Since I’m just coming back from a long “offline” vacation to the online world, it’s taking me a minute to get used to wordpress again.
If you read my post from this morning, then you know that THIS is the post I was referring to. All the images are finally uploaded and ALL the duplicates have been deleted. Wasn’t that fun!
Now, back to last night.
Last Night Turned Out Fantastic
I went to bed not feeling well. My head hurt. My back (specifically the center of my spine) was killing me. Then, a tooth started bugging me.
So I got up.
Not wanting to disturb anyone, I grabbed my knife and a block of wood I’d previously drawn out an idea on. The idea isn’t mine, I just wanted to see if I could carve it.
The Funky One In The Middle
You see that block of wood to your left? The one between the bear climbing a tree and the funny looking fella?
Yes, that’s the one I grabbed.
The design idea came from somewhere on the internet. I’d seen a couple of them along these lines and wanted to take a crack at carving it.
Usually, if I can draw it, I can carve it.
The Carving Itself Is Easy – Here’s The Challenge
Carving out a wood spirit isn’t all that difficult. There’s some excellent tutorials on the subject available free on YouTube. If you’re not a whittler or wood carver, and want to get started, then the wood spirit is a good place to begin.
In the picture to your right (if you’re on a computer) shows the beginning stages of this particular project.
Because the hands and nose are the highest points, that’s where I began.
Once the hands and nose are located, it becomes a matter of layers.
Layer one is the hair, eyebrows and mustache because these are the next highest points.
Then it’s the eyes, mouth and so-on.
It’s really just a fun little puzzle. Instead of a box full of pieces, you get a block of wood and a knife. Same thing.
Anyways, below is the finished piece. Total time took about 2.5 hours. Most of that time was deciding how to proceed next, and then testing the cuts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken too much off.
Go ahead, click on any of the images and it’ll bring up a bigger image.
Wood Spirit Breaking Out
Wood Spirit
Wood Spirit left side view
Wood Spirit Right
Wood Spirit right side view
Wood Spirit Start
Starting the wood spirit
So that’s my first Wood Spirit post. You’ll see more. And I’ll put up some intructional files (pdf, video, articles) as this site grows.
Go ahead, leave a comment and follow me around on social media.