my intent about what I am trying to accomplish with each piece. There is now a conscious thread in thought and process that I hope is moving my work forward. As I get older I am aware that there is a great deal that I want to do and time is getting short so I am making each piece count...maybe all this is the ramblings a a crazy old man...

[Josh Murray]

Well Josh,

your answer doesn't really surprise me all that much, I have been watching you an deviantart for a while now, and I have seen the really cool stuff that you make. To be honest you are one of those guys that inspired me to get back into carving. Hopefully some waxes will be coming off of my desk in the near future, and I will post them up when they do. You, Phillip Montgomery AKA bonecarverpm, and a guy by the name of William Lloyd, are like, Oh My God talented as far as I am concerned. I was actually quite glad to see you and Phillip were a part of this forum.

 

Peace,

Rod

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Rod. I really dig Billy's take on the subject, and usually if you know what you are doing the extra steps are not always essential. I personally learned the craft with an art director or a production coordinator looking over my shoulder at all times, so the layout is sometimes a reflex at this point. Ed makes a good point too, sometimes all you need is a good center line if you are making something symmetrical.

[Lachlan]

When I first started carving I use to just go for it with no design on paper but I always knew my design in my head. However I found my output to be low because I would come up with an idea then think about it until I could see it perfectly in my head, that was 5 years ago and Im still thinking about some of them. It was great though as the carvings would take shape so quickly.

 

I found though that often when I had a design I couldnt always carve so I started drawing them down. I also found drawing great as some of the designs were disastrous, where as drawing them first let me see this. I also started carving things with symmetry, and found that I drawing them first with rulers etc gave me a much better look.

It also wasnt long ago that I discovered I could actually draw, so Ive started spending my free time drawing. Especially when I cant do any carving. My design output has gone up dramatically. Id say I average 10-15 ideas before I get one that I will carve, so drawing the down really lets me flesh them out.

 

I then draw my design onto tracing paper and hog it out rough on the piece. Then I delete the design and work with the material. Often whilst carving Ill change something, for me its when I get the piece in my hands that I can feel what needs to be done etc. Especially true when carving in 3D. My skill is as a sculptor not a drawer and its only once Im carving does the actual piece take shape. So Id say I use drawing to design a piece then work freeform within the bounds of my design.

[Colin]

Greetings,I guess it depends on the carving medium. Wood Bone and some stones all "feedback" an idea as to what lies within. The stone I use is "blank". A single colour and no grain. So I make a model from plactiseen or some such and try to follow that, having got the idea from the Net.