Another Carving

My renewed passion for woodcarving has me thinking of projects to work out. I decided on the classic head of the Native American particularly of the Eastern tribes. I researched images and chose several old photos to work from. I then rendered a digital sculpture on Sculptris, a free program related to the outrageously priced Zbrush. I would like to own  a version of Zbrush but at a nice $700 or so it won't be anytime soon. Besides Sculptris works just fine for me at this point. I wanted to work out any problems I might have in the actual sculpture digitally before I started cutting wood. 

Wood is such an immediate medium. If you mess up there is not much room for forgiveness although it can be done. On the following sculpture I cut too much off the left cheek and decided to make a repair by glueing some extra wood back on. One can tell where the repair is but because of the final finish it is not to apparent. Anyways here is the progression from start to finish. I decided to carve in high relief instead of fully round. 

Here is a better view of the final stage. 

Getting Back into Carving

  Several years ago I began carving wood. I find carving to be a wonderful way to express artistry and creativity. Wood is so natural and allows the artist to participate in nature. It is an unforgiving medium which requires much thought and planning if creating a specific image as opposed to an abstract design. There are so many interesting  aspects to wood carving, the various woods and their attributes, the tools and their upkeep. The tools themselves are an art and I enjoy sharpening and honing their edges. The razor edge cuts well, while the dull rounded edge tears the wood. 

  One image that I always return to in sculpture is the head of Christ. It is central to my faith, the Christian faith. The suffering Christ dying on the cross for our sins, the sins of humanity. I think what really draws me is the absolute humility of Jesus when faced with his tormentors. He let evil have its way with him and as the Son of God defeated it and its companion, death. There was nothing left for the devil to do. He had exhausted all of his tactics and Christ rose from death. 

  This sculpture is a small bust carved from solid walnut, a very dense hard wood but one that take detail very well. I love the texture, grain and tool marks which add character. A small amount of sanding was done especially to the back of the sculpture. It was finished with a coat of teak oil.

My Oldest

I've been working on and off on this painting for about a month and a half. I would say I'm a little more than half way through it. It is being completed with Inspire Pro and I am working it the same way in which I would work a traditional painting, perhaps even more carefully. It starts first with a sketch and then I begin laying in the darks and lights, gradually building up to the realism of the image. In this case I am working each area to completion rather than working the image as a whole. 

Chinese Symbols

One of the final projects I am having my students complete is to create a composition based on a word that represents them. They then research the word in Chinese and try to emulate the calligraphy of the Chinese letter styles. Finally they create the design to finish it off. 

Of course I always create finished examples for them and take off on the assignment myself. Here are some of those designs. Most was done on the ipad and developed through various apps.