Month: October 2018

Influences

My love of sculpture started when I was 18 and studying for my A-level in Art. As part of this I did a project on a sculptor called Ted Roocroft who was a pig farmer turned sculptor. He produced beautiful concrete sheep finished with pebbles, and specialised in woodcarving. Pieces like “War and Peace’ left me awestruck. It seemed like another world, one that was far beyond me, as I had no tools, no experience of sculpture and could not see how I could gain the skills.

Many years later an opportunity came my way to do a night school in woodcarving with Wirral woodcarver and sculptor John White. I have been carving with him for over 10 years. I started with the basics of using chisels safely, basic cuts, understanding the grain of wood and completing simple projects such as a relief carving of a leaf. He continued to guide me  through a variety of projects, increasing the depth of the relief and the complexity of the subject and building up to three dimensional pieces and specific skills such as incised writing. I gradually grew in confidence and  built up the range of tools I felt comfortable using. He taught me  how to develop my own ideas, and the process of going from an idea, research, drawings, modelling and carving the final  sculpture.

Recently I have. been lucky enough to be able to spend time carving with Master Woodcarver and Sculptor Michael Painter. In September 2017 I spent two days carving with him on a course he  was tutoring in Penrith. I wanted to start to learn about carving the human face and Michael is second to none in this skill. He first ensured that all of the small group of students could use chisels safely, but we were quickly able to go onto individual projects. I carved my first human face with carefully structured guidance from Michael.

 

I am now lucky enough top be able to go and carve with Michael about once a month. To date I have carved a number of faces with his help and am now able to carve faces with gradually increasing proficiency. I still have portraiture and the rest of the body to learn about! Oh and so much more.

Carving the Lioness Head

This blog follows on from my earlier blog about researching ideas for this carving. This is not a technical guide to carving a lioness head, but illustrates the processes used in carving, finishing and mounting a woodcarving.

I  developed my ideas by drawing and modelling in plastercine, after which I thought about the wood for carving. For this project I had a lovely piece of hawthorn cut from a tree as it was felled. It had been seasoning in my shed in a black bin bag for a couple of years. It was not fully seasoned, but with care it could be carved. It has a lovely grain and the right proportions for the piece, but is very hard wood for carving. I decided to do the piece in lime. If it goes well I may do a larger version in the hawthorn at a later date.

The lime is about 220x150x150mm. It has an even grain and is much softer and easier to carve. I started by marking the midline that will indicate the middle of the nose, head and neck onto the block. This is always marked and remarked onto a piece as I work to help to ensure symmetry.

The outline of the head was drawn onto the block from the side showing the neck, the slope of the head, nose and the positions of the nose and mouth. As the plastercine model was nearly the same size  as the lime block the drawing could be done without scaling.

The lioness head was then roughly shaped creating the line of the top of the head, nose and neck, being careful not to remove too much wood so that the ears could be formed later.

Then the sides of the head were roughed out, the widest points are the ears, so again wood was left here. The nose is narrower than the main part of the head, where the widest area is the just behind the jaw, where the jaw strength comes from the large bone and muscle structure. The head narrows to the mouth and nose. The neck was then shaped and rounded under the ears so that the ears stood out.

The ears were then roughly shaped, on a lion they are rounded like a teddy bear. I chose to carve them partly flattened back to help to create expression. The sides of the nose were then carved.

The eyes of a predator are always on the front of the face as the have binocular vision. They are positioned so that the lioness can see down either side of the nose and give a clear field of vision. The eye positions were carved so that the eye brows appear and are symmetrical on each side of the head. At this stage I looked at the piece from  close ups, from a distance, and from a variety of positions to ensure symmetry.

From the brow the head slopes back between the ears to the neck, and from the brows the face drops away infant of each ear. The eyes have a very large socket in lions. the eyeball within the socket can now be carved, Eye lids and details can be added later.

The nose and muzzle was then formed. Then time to get brave and take a saw to remove the wood from the open mouth, whist leaving wood for the large canines and teeth. This was achieved with a combination of sawing and carving. Wood for the teeth was left with lots of extra bulk to protect them from breakage.

I then took a couple of days out to look at the piece and check the eye position, symmetry. I added details to the eyes, and created the muscles in the cheeks joining different areas of the face and increasing structural integrity.

The surface was smoothed  using chisels and scrapers, so that I could start to see the impact of the forms on light and shade. Fine adjustments are then easier to make. The whisker ridges were then carved and the curvature of the nose shaped, and nostrils created. The teeth and inside of the mouth were then refined.

The lower canines fit into the gap between the upper canines and upper incisors. The lower canines are closer together and smaller than the upper canines. My study of the lion skulls really helped me to understand how all of this fits together.

I then started to hollow out the neck and the inside of the head so that the hollow area joins with the back of the mouth. Enough wood has to be left in the skull to support the pole that the lioness head will be mounted on. I then hollowed out the area behind the eyes and pierced the eyes through removing most of the iris and leaving the pupil attached by a bit of wood to the top of the eye.

The final smoothing proceed was done using chisels and scrapers both inside and outside the piece, smoothing until a great finish is achieved. A tool finish can be used, but I felt a smooth finish was more cat like.

The lioness  was finished with two coats of Danish oil and two coats of wax, buffed up to a satin sheen. It was mounted on a plinth made of  American black walnut using a piece of 22mm Dowling also finished with Danish oil and wax.