Copyright © 2012 by Ivy Press Limited

First published in the United States of America in 2012 by

Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61374-496-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any information storage-and-retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder.

This book was conceived, designed, and produced by

Ivy Press

210 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2NS, UK

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Peter Bridgewater

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Color origination by Ivy Press Reprographics Printed in China

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INTRODUCTION

The impulse to create sculpture through carving goes all the way back to the earliest humans. It continues today in the countless numbers of whittlers who are drawn to take up a knife and put it to a piece of wood.

This book has been written for those who are new to whittling. Anyone can learn to whittle by simply following the step-by-step instructions for carving materials you can find in your kitchen—a bar of soap, for instance, and root vegetables, such as carrots and turnips—along with a common vegetable paring knife.

Once you’ve mastered a basic understanding of three-dimensional sculpting in these materials, this book gives you the information you’ll need to start carving wood Advice includes selecting a knife and keeping it sharp, choosing the right wood, and basic carving techniques.

From there, this book offers progressively more challenging projects with detailed instructions, which are accompanied by step-by-step photographic illustrations and helpful tips along the way

Designed to coach the beginner from initial projects that will train and strengthen the hands to more difficult projects that continue building skills, the ideas presented in Tiny Whittling will allow you to develop and explore your own unique style of carving.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Steve Tomashek grew up in Winona, Minnesota. He is a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in World History and Education. Partway through his university years, his family’s house burned to the ground, and with it, his grandfather’s woodworking tools were destroyed.

As a way of coming to terms with the loss, Steve bought himself a knife and carved a chess set. The experience led him to take up carving as a hobby, and after several years of practice, the hobby turned into a full-time career. Fifteen years and thousands of carvings later, his work has a devoted following around the world through his website ministeve.com and from art fairs and galleries in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States as well as Europe. In collaboration with the artist Glenn Gordon, he also stages and photographs miniature tableaux of his carvings. He is now bringing his carvings even further to life through his video stop-motion animations, which he writes, produces, directs, and does all the sound effects for himself. He even organizes the catering…

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

Carving Materials

Knives & Sharpening

Carving Overview

From Drawing to Sanding

Painting Basics

Painting Techniques

CARVING MATERIALS

The main type of wood I use for carving is American basswood (also known as American linden). Basswood is used for all the carving projects in this book because it is fairly soft and lightweight, so it is relatively easy to carve. However, there are many other types of suitable wood available and, as you progress with your carving, you may want to try some alternatives. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

AMERICAN BASSWOOD
Basswood has a straight grain, is dense, and generally has no knots or irregularities. The wood is not scarce or threatened. It’s classified as a hardwood because it is deciduous, but if it is dried correctly, it is actually soft and easy to carve. It can be bought from sawyers, carving supply stores, or specialty wood suppliers. Don’t confuse basswood with balsa wood, which is often used for model building and is generally too light and too soft for carving.

BOXWOOD

The other primary carving wood is boxwood, which also has a straight grain and no knots. It’s important for the grain to be predictable if you’re working on small details. Boxwood commonly grows as a shrub, and the large shrub branches are fine for carving, but in some places it also grows as a tree. It’s slow growing, which is why the grain is tight, and this means it holds detail well in smaller pieces. It’s harder to carve, so practice with basswood first.

HOLLY

Holly is harder than basswood, but it is not as hard as boxwood. It’s very strong—comparable to birch or maple—but is not so easily available. It’s a white wood, but sometimes it also has grayish streaks, which can make it very attractive. It’s more difficult to carve than basswood, but it holds details well.

YELLOW CEDAR

Cedar, pine, and firs are not ideal for carving unless they are slow grown—the slower the growth, the tighter the grain—and even then, the grain can be wavy. Old or slow-grown yellow cedar is harder to find, but it’s a very pretty wood with a pleasant smell.

SWISS PEAR
Nut and fruitwoods such as walnut, pecan, apple, and Swiss pear are hardwoods; they are comparable to boxwood, but they tend to have a lot of knots. You can still use them, however, if you avoid the knotty areas. Swiss pear has a particularly attractive color, close to cherry (which can also be used for carving).

LIGNUM VITAE
Lignum vitae is a very slow-growing tree. The darker parts of the wood have an unusual green color, and the white parts are yellow with green flecks. It’s very hard to carve because the grain is woven—you feel like you’re fighting the grain whichever way you cut. Its density allows it to withstand extreme conditions.

IVORY & TAGUA NUT
Real ivory can still legally be used if it is reclaimed. Old ivory piano keys can be obtained cheaply, and ivory seized from poachers is occasionally sold off by the relevant authorities; most of it goes to China and Japan for traditional carving. Tagua nut has similar properties and is known as “vegan ivory”—it is also plentiful and inexpensive. Both are very difficult to carve and brittle, but they can be effective for small details.

COCOBOLO

This wood should be used only for its color and beauty—it should definitely not be painted. There are natural pores in the wood, and the grain varies between hard and soft, which makes it unpredictable to carve. When working the wood, the orange dust it produces can be toxic or allergenic; always wear a breathing apparatus when using this wood, especially when sanding (the same is true of ebony wood).

SOAP & VEGETABLES
We’ll use soap and vegetables in the next chapter of the book. They’re great for practicing on when you first start out, but they’re not particularly attractive or durable—although they do have their own charm! For the best results with soap, look for a waxy type, not a flaky one.

TIP

Our practice projects use carrots and turnips, but you can experiment with other root vegetables—potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, large radishes, and parsnips will all work.

KNIVES & SHARPENING

At first, you probably won’t want to spend a lot of money on equipment, but the good news is that you don’t have to. Hobby knives, while not ideal, are certainly good enough for your first few carving projects. Once you’ve got the taste for it, you can move on to more expensive knives, which will give you more control and add an extra degree of finesse to your work. Whichever type of knife you use, always remember that the less sharp the blade, the more pressure you need to exert, and, therefore, the less control you have and the more dangerous the project becomes. Generally speaking, there are three types of blades: wedge-shaped, straight, or curved. I use mostly straight and curved blades, but try them out and see what works for you.

KNIVES

HOBBY (X-ACTO) KNIVES
These are a great place to start. Hobby knives are inexpensive and easily available from craft stores or hardware outlets. On the one hand, you don’t need any sharpening equipment—just use them and throw the blades away (they have interchangeable blades). On the other hand, hobby knives are not as sharp as professional ones, the handles are not very ergonomic for sustained use, and the blades are thin and break more easily.

PROFESSIONAL CARVING KNIVES

Professional knives are designed to be held in the hand for longer periods of time, are easier to use, and the blades are made of hard machined steel. A common example is the Murphy knife (the 1½-inch/38-mm model), which is an inexpensive, commercially available professional knife that’s good for beginners or intermediate-level carvers. These start from around twenty dollars.

I use artisan knives, which are of similar quality but can be works of art in themselves. There’s a wide variety available, starting from around thirty dollars. For most purposes, I use only two sizes: a 1½-inch (38-mm) knife and the smaller 3/4-inch (18-mm) model (which is used for all the woodcarving projects in this book).

PARING KNIFE

This is used for the soap and vegetable carving projects. A kitchen knife that you use for cutting fruit or vegetables is fine, as long as the blade is straight or curved upward, but not serrated.

SHARPENING

When I started carving, I ended up wrecking some blades prematurely because I didn’t know how to sharpen them properly. Know the difference between sharpening (also known as honing) and stropping: sharpen only when the blade is chipped; strop at regular intervals—after every three hours of use, on average. You can tell a blade is chipped if it makes a small line in the wood when you cut—the wood looks like it’s been torn instead of cut.

SHARPENING TECHNIQUE

Use a diamond-carbide sharpening stone with two sides—one side is rougher, for sharpening; the other is smoother, for finishing. Wet the surface and run the blade away from your body along the rough side of the stone, with the sharp side of the blade facing you. Lift the back of the blade at an angle of around 15 degrees. Do this five times one way, then flip the blade over and run it five times the other way. Once the nick is out, do the same on the finishing side. Now you’re ready for stropping.

STROPPING TECHNIQUE

Spread out stropping compound (aluminum oxide) over a strip of leather called a strop. Press the blade into the leather and drag it across. Keep the blade completely flat on the leather but apply more pressure to the sharp side. Repeat approximately ten times on each side until the blade is polished. It should be completely reflective with no visible scratches.

You can also buy ceramic strops, or even use a piece of basswood—look online and you’ll find no shortage of information and debate about which method is the best.

Grinders can also be used. However, you can quickly ruin a blade with one if you don’t know what you’re doing, so I won’t recommend them here.

TIP

Train yourself not to finish each stroke with an upward flourish, because this can make the blade blunt again. Keep it as flat as possible during the stroke.

CARVING OVERVIEW

Now that you know all about the equipment you need, let’s have a look at some basic carving techniques, and, just as importantly, some safety tips.

PARING CUTS

The paring cut is the easiest one for beginners, and the one that’s used most in this book. It’s very much like the cut you routinely use for peeling vegetables. The fact that you’re pulling the knife toward your body probably contradicts every piece of safety advice you’ve ever had, but you’re protected to some extent by the rubber fingertip you’re wearing on your thumb (see below) and, more importantly, by the fact that you will maintain absolute control over your carving every step of the way.

Always be aware of which way the wood grain is going, and whether you’re cutting across the grain or along the grain. The former is considerably harder, and, therefore, requires an even greater degree of control and a very sharp blade. Paring off edges is always easier than cutting off whole flat surfaces, so work from the corners wherever possible.

PUSHING & PULLING THE BLADE

Pulling the blade is the norm for paring cuts, but there are times—usually when you’re trying to cut a particularly awkward spot—when you may need to push it away from you with the thumb of the opposite hand. This is more difficult, requires even greater control, and is not recommended for beginners.

NOTCHES & V CUTS

These two terms are almost interchangeable in this book. A notch cut involves making a (usually diagonal) cut into the wood, then reversing the wood (or the knife, with more experience) and cutting toward the first cut to remove a section. This allows you to carve out sections in between legs, at points where you need to create sharp angles, etc.

To make a V cut, you usually use the tip of the blade instead of the edge. When making a V cut, the two initial cuts from either side may not meet at the top, so a third cut along the top of the V-shaped section is needed to remove the unwanted section.

SCOOPING

This is a sort of paring cut where you enter the grain from the side and end up cutting with the grain. Rather than doing a straight cut with your knife where you’d end up with a flat surface that cuts off the grain diagonally, you allow the cut to turn into the direction of the grain, leaving a scooped (rounded) surface.

SAFETY

FINGERTIP PROTECTORS

An essential investment, rubber fingertip protectors can give you extra control, take the pressure off your thumb while you’re holding the pieces, and will give you some degree of protection against small nicks and cuts, which will sting like deep paper cuts. They’re available in a range of sizes. I don’t recommend the leather ones because they’re not as flexible. Look for them in office supply stores.

THINGS TO DO:

Wear safety goggles—there is always the risk of stray wood chips flying into your eyes.

Wear a rubber fingertip protector on your thumb, or even cut-resistant Kevlar gloves, if you’re not too confident when you start out.

Have a first aid kit on hand.

Be extra careful when trying out new techniques for the first time.

THINGS NOT TO DO:

To avoid ruining the knife, do not use it as a drill, pry, or scraper. Prying is a twisting movement with the blade to remove material that has been loosened with previous cuts, and should not be used as it can break the blade.

Don’t invent your own cuts—stick to the ones discussed here.

Don’t use any old scraps of wood that may contain nails or staples.

If you drop your knife, do not try to catch it! This is the cause of many injuries.

FROM DRAWING TO SANDING

Some things can be carved from memory, but most need The more you plan out your project on paper, the more successful the carving will be—you should aim to keep your drawing skills at the same level as your carving skills. In most of the projects in this book we will draw an outline of the figure onto the wood before we start to carve, and in many cases we’ll draw on other features—feet, a tail, eyes—as cutting guides as we go along. to be drawn first.

TIP

Use books or online references to help you visualize projects. You can even make three-dimensional models out of wax or clay before you commit your ideas to wood.

GENERATING IDEAS

If I have an idea in mind for an animal carving, I will sketch it out many times in my drawing book, making it slightly different each time. Try exaggerating a particular feature, or drawing it from an unusual angle to give you a different perspective. I’ll choose the elements I like best and put them together in the final design.

“Automatic drawing” techniques famously used by the surrealists, whereby you just allow your pencil to wander unaided across the page, can enable you to come up with ideas you hadn’t previously thought of. You never know what’s lurking in your subconscious. Alternatively, draw inspiration from other cultures, or study other people’s work—art, cartooning, caricature, photos, whatever takes your fancy.

SANDING & FINISHING

For me, this is the least enjoyable part of the process, but it’s worth it because it makes painting much easier. I tend to use three different sandpaper grits: the heaviest is 150, then 240, up to 400, which is pretty smooth. Start with the heaviest and progress to the smoothest, but be wary of sanding too much off as you can quickly lose detail and definition on small items. For particularly small figures, I would skip the 150-grit stage completely.

NEEDLE FILES

I use needle files when there are places on my carvings that are inaccessible with sandpaper. They come in round, triangular, and square variations, and in different grits.

Use round files on flat surfaces, square files for squaring off sharp corners, and triangular files for fine creases between features. Square and triangular files can also be used to drill small holes if you spin them in your fingers. On small pieces, this can give you more control than an actual drill. You can find these files online or in craft and hardware stores.

DRILLING

To hold the projects for painting (see next page) and for the Snowman (see pages 60—63), you will need a drill. It’s best to use a hand drill because it gives you more control. You can find tiny drill bits in model and hobby stores or online. You will also need a “pin vise” to hold the bit as you drill.

PAINTING BASICS

Painting is the most time-consuming part of the whole process. A larger piece with a lot of detail can take six to eight hours to complete. Sometimes, I’ll use a block color over the whole figure and then paint the details on top of this; however, if the figure is small or very detailed, I’ll do the details first—usually the eyes—and then paint around them. A magnifying glass is a necessity when painting fine details—these can be found at model stores or online, or you could use reading glasses.

HOLDING THE WORK

When I’ve finished a piece, I’ll usually drill a small hole in the underside so that I can mount it on a toothpick for painting. This will prevent your fingers from smudging the intricate paintwork, and lets you move around the carving quickly if you’re painting a pattern or stippling. You can also drill all the way through—starting at the the top—if you want to hang your figures on wire as ornaments or attach jewelry findings to make them into a pair of earrings.

PAINTBRUSHES

Paintbrushes are probably my biggest expense. They wear out faster than anything else, especially the really fine ones. I use a larger brush—a No. 4—for painting large surface areas and for mixing paint. I tend to use the round version, which is more pointed at the end, rather than the filbert, which has bristles that are more splayed out. For details, I use liner brushes from 5/0 down to 20/0 (the smallest).

PAINT

I always use acrylic paint, which is halfway between watercolor paint and oil paint in terms of its consistency. I find that watercolor is too watery, and it reanimates (that is, it becomes wet again) when you paint over it with another color, while oil paint takes far too long to dry.

Acrylic paint is water-based, so you don’t have to use turpentine or thinners; however, the downside is that you can’t work with it for too long—it dries in 2—3 minutes. This is a matter of personal taste, and you will want to achieve different effects, so experiment and see what works best for you.

TIP

Acrylic paints vary in quality and, essentially, you get what you pay for. Find a beginner’s set in a craft store and work your way up as you gain experience or start selling your work.

If you do use acrylics, you may need one or two coats. On the first coat, make the paint as thick as possible without it being too thick to apply easily. This will seal the wood as well as prevent moisture from entering it, which may make your carving puff up. If you’re blending between two colors, it’s easier if the paint is a little thinner.

MIXING PAINTS

Most people have some unwanted CDs lying around, and these make excellent miniature palettes for mixing colors. I simply dab the paints on toward the center, and mix them together closer to the edge as required.

You may have learned some elementary color theory in art class at school, in which case you’ll know that mixing together two of the three primary colors—red, blue, and yellow—will create secondary colors (purple, green, and orange). There’s a lot more to color theory than this, obviously, and it’s worth looking at some color wheels online or in a book to find out more about complementary and contrasting colors. I often use accent colors to add detail to a base color. All this requires is mixing the base color with a tiny bit of black to darken it, or a little bit of white to lighten it.

Mix up the colors you think will work, see how they turn out, and tweak the formula as necessary. You will need to keep your colors consistent over the whole figure, so make sure that you mix enough. How much is enough? Well, there’s no substitute for practice! It’s better to have too much than too little.

PAINTING IN A NUTSHELL

1 Mix the paint using the CD paint palette and the larger paintbrush.

2 Apply the base color. It will be easier to cover a light color with a dark color, so usually it’s best to paint in light base colors first. In this case, I’m painting onto the horse’s tail using the larger brush because it’s a fairly large area of block color.

3 Apply the detail color. Let the first color dry completely, then add detail with the fine liner brush. Brace your hand against your other hand to keep it steady. Sometimes, I’ll even hold my breath to avoid even the slightest movement.

PAINTING TECHNIQUES

Of course, you don’t have to use the color palettes and designs we’ve suggested for each project in this book; as you become more skilled and more confident, you’ll inevitably start to develop your own style. However, here are a few techniques you may want to try along the way.

SPOTS

This kangaroo is painted in a polka-dot pattern that obviously does not occur in nature, but it was inspired by aboriginal bark paintings. I used a base coat of dark brown acrylic paint, then mixed the yellows and oranges and painted the dots on top using a fine brush. Spotter brushes specifically designed for this task are available, but I generally find that the fine liner brushes work just as well.

LINES

It’s difficult to convey a three-dimensional quality in a two-dimensional medium, but I think the abstract representation of fur on this dog works well. I painted a base coat in black acrylic, then used a liner brush to add the little lines in various shades of gray, some of which were connected to each other to suggest the different layers in the dog’s coat.

GRADATION

The color gradation on this tiger is achieved simply by adding small amounts of white to the darkest color and mixing progressively lighter shades, then applying them in sequence. You have to work fast if you want the paint to look flat and smooth, with no discernible layers or joins, because acrylics dry quickly. Gradation can also be achieved by stippling—building up colors using tiny dots of paint. These can be applied with the ends of the bristles on your paintbrush, with a dedicated stippling brush, or even a sponge. Experiment and see what works for you.

OUTLINES

Outlines can be very effective in emphasizing particular features or giving them a three-dimensional quality—as with the tortoise shell. Painting on these features also means you don’t have to carve them! Bold outlines can also add a cute, cartoony feel to your figures.

COMBINING TECHNIQUES

This little dog is a real mixture, combining gradation, outlining, and spotting techniques to achieve a complex result. How much detail to add is entirely up to you—but keep in mind that the painting can often take much longer than the carving.

SCALE

The pattern on the giraffe may look fairly simple, until you realize that it’s less than 3/4 inch (20 mm) tall from tip to toe. It may seem contrary to common sense, but the smaller the figure, the longer it can take to finish, due to the minute detail involved. This one took an hour to carve, but nearly three hours to paint.

OTHER FINISHES

There are numerous dyes, stains, and pigments you can try, or even wood-burning (or “pyrography”) techniques using hot irons. You may not want to decorate your figures at all: wood grain is often very attractive in its own right, and can be accentuated with varnish, oils, waxes, or polishes. At the other extreme, you could apply other materials to your carvings—glass eyes, beads, metals, shells, even feathers or fur.

TIP

Do some research online and at craft stores to see what’s available to finish off your item, or visit a craft show for inspiration.

CHAPTER 2

Practice Projects

PROJECT 1: Carving a Soap Ducky

PROJECT 2: Carving a Turnip Bear

PROJECT 3: Carving a Carrot Rabbit

PROJECT 1 CARVING A SOAP DUCKY

Soap carving is often used as a precursor to carving wood—notably by the Boy Scouts of America, for whom it is a long-established tradition. Soap isn’t really all that similar to wood, but it is cheap and readily available, and it offers a good way to introduce you to handling knives and making some basic cuts. Use a short-blade kitchen knife—the one you’d normally use for cutting vegetables is fine (but the blade should not be serrated).

YOU WILL NEED

A bar of bath soap

Paring knife

Straight pins with ball ends (for eyes)

1 Your bar of soap should be convex, not concave: a nice fat one is best. You could etch the side profile of the duck onto the soap if you like, but it’s not really necessary.

2 Establish the back, removing the area behind the head. Start about halfway across the top and cut toward the back, making large paring cuts—or you can do it little by little if you prefer. Cut to about halfway down the bar, scooping out the whole of the corner.

3 Establish the beak by cutting a curved corner off the top and a larger one off the bottom, leaving a flat piece at the front for the beak. It’s starting to look like a duck already.

4 Scoop out a small piece from the tail end, curving the knife around as you cut. Leave the rest of the bottom completely flat.

5 Narrow the head by paring off the edges of the soap on both sides. Cut from the back of the head toward the beak, then turn the figure around and cut from the top of the head toward the back—but leave the back itself as wide as possible.

6 Make a paring cut to round off the back of the head, curving the knife around slightly as you cut. Make a V cut at the bottom of the neck to establish a clear division between the back of the head and the body of the duck.

7 Establish the top of the beak and the front of the head. Cut a “ski slope” from the top of the head down toward the front in a smooth curve. Don’t cut too much off or your duck will be left with no beak.

8 Create the underside of the beak by cutting down in a curve toward the neck.

9 Use paring cuts to slice off the sharp edges left by previous cuts and to refine the shape of the beak. This is the tricky part, so work slowly and look at the face carefully after each cut to make sure the shape is progressing as you want it.

10 Round off the remaining edges and tidy up the details, checking for balance and symmetry. Examine your duck from every angle and make small cuts, where necessary, to refine the shape until you’re happy with it.

11 Carefully insert the pins for the eyes and you’re done.

TIP

Use straight pins with ball ends for the eyes—but if you use your completed soap ducky in the bathtub, remember to first take out the pins!

PROJECT 2 CARVING A TURNIP BEAR

Start by cutting off the ends of your turnip, making sure that it can stand up straight. Like wood, turnips have a grain, which runs from top to bottom—keep the grain vertical for carving. You can make the bear any size you like (depending on the size of your vegetable, of course) but make sure it’s comfortable in your hands and won’t keep slipping away while you’re working.

YOU WILL NEED

Turnip

Paring knife

Toothpick

Cloves (for eyes)

Have a towel and a trash can nearby. This can get messy!

TIP

My finished bear was approximately 2½ in. x 1½ in. x 1¼ in. (64 mm x 38 mm x 32 mm).

1 Square off the edges of the turnip. You’re aiming for a rough rectangle, or more precisely, a rectangular cuboid. Remember, the grain should run vertically.

2 Make sure the bottom of the turnip is flat, then cut a slice off one of its corners at a 45-degree angle. This will be the area below the bear’s chin.

3 Turn the turnip over and establish the bear’s back by cutting in from the top, about two-fifths of the way along, and making a second cut from the back that meets the first cut. Remove and discard this section.

4 Taper the nose by paring off the corners on both sides of the head. Leave a flat plane at the front for the nose.

5 Scoop out the area below the chin with three sawing cuts that gradually curve around from horizontal to vertical. You should start to see a rough bear shape emerging.

6 Next, we’ll separate the legs—this is good practice for the V cuts and notches you’ll be using to carve wood later in the book. Cut two notches in a cross shape on the underside of the figure, one horizontal and one vertical. Your bear now has four distinct legs.

7 Square off the legs by cutting out the angled sides of the V-shaped notches you cut in the previous step. Cut straight down each leg, then push the blade in from the side to remove the waste sections. Make clean cuts and don’t use a digging or prying motion, or the turnip may snap in half.

8 Taper the bear’s muzzle. Use three or four scooping and sawing cuts to establish the division between the muzzle and the brow.

9 Separate the ears by making a small V cut in the center of the ridge on the top of the bear’s head. Remove the middle section so you’re left with an ear at each end.

10 To shape the ears, make a cut straight down the front of each ear, then cut back from the face at a slightly downward angle to meet the first cut. Remove the waste section. This is the hardest part of our turnip carving, and it’s important to keep control of the knife and avoid slipping.

11 To establish the tail, make a V cut at an angle on the back end of the bear. Cut in from the side and remove the waste section. Repeat the procedure on the other side.

12 Be careful to avoid slicing off a leg during this step! Use the tip of the knife to make a series of small cuts at the front of each leg, slicing away a portion of each to establish the paws. There should be a clear distinction between the paws and the top of the legs. Hold your thumb underneath the leg to hold it in place and so you don’t place too much pressure on the blade.

13 Round off all the edges, including the little point on the tail and the ears. Remove any sharp angles that remain and make sure the proportions look right.

14 Finally, add the eyes. Use a toothpick to make two small holes in the face. You may need to swing the toothpick around a little to make the holes bigger, but be careful not to split the turnip. Push in the cloves and you’re done.

TIP

Be careful—turnips are much softer than wood and it’s easy to slip and cut yourself.

PROJECT 3 CARVING A CARROT RABBIT

When it comes to carving carrots, a rabbit is the obvious choice. Use a nice big one so there’s plenty of material to play with—and if you don’t like the end result, you can always eat it and start again. I started with a carrot cylinder about 2½ inches (64 mm) tall. You can’t really draw outlines onto vegetables, so try to envisage the finished article before you start—don’t just start cutting right away.

YOU WILL NEED

Large carrot

Paring knife

Peppercorns (for eyes and nose)

TIP

Keep referring back to the photograph of the finished bunny so you know what you’re aiming for.

1 There’s no need to square off the sides of the carrot; just cut off the rounded ends so it can stand up straight.

2 Establish the ears. Slice off a diagonal section at the front of the carrot, leaving a flat piece at the top. Turn the carrot around and cut out a wedge at the back, starting about one-third of the way up from the bottom and meeting a cut that comes down from the top. You can already see the basic rabbit shape starting to emerge.

3 Narrow the top by cutting out a thin slice perpendicular to the first diagonal cut you made. Repeat on the other side. Make sure you leave enough room at the top for the two ears.

4 Make a V-shaped notch cut just below the diagonal face section to establish the chin.

5 Turn the figure upside down and make a second notch underneath the first to establish the shape of the top and bottom pairs of legs. Be careful not to cut too deep.

6 To establish the tail, cut into the back, about halfway up, at 90 degrees; then slice down at an angle from just below the back of the head. Remove the waste section. Now it’s really starting to look like a rabbit!

7 Define the tail by cutting out two sections from the back. Cut straight down into the body, about one-third of the way in from either side, then cut in from each side to remove the waste sections.

8 Now we’ll work on the front, separating the left and right paws. You can do both sets of paws at the same time by making a V-shaped notch cut across both paw areas, or you can do one set at a time if you find it easier.

9 Narrow the ear area. Cut down from the top, slicing off the front part of the ear section—but not too much, or the ears will become too fragile. This cut will clarify the separation between the face and the ears.

10 Separate the left ear from the right ear, using notch cuts down through the ear section. This is the smallest cut you will make in this project, so take your time. It’s easy to break off one of the ears. You don’t have to take the whole section out in one cut—make a couple of them, and cut in from the back as well if it’s easier. All the major features of your rabbit are now separated.

11 Make a small V cut above the haunches on both sides to define the back legs. Then clean up and round off the edges all around the figure. Don’t apply too much pressure or the carrot may break—pretend you have an egg in your hand!

12 Cut little squares with the tip of the knife for the eyes and nose, but don’t drill into the carrot with the knife, because it may split. Insert the peppercorns and you’re done.

TIP

Toss your carrot rabbit into a salad with raisins to surprise party guests, or place on the side of a dip bowl in a vegetable tray.

CHAPTER 3

Beginner Projects

PROJECT 4: Crested Bird

PROJECT 5: Songbird

PROJECT 6: Woodpecker

PROJECT 4 CRESTED BIRD

The three bird projects in this chapter are very simple to carve, relying mostly on paring cuts. You don’t even need to use a professional knife—an X-ACTO hobby knife will do just fine, so you can try out the carving techniques before committing yourself to purchasing any expensive equipment. Carving the three birds will also help you to build your hand strength and control—crucial factors when you come to the more complex projects later in the book.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/8 in. x 5/8 in. x 5/16 in. (29 mm x 15 mm x 8 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Red base

Red accent (for feather details)

Black (for face and pupils)

Yellow (for eyes)

Orange (for beak)

Orange accent (for beak division)

White (for eye highlights)

1 First, use a pencil to draw a rough outline of the bird onto the longest side of your wood block—the long dimension should also be in the direction of the wood grain. The drawing will serve as a rough guide for the carving.

2 Establish the tail by carving out a large chunk under the tail, using your drawing as a guide. Make smooth, straight paring cuts along the diagonal line from the bottom to the tip.

3 Narrow the sides of the head by cutting away a small section from each side. Use paring strokes and only cut a small amount at a time. Leave the tip (where the beak will be) blunt for now, and don’t worry about creating too much detail—we will return to the head later.

4 Round off the bird’s belly—the area between the head and the bottom of the tail. Cut away the straight edges on both sides and aim for a plump, rounded look—but again, don’t worry too much about the finer details at this stage.

5 Still using the paring technique, cut away the sharper angles along the top and bottom to round out the overall bird shape. Keep referring back to the picture of the finished figure so you can see the end result you’re aiming for.

6 Establish the crest on the top of the bird’s head, using a notch cut. Cut into the wood at an angle from one side, then the opposite side, to create a point on the top of the head. Don’t do it all at once—make two, three, or four notch cuts until you reach the required depth.

7 Make a small notch cut to establish the neck, creating a clear division between the crest and the bird’s back. This requires control—don’t go too deep, but cut the notch from both sides, gently. (You may find it easier to turn the figure around instead of the knife, so you are making both cuts in the same direction.)

8 Make further notch cuts to create the bottom of the beak, where it points forward from the head. Be careful not to cut off the beak section, and don’t try to do it all at once—it may take up to six small notch cuts to achieve the desired angle.

9 Establish the top of the beak, using notch cuts to differentiate it from the bottom of the crest. You’ll be cutting into the grain, so cut in from the edges to make it easier. Make sure your blade is really sharp; if it’s too blunt, you will lack control and you’ll have to push too hard, which may break the wood.

10 Taper the tail by cutting away the sharp edges, using smooth paring strokes to give the bird a more streamlined appearance. This stage may require six or more cuts.

11 Round off the underside of the tail. Make 20 or so very small paring cuts to tidy up the tail and blend it in with the belly.

12 Round off the edges of the notch at the top of the neck, where it meets the bottom of the crest. Cut toward the crest, but be careful not to cut into the crest itself. The shavings may need to be sliced off from the other side so that you don’t smooth away the clear division between the neck and the crest.

13 Clean up the bottom of the neck in the same way, cutting toward the beak. Again, be careful not to cut off the beak or overwork the area. Eight small cuts should be enough.

14 Add detail to the beak. Just as when you established the beak, you’ll be cutting into the grain, so be extra careful. Give the beak four clear sides, making refined cuts in from the tip of the beak toward the head. You may want to remove the shavings by cutting in from the head end instead of scooping them away with the blade at the end of the cut.

15 Round off the edges of the crest, using paring cuts to remove any sharp angles.

16 Take a good look at your figure and round off any edges that look too square, such as the front of the crest in this example. But don’t get carried away—if you cut off any of the detail, you can’t put it back! Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

As a general tip, always carve the most intricate details last, because they are the most delicate.

PROJECT 5 SONGBIRD

This project is to make a generic songbird figure. The color palette provided suggests a goldfinch, but you can be as creative as you like, adapting the color choices to create many different birds from the same basic carving. And you don’t have to remain faithful to nature—real goldfinches don’t have blue eyes, for example. As you become more confident with your cutting, you can also add extra details in the wood—varying the shape of the beak, perhaps, or creating a V-shaped tail by cutting a notch at its tip.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/8 in. x 5/8 in. x 5/16 in. (29 mm x 15 mm x 8 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Yellow base

Black (for head, wings, and pupils)

Blue (for eyes)

White (for wing detail and eye highlights)

Pink (for beak)

Pink accent (for beak detail)

1 Use a pencil to draw a rough outline of the bird onto the longest side of your wood block. It’s easier to practice drawing your designs on paper first, instead of straight onto the wood, so you may want to invest in a drawing book or pad.

2 Establish the tail. Make multiple paring cuts to carve away a large chunk at the tail end of the figure, using your drawing as a guide.

3 Using smooth paring cuts, round off the sharp edges of the wood on the top of the figure to create the basic shape of the bird’s back. Leave the head for now—we will come back to this later. Make sure you don’t cut too much off.

4 Round off the underside of the bird’s tail, using paring cuts to slice away the edges.

5 Next, begin forming the head shape. Cut away the top corners by slicing the wood at an angle, so that it starts to take on a more rounded shape.

6 Make a few paring cuts along the back, toward the head, to establish a neck and differentiate the head from the body.

7 With a series of small paring cuts, round off the front of the head to give it a more spherical shape.

8 Round off the sides of the head and taper the flat piece at the front almost to a point—make sure you leave enough wood for the beak!

9 Establish the underside of the beak with a notch cut. Start at the point where the tip of the beak should be and cut in toward the body, then cut in from the other side and remove the little chip.

10 Repeat the process for the top of the beak. Make sure your knife is really sharp, because you’ll be cutting into the edge of the wood.

11 You’ve created the basic beak shape, so now it’s time to refine it a little. Cut in from the tip of the beak to create two distinct sides on the top of the beak. You may need to make a few cuts to get it right.

12 Repeat the process for the underside of the beak, which should now have four distinct sides, almost like a pyramid tilted on its side.

13 Round off the bottom of the neck. Using a scooping motion, remove material from around the cheeks and under the beak and chin. Good control is essential to avoid chopping off the beak.

14 Round off the belly and tail so there’s a smooth transition between them. With practice, you can do this with just one paring cut in a scooping motion, rounding off the angles later.

15 Narrow the tail first from the top, then rotate the figure slightly and narrow the tail from the sides, too. Keep rotating the figure, making small paring cuts until you’re happy with the shape. If you want to, now is the time to add extra details, such as the V shape at the end of the tail.

16 Narrow the sides of the head slightly to differentiate the head from the body, and round off any sharp angles that remain on the figure. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

All three bird projects can be made into earrings by drilling a tiny hole through the head or neck and securing a jewelry finding at the bottom with a small bead. I’ve found these to be very popular at craft shows.

PROJECT 6 WOODPECKER

The wood block for this project is a little longer than the previous two, because this bird design has a longer beak. Despite its length, the beak is actually easier to carve—and stronger—because it runs along the grain, in line with the top of the head. The color palette given here is based on the plumage of a downy woodpecker, but the basic design is also suitable for other types of woodpeckers, or other species, such as the nuthatch.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 13/8 in. x 5/8 in.x 5/16 in. (35 mm x 15 mm x 8 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

White base

Black accent

Blue (for eyes)

Black (for pupils)

Red (for neck)

White (for eye highlights)

1 Draw a rough outline of the woodpecker onto the longest side of your wood block—the long dimension should also follow the direction of the wood grain.

2 Establish the tail by carving out a large chunk at the bottom, using your drawing as a guide.

3 Establish the front of the woodpecker in a similar way, scooping out the bottom section from the belly up to the underside of the beak.

4 Round out the belly from both the front and the back, using paring cuts to smooth off the edges. Don’t do too much at once: you may need to make seven or eight small cuts for this.

5 Using paring cuts, taper the sides of the head to create the basic beak shape. Narrow one side first, then the other, but make sure the beak shape remains symmetrical.

6 Taper the top and bottom of the beak in the same way. Bring the beak almost to a point, but not quite; the point is easily damaged, so leave that until you reach the refining stage.

7 Establish the top of the neck by making a small notch cut, using your drawing as a guide. Cut in from both sides, being careful not to cut too deep.

8 Round off the bottom of the tail. Use long, smooth paring strokes with a scooping motion and remove the sharp edges.

9 Define the sides of the neck. Starting from the notch cut you made in step 7, make additional notch cuts at the edges to create smooth curves at the sides of the neck.

10 Taper the tail at the edges but be careful not to remove too much wood. Use paring strokes, cutting from the tail toward the head.

11 To make the beak, start at the top of head and make scooping cuts at an angle, cutting down toward the tip of the beak. As with the other bird projects, you should end up with four distinct sides to your beak. You’ll probably need around eight cuts here—one to establish each side, and another to refine it.

12 Round off the chin by cutting off the sharp edges.

13 Make several small paring cuts to smooth out the top of the head.

14 Make longer paring cuts on the underside of the tail to make sure all the rough edges are smoothed away and that the tail blends with the belly.

15 Take a good look at the figure and carefully slice away any flat surfaces. The bird should have a satisfyingly round and three-dimensional feel to it.

16 Finally, finish off the beak. Cut it to a point, making sure you don’t accidentally eradicate the four distinct sides. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

The detail on the wings is made using a tiny liner brush. The effect can be achieved by painting white dots on black or black lines on white.

CHAPTER 4

Intermediate Projects

PROJECT 7: Dog

PROJECT 8: Cat

PROJECT 9: Snowman

PROJECT 10: Easter Bunny

PROJECT 7DOG

This dog is a beagle, but the muzzle and tail can easily be adapted to suit your favorite breed. If you want to change the ears, you will need to decide early on, before you start carving. The Jack Russell-type ears that fold over are the hardest to visualize and to carve; droopy ears that drop flat to the head, or the ones that stand straight up, are much easier. Practice by drawing the dog on paper a few times. The carving itself is fairly complex, but if you’ve completed the bird projects in chapter 3, you should be able to manage this project.

YOU WILL NEED Pencil

A piece of basswood about

11/4 in. x 11/8 in. x 5/8 in. (32 mm x 29 mm x 15 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Off-white base

Brown base

Lighter brown (for fur detail—mix the brown base color with a little bit of white)

Blue (for eyes)

Black (for outlines, pupils, and features)

White (for eye highlights)

TIP

Note that the wood grain runs vertically in all four of the projects in this chapter.

1 Draw a rough outline of the dog onto the longest side of your wood block. Make sure you leave enough space between the tail and the body, because this part can be difficult to cut out.

2 Roughly carve out the outline of the dog. There are three main areas: the front part, below the muzzle; the top part, above the muzzle; and the largest area, around the tail and the dog’s back.

3 Taper the head and tail sections. Use bold paring strokes to narrow the wood, slicing off the edges.

4 Now we’re going to start defining the legs. Turn the figure over so you’re looking at its underside, and draw out the dog’s footprints as a guide. Make V-shaped notch cuts in between each foot to separate them—just roughly at this stage, because we’ll return to the legs a little later on.

5 Establish the tail. The tail is much narrower than the rest of the body, so make multiple paring cuts with a spooning or scooping motion, from the top of the tail to the back of the dog, to thin out this section.

6 Let’s return to the legs. Turn the dog over again and expand the separation between each leg, using a series of small notch cuts.

7 Define the muzzle. Using scooping cuts, first remove material from under the chin, then the top of the head. Aim for smooth curves, but don’t add too much detail yet.

8 Defining the belly is difficult and may take a little practice. You’ll need to dig into the areas between the legs with the tip of the knife to separate and define them even more. Cut with the blade; do not pry, because prying may break off the tip.You can use sandpaper later on to smooth out any rough edges.

9 Returning to the tail area, make a series of notch cuts to separate the tail from the body. For each notch, cut down from first one side, then in from the other side to meet the first cut, and remove the shaving.

10 Define the ears in a similar way. Move around the ear area, making a series of small notch cuts to separate the ears from the head.

11 Define the paw at the end of each leg, using notch cuts. Cut in from the front and then down from the top of each leg, so the paws can be distinguished from the legs. This is a delicate cut, so be careful not to cut off the whole paw when slicing downward.

12 Narrow the face and muzzle, using small paring cuts. Cut from the front of the face toward the back. This also defines the front of the ears—don’t cut too far back, because you’ll cut into the ear area. Check that the head is symmetrical.

13 Thin out and sharpen the tail, cutting with the tip of the blade, further separating it from the back of the body. Make sure you don’t cut off the tail when doing this.

14 Round off the body all over, using small paring cuts. Define the haunches by making paring cuts, using a scooping motion.

15 Establish the details and round off the smaller features. Make many tiny paring cuts all over the figure, removing tiny amounts of material each time. Clean up the edges and examine the piece from all angles to check that one side matches the other. Now you’re ready to sand, drill a hole for your toothpick, and paint.

PROJECT 8 CAT

I reverse engineered the steps for this cute cat project after I’d finished it. It’s complex for an intermediate project—the cat’s head is turned backward, which makes it a little more difficult—so follow the steps carefully and have extra blocks ready in case you need to start over. Practice drawing it out on paper first, and make sure the grain is vertical when you begin. The painting is detailed, too, with all the stripes and spots, but you can adopt a simpler color plan if you prefer—perhaps to match your own kitty at home.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/4 in. x 13/16 in. x 9/16 in. (32 mm x 30 mm x 14 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber finger protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Light orange/tan base

Orange accents

Green (for eyes)

Pink (for nose)

Black (for outline details, pupils, and mouth)

Gray (for outline details)

White (for eye highlights)

1 Keep outlining and modifying the drawing until you’re happy with it. At this stage, it’s not too important that the head is looking around at the correct angle, as long as you leave enough space on the wood for the head.

2 Rough out the outline. There are two cuts to do here: one at the front that’s not very deep to define the front of the cat, and a more extensive one to define the cat’s curved back. Make spooning cuts across the grain. This step requires some strength, depending on how hard the wood is, so check that your blade is sharpened.

3 Taper the tail area, cutting off a big chunk from the edge, and repeat from the other side. You may find it easier to do this in more than one cut. Note that your tail drawing will be cut off, but you can refer back to your practice drawings or the photograph of the finished carving, as necessary.

4 Round off the front and tail sections. Use paring cuts to taper the bottom of the tail into the body, and cut off the square edges at the front so that a rough head shape is established.

5 Roughly define the cat’s rounded back shape, using a series of paring cuts. Cut first one side, then flip it over and carve the other side.

6 Draw the cat’s footprints on the underside of the figure. Use the tip of the knife to make V-shaped cuts between the legs to differentiate them, just as you did in the dog project (see page 53, step 4).

7 Make V cuts on both sides of the figure to create the divide between the legs. First cut down the length of the legs on both sides, then cut off the top of the V with the tip of the knife and remove the waste wood.

8 The cat is really starting to take shape now. Define the back of the head, using notch cuts to separate it from the tail section at the back. Staying in the same area of the figure, give the tail more definition by notching and digging with the point of the knife, removing some of the material between the tail section and the head.

9 Use the tip of the blade to create more separation between the two sets of legs. Make a series of V cuts, going deeper each time.

10 Establish the ears by narrowing the top of the head, front and back. Taper the head section on both sides, but not to a point—leave a flat surface at the top.

12 Make a series of notch cuts to establish the neck and chin and separate the head from the body. Follow the process around the front of the face and the two sides to further establish the shape of the cat’s face.

12 Establish the boundaries of the tail. Make a little V cut and remove a chunk from each side of the bottom of the tail to give it some definition. We’re not yet showing how the tail curves, just separating it from the back. Make a few little notch cuts around the area to refine it.

13 Let’s turn our attention to the head. Scoop out the space between the ears to separate them. Narrow the face by making a few small paring cuts from the nose to the ears, giving the cat a pointier, feline look.

14 The legs need to be separated completely. This requires a lot of V cuts with the tip of the knife, separating the left legs from the right. When you cut into the bottom of the figure, you’ll be cutting into the grain, so be extra careful at this stage.

15 To create the curve in the tail, cut a notch in the back of the tail, then round it off with paring strokes, so it flows gracefully. For the paws, cut a section out of the legs. Two cuts should be enough for each leg; cut in from the bottom to define the paw shape, then down from the top to slice off the unwanted material.

16 Add more detail to the ears and face. Establish a flat surface on the front of each ear with a single cut. Make additional small cuts to refine the face shape. The ears should blend into the face without losing their perky quality.

17 Make a lot of tiny cuts to clean up the edges and round off everything. Don’t get carried away, or the shape may start to lose its definition. The sanding stage will remove any remaining sharp edges. Drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 9 SNOWMAN

The snowman is probably the simplest of the intermediate projects, because it basically consists of three round balls and a hat. However, there are also three additional pieces, made separately—two arms and a carrot nose. You can make these from small sticks or pieces of darker wood, if you prefer—walnut, perhaps! Otherwise, you can paint basswood arms with a dark brown dotting, or stippling, effect to emulate twigs.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/4 in. x 3/4 in. x 3/4 in. (32 mm x 19 mm x 19 mm)

Small piece of fabric (for scarf)

Small pieces of wood scraps (for arms and nose)

Carving knife

Rubber finger protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Wood glue

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette Acrylic paints:

White base

Black (for hat and details)

Orange (for carrot nose)

Light blue (for details and accents on snow)

Various shades of brown (for arms)

1 Draw the snowman onto your wood block. Don’t make the hat brim too thin, as this is the weakest part of the carving.

2 Round the block into a cylinder, using paring cuts. Start with larger cuts and move on to shallower ones to refine the basic shape.

3 Make a series of notch cuts all around the cylinder to separate the three ball shapes and rough out the hat shape. Be patient, it may take a while!

4 Using a scooping motion, carve out the top of the cylinder to define the hat. Leave the brim wider than you need it, and draw a circle on the top of the block—this is the outline of the top of the hat.

TIP

The snowman makes an excellent ornament, Christmas tree decoration, or gift.

5 Use simple paring cuts to trim down the top two balls so they run down the cylinder in sequence from smallest to biggest. The notches you cut earlier will guide you.

6 Now that the top two balls are the correct size, you need to cut the notches again, a little deeper, so you can round them out again.

7 Define the hat by cutting straight down into the wood from the edges of the brim, then slicing down from the top of the hat and removing the chippings. Do this all the way around and you’ll have a clear hat shape with nice straight edges.

8 Use small paring cuts to refine all three ball shapes until they’re smooth, even, and symmetrical. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so don’t worry if it seems to take a long time to complete this step.

TIP

You might want to build a few more simple accessories for your snowman: a corncob pipe or a shovel, broom, or small pine tree for it to hold.

9 Let’s start making the arms. Make a notch at one end of each two scrap pieces—these notches will be the “forked stick” hands. Start small and expand the notch gradually; it will probably crack if you are too rough with it.

10 Shape the pieces and narrow the bottom ends, using paring cuts. Taper them to points small enough to fit in the holes you’ll drill in the body later.

11 Carve the carrot nose. This is simplicity itself—just pare a scrap piece to the required shape, with a point at one end to fit into the head.

12 Drill the holes and attach the carrot nose and stick arms. Use a little dab of wood glue to hold the appendages in place. Let the glue dry before sanding, adding the toothpick, and painting. Add a scarf for a finishing touch!

PROJECT 10 EASTER BUNNY

Polka dots are a recurring theme in my work, and although they are involved and complex to paint, they certainly make an eye-catching design for this Easter bunny. I wanted to use as much bright, spring-like color as possible without the end result looking gaudy. Instead of using an allover base coat, I painted the eyes and other details first and filled in the blocks of color around them. This prevents the paint from becoming thick with too many coats.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 13/4 in. x 1 in. x 5/8 in. (45 mm x 25 mm x 15 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber finger protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

White (for belly, paws, and eye highlights)

Baby blue base

Baby blue accents

Yellow (for spots)

Orange (for polka dots)

Green (for eyes)

Pink (for nose)

Black (for pupils and details)

TIP

This project, as well as all of those in the upcoming “Advanced Projects” chapter, is sanded down to 400 grit to create a supersmooth surface for painting.

1 Draw out the bunny shape onto your wood block. Start with the head, which is just a simple circle, and draw the rest in proportion to it. First practice drawing the bunny on paper.

2 Roughly carve out the outlines. There are some large areas to remove, so you can use a larger knife, if you prefer. It’s often easier to start at the edges of the block instead of cutting straight down.

3 Taper the tail. Cut in from each side and up from the bottom to narrow the tail area and create the rough tail shape. This should require three to five cuts.

4 Establish the head. Use paring cuts to taper the front of the face, cut in around the chin, and narrow the back of the head.

5 Cut from the front and the back to narrow the ear section. The back is trickier—use small notch cuts at the juncture between the back of the head and the body. First cut down from the top of the ears and then make the return cut from the bottom of the neck, so you don’t cut off the ear by mistake. As always, control is essential.

6 Taper the face, shaving off the angles from each direction to create the rabbit’s muzzle. Make scooping cuts from the end of the face to the top of the ears.

7 Define the tail boundaries. Make small scooping cuts all around the area to begin to form the classic shape of a bunny tail.

8 Use notch cuts to establish the division between the top legs and the bottom legs. You’ll need a deep notch that will take several cuts. Start from the edge, because that’s an easier cut, then cut the other edge and gradually work toward the center.

9 Round off the tail and the back, making long, smooth cuts across both. Remember that the top of the tail ends in a point, so don’t cut off too much there.

10 Separate the ears by making a V cut with the very tip of the knife—the blade must be very sharp and pointed. Repeat the cut a few times, enlarging the V shape each time until the division between the ears is established.

11 Hold the bunny so it’s facing you, and make notch cuts vertically between the top and the bottom legs to establish the division between the left and right legs. Again, use the tip of the blade and maintain good control.

12 Define the separation between the head and the body—in other words, create a neck by making small notch cuts around the sides, just under the head.

13 Make small notch cuts at the bottom of the legs to create the paws. Cut in from the front, then cut down to meet the first cut and remove the unwanted material.

14 On the sides of the figure, make shallow, wide notches to create the curves at the top of the back legs. This also separates them from the top legs and the rest of the body.

15 Shape the ears. Start from the front, at the bottom of the ear, and shave the wood at an angle to create a flat surface.

16 Round off the backs of the ears and make them pointy at the tips. Each ear should have three sides—two at the back and the flat plane at the front.

17 Clean up the details and edges. Spend some time making a lot of little paring cuts to clearly define the details and make sure the symmetry is correct all over. Round off everything so that it’s ready for sanding. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

CHAPTER 5

Advanced Projects

PROJECT 11: Fox

PROJECT 12: Mouse

PROJECT 13: Owl

PROJECT 14: Squirrel

PROJECT 15: Creating a Forest Setting

PROJECT 16: Pig

PROJECT 17: Cow

PROJECT 18: Hen

PROJECT 19: Chicks

PROJECT 20: Horse

PROJECT 21: Creating a Farmyard Setting

Further Ideas

PROJECT FOX

If you’ve worked through the book in order, you should be gaining skill and confidence by now, ready to tackle some slightly more difficult figures. The fox has a few small, delicate features; these should be cut with the grain to make them as strong as possible. Therefore, make sure the grain is running vertically for this project. There’s a large chunk to remove at the outset, and you may want to use a saw to do this.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/2 in. x 13/4 in. x 5/8 in. (38 mm x 45 mm x 15 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Burnt orange base

Burnt orange accents

White (for belly, paw details, tail, and eye highlights)

Yellow (for eyes)

Dark brown (for legs)

Black (for features, outlines, and pupils)

TIP

At the painting stage, the colors are mixed and stippled to blend them together—at the top of the legs, for example. Practice this technique before attempting it on your carving; acrylics dry so fast that you won’t have much time to work the paint.

1 Draw the fox onto your sawn wood block. I’ve condensed the tail length slightly, but you can make it longer if you’d prefer.

2 Roughly carve out the edges of the figure, using bold paring cuts, and cut a large notch between the tail and the body.

3 Taper the tail and muzzle. Cut away the edges, using paring cuts to start to round out the fox’s body.

4 Shape the fox’s tail, using scooping and notching cuts to define the area where the tail meets the body and to give the tail its distinctive shape.

5 Rough out the head, paring from the end of the muzzle to the tops of the ears. Looking straight on, the face is square. Cut off the angles so you finish up with more of an octagonal cone. Scoop out the front of the ears.

6 Separate the ears. Make notch cuts in the center of the ear section to create a gap between them. Be careful not to go too deep or cut away too much.

7 At the front of the figure, make a large V cut with the tip of the blade to define the space between the legs. Repeat this on both sides, and also on the underside of the fox, as you did in previous projects. Remember to draw on the footprints as a guide.

8 Narrow the face and back. Make scooping cuts around the muzzle and long, smooth cuts from the tail end to the tips of the ears, being careful not to remove the ears themselves. There’s also a lot of material to remove between the haunches and the head.

9 Expand the gaps between the legs, digging with the tip of the knife. This is probably the most difficult part—make sure you don’t pry into the wood, or you might break the end of the blade. Working from the bottom, start with notch cuts, then expand the notch and start shaving out the gap.

10 Just as you did with the dog and cat in the previous chapter (see pages 52-55 and 56—59), define the paws by cutting in from the front first and then slicing down to meet that initial cut. Maintain control so you don’t cut off the paw at the end of the cut. If you find it easier, for the front paws, you can first make a scooping cut down, then make some small notch cuts to define the angle of the paw.

11 The ears are still square at this stage and need to be more pointed. Carefully make some small paring cuts until you’re happy with the shape. Look around the piece and see what else needs to be done. At the bottom of the tail, you can use notching cuts to clean up the edges; everywhere else, use simple paring cuts.

12 The muzzle is one of the fox’s most important identifying features, so make scooping cuts under the chin and as many small paring cuts as necessary to make your figure as foxy as it can be. Make sure all the transitions are smooth. Finish with fine sandpaper, but go easy, because you can take off a lot of material quickly on such a small piece. Drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 12 MOUSE

This is the smallest of the advanced projects (with the exception of the chicks on pages 98–99, which are far less detailed), and is therefore quite challenging—particularly because the basswood is very lightweight. If you have trouble with the ears, you can make them larger, or just paint them on afterward. If you want to make it even more challenging, you could add whiskers made of fur from a squirrel’s tail or something similar, although you’d need to use a very tiny drill to make the holes to accommodate them.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 1 in. x 5/8 in. x 3/8 in. (25 mm x 15 mm x 10 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Very light brown base

Darker brown (for paw details)

Off-white (for belly)

Very light pink (for ears, nose, and tail)

Blue (for eyes)

Black (for outlines and pupils)

White (for eye highlights)

TIP

The grain must be horizontal in this project, mainly because of the tail (which is easily broken off during carving), but it also helps with the legs and snout.

1 Draw the mouse onto your wood block, making sure the grain is horizontal.

2 Roughly carve around the outline: behind the head, an angle at the front, and the large portion behind the body that is not taken up by the tail.

3 Narrow the tail and head sections, making paring cuts from the sides and cutting the head section from the corners. Don’t take off too much material at the bottom where the little paws are going to be carved.

4 Define the tail section, using notching cuts to separate the tail region from the body. Leave a lot of material for the tail—this will keep the strength in the wood and give you something to hold onto. We’ll refine the tail later.

5 Use small scooping cuts to round out the body shape. Start at the top of the head and carve toward the tail, establishing the crease between the head and the body. Round off the hindquarters.

6 Make a notch to separate the bottom legs from the top legs, using the tail section to hold onto. First cut from below and then from above so you don’t cut off the leg. It’s made more difficult because you’re cutting into the grain, so your tool must be very sharp.

7 Make a notch for the neck, just above the one you made in the previous step. This will establish the division between the top legs and the head.

8 Use paring cuts to narrow the mouse’s nose to a point. Make small cuts from every angle to give it a conical shape.

9 Cutting from the front, make vertical notches on the top and bottom legs to separate left from right. Don’t cut anything on the underside—leave the figure completely flat on the bottom.

10 Using the tip of the blade, make very tiny notch cuts at the front of the body to expand the separation between the left and right legs. It’s difficult on such a small carving, so be very careful.

11 Define the legs at the sides of the body. Use the tip of the blade to cut out a tiny triangular section from each side, separating the top legs from the haunches and the lower legs.

12 To establish the ears, you need to carve out two semicircles at the back of the head. Cut into the head, behind the ear, and slice toward the back. This creates a recess behind each ear, separating it from the head and clearly defining the ear shape.

13 Establish the front of the ears by cutting down through the ear shape, and then blending that cut into the face. Take the cut all the way forward to the nose to make the face narrower.

14 The features will look a little shabby at this stage, so move around the figure, making a lot of little tiny cuts, tidying up the edges, and rounding off the body.

15 Unless you’ve decided to make a beaver instead, you need to finish the mouse’s tail. Use paring cuts to strip away the wood from the bottom of the tail section, cutting away from the mouse’s body and leaving a curl at the end. Turn the figure over and cut from the top, cutting toward the mouse’s body and slicing off the shaving where it meets the body. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

For whiskers, mark a spot centered on the side of the nose with a pin and drill a hole with the smallest drill you can find. Thread fur individually through the hole. Once you have all the whiskers in place, add a dab of superglue to the fur near the hole and pull the glued spot into the hole.

PROJECT 13 OWL

This owl is more abstract than naturalistic, largely due to the way I’ve painted it. It was inspired by, and is a rough approximation of, a Native American interpretation of an owl. The legs are simplified, so you don’t have to create the individual claws, and many of the finer details are painted on instead of being painstakingly carved out. However, the beak is a significant feature, and it is difficult to carve—it’s a good idea to strop your knife before embarking on this project.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 11/8 in. x 1 in. x 5/8 in. (29 mm x 25 mm x 15 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Medium brown base (and for front feathers)

Dark brown (for wing details)

Light brown (for face and feather highlights)

Off-white (for belly and face)

Yellow (for facial features and feet)

Black (for outlines, pupils, and claws)

White (for eye highlights)

1 Draw the side profile of the owl onto your wood block. I also draw in the eyes—this is not strictly necessary, but it may help you to visualize the finished piece before you start the carving.

2 Rough out the outline, front and back, paring the wood down to create the basic shape. Make substantial cuts at the front, from the beak to the feet, and at the back, from the tail up to the head.

3 Establish the feet with a notch cut, and then make a few paring cuts to round out the body, both front and back. Be careful to avoid cutting off the feet you’ve just made.

4 Taper the face area from both sides, cutting off the angles so the head begins to take shape.

5 Define the beak area. Use small scooping cuts to create a “nipple” on the front of the face.

6 To separate the head from the body, make a scooping cut from the bottom of the beak section right down to the feet.

7 Narrow the head from front to back, making scooped paring cuts from the top of the back up to the top of the head. This shaping will separate the back of the head from the body.

8 Use the tip of the knife to “draw” the shape of the wings onto the wood, cutting away as you work. Keep the cuts shallow and shave away the unwanted material from underneath the wing.

9 At the back of the figure, taper the section between the wings and the tail. Cut into the back to define the wing shape, making shallow V cuts to shave away the wood.

10 Cut a notch between the feet to separate one from the other, then make a few shallow notch cuts to separate the feet from the body.

TIP

More detail may be added to the wings and the feet, using simple notch cuts.

11 On the underside of the owl, draw the footprints and the bottom of the tail. Use the tip of the knife to make a V cut across the wood, between the feet and the bottom of the tail. Make more V cuts and continue to use the tip of the blade to carve out this section.

12 The owl has many transitions and requires plenty of rounding and tidying up. The beak may need more work, and the area where the wing connects to the front of the body requires a lot of delicate cutting with the tip of the knife to really draw out the details. It’s a good idea to draw on the features at this point to see how the face is going to look, and make adjustments, if necessary.

13 Clean up all the edges and make additional very tiny detail cuts, as required. Make sure you keep the knife under control—one slip and all your hard work will go to waste. It’s very important to get the beak just right, but this feature is also fragile, so take it slow and make sure your knife is very sharp—you shouldn’t need to apply too much pressure to the blade. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 14 SQUIRREL

The squirrel is another figure with tiny features. Pay particular attention to the paws—the wood grain runs vertically in this carving, which, because the paws stick out horizontally, means they are particularly vulnerable to being knocked off by mistake. Therefore, it is best to save them for last. It’s more of an American-style squirrel than a European one, which would have tufted ears. You could add the tufted ears if you wanted to—they’d be similar to the fox’s ears (see pages 70–73).

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 1 in. x 3/4 in. x 1/2 in. (25 mm x 19 mm x 13 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Reddish brown base

Reddish brown accent (for fur detail and outline)

Off-white (for belly, ears, and face)

Blue (for eyes)

Black (for outlines, pupils, and features)

Light gray (for claws, ear outlines, and whiskers)

White (for eye highlights)

1 Draw a rough outline of the squirrel onto your wood block—the grain should run vertically. Roughly carve around the outline. Decide now whether you want to include the ears.

2 Cut off the edges to round out the front and back of the figure, and taper the tail. The block should already start to take on a squirrel shape. Make a big notch cut to establish the division between the tail and the rest of the body.

3 Make two notch cuts on the front of the figure to separate the head from the top legs and the top legs from the bottom legs. You should end up with three sections in total when looking at the piece from the front. When cutting the bottom notch, first cut from below; if you cut from above, you may slice off the feet by mistake.

4 Narrow the nose and the front of the squirrel, paring the edges from the top of the haunches up to the head. The head should be a little narrower than the top legs, so make a couple of cuts on each side. Make two notch cuts on the front to separate the left and right legs from each other, top and bottom.

5 Increase the separation between the legs. Cut straight down toward the body and across to meet the first cut, removing the unwanted section. This is more important for the top pair of legs, because you want to see a little squirrel belly between them. It’s a small cut and delicate—be careful not to chop off a leg.

6 Separate the top part of the tail from the body, using thin V cuts. This is difficult, so make sure your blade is sharp.

7 Clean up any distortions and round off the edges all over the figure. Make sure the head is a nice almond shape—it needs to look like it has a muzzle. Leave the squirrel totally flat on the bottom. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 15 CREATING A FOREST SETTING

These little accessories are the perfect accompaniment for your animal figures if you want to make a scene, setting, or diorama for display at a craft show—or just for fun. You could also add materials from the natural environment—rocks, sticks, moss, and so on—to create a tableau. The grass, mushroom, and flower are nice and quick to make, and they look better together, so make multiples, perhaps adapting the design, colors, or pattern slightly each time.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 1 in. x 3/4 in. x 3/4 in. (25 mm x 19 mm x 19 mm) (for mushroom)

A piece of basswood about 1 in. x 11/8 in. x 3/4 in. (25 mm x 29 mm x 6 mm) (for grass)

A piece of basswood about 11/8 in. x 3/8 in. x 5/8 in. (29 mm x 10 mm x 15 mm) (for flower)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Green base (for grass and flower stem)

Darker green (for grass background between blades)

Off-white (for mushroom stem)

Dark red (for mushroom cap)

Light yellow (for mushroom polka-dot details and gills underneath)

Red (for flower petals)

Red accent (for flower petal details)

Yellow (for flower center)

MUSHROOM

1 Draw the mushroom onto your wood block. The grain should be vertical.

2 Round off the block, cutting off all the edges until you have a rough cylinder.

3 Round off the top, using paring cuts to create the dome on the top of the mushroom.

4 Use notch cuts to separate the crown from the stem of the mushroom. Repeat the process all the way around the cylinder. It requires a lot of cuts, but this will make the next step easier and quicker.

5 Make paring cuts all the way around the stem to narrow it. Round off the stem and the bottom of the mushroom, but leave a base wide enough to enable the figure to stand up by itself. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

GRASS

1 Draw the grass onto the wood. The grain should be vertical.

2 Use wide paring cuts made at an oblique angle to narrow the top half of the block on one side.

3 Make notch cuts in between each blade of grass. Do this on both the front and the back.

4 Use the tip of the knife to extend the notches all the way down to the bottom—but only on one side, or the figure will be weakened too much. Clean up the cuts and you’re done. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

Alternating shorter and taller grass segments will allow you to put together the layered look of a forest clearing or meadow.

FLOWER

1 Draw the flower onto the wood. This one is a tulip, but you can experiment as much as you would like.

2 Round off the top, and then use paring cuts to make a cylinder that goes all the way down to the point where the leaves will start.

3 Make a notch cut to separate the leaves from the stem and flower at the top. Repeat the process all the way around the cylinder.

4 Narrow the bottom and make V cuts to divide the leaves from each other and from the stem.

5 Use notch cuts to separate the flower from the stem. That’s the easy part; the top requires some more work. With the tip of the knife, “draw” a circle on the top of the flower. Make a V cut all the way around and dig out the interior of the flower, leaving the center intact. It’s difficult stuff.

6 Create the petals with small notch cuts, extending the notches gradually to divide one petal from another around the body of the flower. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 16 PIG

The first thing to say about the pig is this: don’t try to carve the curly tail. There are much quicker ways to create it—you can use wire, or the curly “feeler” from a grapevine that has dried out. It’s easy to attach: just drill a hole and secure it with a dab of glue. My pig has a wide-eyed, cartoony appearance, with my favorite pattern—polka dots. Like some of my other animals, the eyes show a gradation of color from yellow to orange, which I think gives them a more lifelike appearance, although this can be difficult to achieve at first.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about

11/8 in. x 11/8 in. x 3/4 in. (29 mm x 29 mm x 20 mm)

Grapevine feeler or small piece of wire (for tail)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit (you may also need a smaller drill bit, depending on the material you are using for the tail)

Wood glue

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Dusty pink base

Dusty pink accent

Light brown (for polka dots)

Yellow/orange (for eyes)

Black (for outlines, pupils, features, and feet)

White (for eye highlights)

TIP

You can, of course, adapt the design and colors to your own taste, if you prefer.

1 Draw the pig onto your wood block. Make sure the grain runs vertically.

2 Roughly carve out the back and area below the chin, paring off the edges. Make sure you leave enough wood for the pig’s ears.

3 Taper all three sides of the face, cutting off the angles. A piggy face should start to emerge. The fourth side is under the chin, which you have already roughed out in the previous step. Leave a flat plane at the front for the snout.

4 Round off the back and sides. Make a paring cut from the rump all the way up to the ears to give the figure a pleasingly plump and well-rounded appearance.

5 Make notch cuts for the ears and legs to define their shape—this process should have become familiar to you by now! Use more notch cuts to define the hooves. Draw the footprints on the underside of the figure to make sure you don’t cut too much off.

6 Draw the snout on the front of the figure as a guide. Make several cuts with a spooning motion all the way around the snout. Don’t cut too deep because the snout is not particularly long.

7 To define the ears, make spooning cuts across the brow of the pig and the front of the ears. The aim is to separate the ears and brow from the rest of the face.

8 Use V cuts to expand the leg notches. Cut in from the bottom with the tip of the knife, and then slice off the top of the V shape. Repeat this process on each side. You’ll need to make multiple cuts on each side, going slightly deeper each time.

9 Turn the pig upside down to finish separating the legs. Dig right into its underside, using V cuts to excavate the areas of material between the legs. Use the hoof drawings as a guide; don’t cut too much off and don’t pry with the blade, because you may snap off the tip. This is the hardest part.

10 Refine the ears, using small paring cuts to achieve the correct shape. You’ll also need to make a few small notch cuts at the sides and where the ear abuts another surface, because paring alone won’t be able to give you sharp enough corners.

11 Use small notch cuts behind the ears and above the front legs to define the backs of the cheeks, separating them from the rest of the body. This will give your pig the suggestion of a neck.

12 Give the snout a little more detail. Make a few small cuts with a spooning motion around the snout to create an upturned rim at its end.

13 Create the hooves by cutting in from the front just above the hoof, and then cutting down the leg to meet the initial cut, slicing out the unwanted section. You may need to do this several times for each hoof to make sure they are even.

14 Take a good look at your pig and clean up any distortions or sharp angles. Select a very small bit and drill a hole in the rump for the tail. Add a drop of glue to ensure a good fit, and insert your wire, grapevine feeler, or other material. Let the glue dry fully before sanding. Drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 17 COW

This is a Holstein or Friesian cow, with its distinctive black and white markings—I’ve outlined the black areas in gray to emphasize the pattern—but you could paint it brown all over to save time. The udder has been left out for simplicity’s sake, because it requires a whole other level of detail that’s beyond the scope of this book. The ears are made separately and attached at the end. This saves on wood—you’d need a much wider starting block if you made the cow all in one piece—and it makes the cow easier to carve.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 15/8 in. x 23/16 in. x 5/8 in. (41 mm x 55 mm x 15 mm) (for body)

Two pieces of basswood about 11/16 in. x 3/8 in. x 1/8 in. (17 mm x 10 mm x 3 mm) (for ears)

Small saw (a handsaw, bandsaw, coping saw, or scroll saw)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Wood glue

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

White base

Black base

Gray (for ears and hooves)

Gray accent (for outlines)

Orange (for eyes)

Light pink (for nostril details)

Black (for pupils, outlines, and details)

White (for eye highlights)

TIP

There are some large pieces to remove at the outset, so you can use a saw to remove them before you start carving.

1 Draw the cow onto your wood block. The grain runs vertically in this project.

2 Roughly carve around the outlines. Stay well outside the lines at this stage; just take off the edges of the areas you have already sawn—in front of the forelegs, above the nose, between the legs, and across the back.

3 Establish the chin. Start from the bottom of the head and pare down toward the neck and front legs. It’s difficult work because you’re cutting directly against the grain.

4 Round out the back. Use bold paring strokes, starting at the tail and cutting toward the head. Cut all the way up to the neck.

5 Narrow the nose. Taper from the sides, starting at the jaw and paring toward the nose.

6 Cut off the angles on the top of the head and the brow, rounding it off. Do the same for the bottom of the head, using small paring cuts to shape the head until it looks more cow-like.

7 Square off the area between the legs. Use V cuts or notch cuts to create sharp angles, excavating the unwanted wood between them. Draw hoof prints on the underside of the figure so you don’t cut off too much.

8 Draw the tail onto the wood at the back of the figure. It’s best to have it hanging to one side, because you’ll need access to the back legs later in order to separate them. Draw around the tail with the tip of the knife, then slice away the area on each side and clean it up with some small paring cuts.

9 Make V cuts with the tip of the knife to divide the left legs from the right legs. Cut down one side, then the other, then across the top with the tip of the knife to remove the waste wood.

10 Establish the neck. There’s a fairly sharp angle where the bottom of the jaw meets the body, so these two areas need to be clearly differentiated.

11 The cow’s body needs to be thinned out. Use paring cuts to remove a lot of material from the flanks, shaping the body and giving the cow its haunches.

12 Make paring cuts at the rump to define the joint at the top of the back legs.

13 Finish the tail. Use paring cuts to thin it out and define its shape. Make a small V cut to separate the brush at the end of the tail from the main part of the tail. Clean up the figure, removing any distortions or sharp angles.

14 It’s time to make the two separate ears. Draw leaf shapes on the two small wood blocks, with a stem that will attach the ears to the body. Carve the ears, using paring cuts, then drill holes in the cow’s head, and add a drop of glue to each ear to ensure a tight fit. Insert the ears and let the glue dry. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 18 HEN

This hen is more stylized or abstract than lifelike. It’s relatively simple to carve, apart from the facial features—the comb, beak, and wattle are a little difficult—and the fact that it’s sitting comfortably in its nest means you don’t have to worry about the feet. The grain runs horizontally so that the tiny beak is as strong as possible. The hen makes a pretty Easter decoration. You could make a few, varying the design slightly each time, and team them up with the chicks on pages 98–99. Add some carved eggs, cracked or whole, or use chocolate ones!

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 1 in. x 1 in. x 5/8 in. (25 mm x 25 mm x 15 mm)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

White base (and for eye highlights)

Muddy pink (for comb and wattle)

Yellow (for nest, eyes, and beak)

Various shades of brown (for nest and beak details)

Very light blue (for feather details)

Black (for outlines and pupils)

1 Draw the hen onto your wood block. Remember the grain should run horizontally.

2 Establish the rough outline, rounding off the bottom corners front and back, and across the back between the head and the tail. Taper the front, top, and tail, using paring cuts.

3 Establish the neck and back. Redraw the head so you don’t cut off material that you’re going to need later. Start with a V cut from the top, just behind the head, then cut in to remove the piece, thus creating a neck shape. You may need to make a few cuts to get the shape right on both sides.

4 Make multiple small V cuts and notch cuts around the bottom to establish the nest and separate it from the bottom of the hen. It’s worth drawing a line all the way around to make sure it’s even. This step is painstaking and may take a little while!

5 Use small paring cuts to round off the back of the head, and the head in general, but leave the front for now. Leave the wood at the very top of the head at its current height because you will need it for the comb.

6 Here comes the tricky part—the beak and wattle. At first, treat both elements as one. Use small notch cuts to create a little ledge around the area, isolating it from the rest of the body. Then cut a notch to separate the beak from the wattle. Be careful, because it’s a very fine cut.

7 Draw a line on the top of the head to demarcate the comb area. Use the tip of the knife to cut in on each side of the line from the top, then slice from the side to create a defined ledge for the comb. Use paring cuts to round off the features, narrow the head, and cut off any sharp angles so the figure blends smoothly.

8 Make two really tiny V cuts in the tip of the comb to shape it. You may also need to narrow the comb slightly, but be careful to avoid cutting off too much. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

CHICKS

These chicks work best as a group. They’re the smallest creatures in the book and you may want to use a magnifying glass of some kind, especially when painting—preferably one that’s mounted on a stand because you’ll need both hands free. Alternatively, you can buy magnifying goggles, or just use cheap and readily available reading glasses. The chicks’ legs are not completely defined—they are just little feet sticking out—which makes the carving less labor-intensive and means the tiny figure is less likely to break.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood (or another wood if you prefer) about 3/8 in. x 5/8 in. x 3/8 in. (10 mm x 15 mm x 10 mm) per chick

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Yellow base

Lighter yellow accent Black (for eyes)

Orange (for feet)

Orange accent (for foot detail)

Pink (for beak)

Pink accent (for beak detail)

White (for eye highlights)

1 Draw the outline on your block (with grain horizontal). Roughly carve around the outline, removing material below the beak and behind the head.

2 The chick is just like a little ball, so round off all the edges except the underside—leave this flat for the feet. Draw on the footprints—there won’t be a space between them, so they are just two small ovals next to each other.

3 Establish the beak by tapering the front of the head to a point. Use multiple tiny scooping cuts to define the area. Draw in the eyes to help you work out where you are.

4 As you did with the nest in the hen project on pages 96—97, make very tiny V cuts all the way around the bottom of the chick. Be careful—your fingers are very close to the blade.

4 Make a few tiny spooning cuts, taking off miniscule amounts of wood each time, to give the beak its point. Start at the head end and cut toward the point until you have a beak shape you’re happy with.

6 Add detail to the feet. Make little V cuts at the front and the back, where there would normally be separation between them, but don’t cut all the way through.

7 Clean up the edges. Use the point of the knife to tidy up the groove between the body and the feet, and round off the head. If all your fingers are still intact after completing this project, you can award yourself a gold star! Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 20 HORSE

Horses are a classic subject for both painting and sculpture, but they’re very difficult to draw. Use drawing books or go online to find reference material to help you practice, or go out and take your own photographs to copy. My horse is a cartoony design instead of a literal rendition, but it’s still difficult to perfect the basic shape. The mane is probably the most challenging part to carve, and also the detail in the legs.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 17/8 in. x 2 in. x 3/4 in. (47 mm x 50 mm x 19 mm)

Small saw (a handsaw, bandsaw, coping saw, or scroll saw)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Tan base

Black or very dark brown (for legs, mane, and tail)

Gray (for hooves and shading)

Orange (for eyes)

Black (for details, pupils, and outlines)

White (for eye highlights)

TIP

Make sure the grain is vertical, and cut around the basic shape with a saw before you start carving.

1 Draw the horse onto your wood block, making sure the grain is vertical.

2 Roughly carve around the cuts you’ve already made with the saw, then around the drawing. Use paring cuts to achieve the basic shape, but stay well outside the lines at this stage. Shave off the square edges all around. The most difficult part is between the legs, but don’t make any V cuts or notches yet.

3 Use paring cuts to expand the gap between the two pairs of legs. Draw hoof prints on the underside of the piece and make sure you don’t go over the edges—you don’t want to narrow the legs too much.

4 Round off the back, cutting off the square angles. Err on the side of not doing enough instead of overdoing it, because you can always return to this stage later.

5 Slice off the angles around the nose to create the horse’s basic head shape.

6 Make V cuts to separate the left legs from the right legs, and the front from the back. The good thing about the horse is that there’s enough room between the legs to make the cuts from both sides. Cut from front and back until the V cuts from each side are joined together and both pairs of legs are completely separated.

7 Separate the ears. Make a V cut in the center and use the point of the blade to make scooping cuts to excavate the area. It’s a good idea to draw in the mane at this stage so you don’t cut too far down.

8 Narrow the head, paring with a slight scooping motion all the way up from the neck to the top of the head and to the ears. Round off the sides to give the head an oval shape when you look at it face-on. Narrow the neck slightly, too.

9 Decide which way the tail should fall. If the tail curves to the left or right, you’ll still have access to the back legs to clean them up. Make V cuts along the outer edge of the rump to leave a clearly defined tail shape.

10 Use paring cuts to narrow the legs, but don’t make them too thin. Cut all the way along the length of the leg, but leave more material at the ends for the hooves.

11 Draw the mane onto the back of the horse’s head as a guide. Use the tip of the knife to inscribe a line along both sides of the mane and cut away a section from both sides—from the back up to the ears. Make sure you don’t slice into the mane itself.

12 Shape the ears, making small paring cuts from the front and back. The trickiest part is separating the ears from the mane: draw a line with the tip of the knife so you don’t cut too far, and use the very tip of the blade to shape the ear where it abuts the mane.

13 Shape the nose. This is a crucial stage, because it can be difficult to make the figure look suitably horsey. Draw on the facial features to help you, and use paring and scooping cuts to create the distinctive long face. If it looks like a donkey, you could always paint it gray and pretend that was your intention all along.

14 Use V cuts to establish the hooves. Cut in from the front of the hoof and then slice off the unwanted section with a downward cut along the leg.

15 Round off the whole figure and clean up any distortions. Make small notch cuts to create the indent at the back of each hoof. Refer back to any horse pictures you collected when you were planning and sketching, and see whether there are any other small details you’d like to add. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

PROJECT 21 CREATING A FARMYARD SETTING

If you’re thinking of selling your carvings at craft shows, or taking photographs to advertise them online, it’s always good to dress them up with some appropriate props, many of which are fairly quick to make. We’ll look at how to make three here—a water bowl, a food trough, and a hay bale—but you might want to add more. Some options include fencing, made from simple whittled sticks joined together, a field of crops, a barn, or, if you’re feeling ambitious, maybe a farmer.

YOU WILL NEED

Pencil

A piece of basswood about 3/4 in. x 3/4 in. x 1/2 in. (19 mm x 19 mm x 13 mm) (for water bowl)

A piece of basswood about 11/4 in. x 1/2 in. x 3/8 in. (32 mm x 13 mm x 10 mm) (for food trough)

A piece of basswood about 11/8 in. x 3/4 in. x 7/8 in. (29 mm x 19 mm x 22 mm) (for hay bale)

Wood chips (for food)

Carving knife

Rubber fingertip protector

Sandpaper and wood glue

Small drill with 1/16-in. (1.6-mm) bit

Toothpick

Paintbrushes and paint palette

Acrylic paints:

Rusty orange (for water bowl)

Various shades of blue (for water)

Blue (for food trough)

Light brown (for food)

Various shades of yellow (for hay bale)

Dark brown (for twine)

WATER BOWL

1 Draw the bowl onto the shorter side of your wood block. The grain should run vertically on this side.

2 Pare off all corners to make the block into a cylinder.

3 Round off the bottom edge so it forms almost a hemisphere, but leave a flat part as a base for the bowl to stand on. Draw a circle on the bottom so that you know when to stop cutting.

4 On the top of the bowl, make a circular V cut all the way around the outside edge to establish the rim of the bowl.

5 Establish a flat plane inside the bowl for the water. Remove the top layer of the inside, cutting from the middle toward the outside of the V cut you made in step 4. Round off the edges, finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

FOOD TROUGH

1 Draw the trough outline onto the wood. The grain should be horizontal.

2 Round off the bottom and sides, using paring cuts.

3 Make notch cuts around the inside top of the trough. Keep cutting until the trough is hollowed out sufficiently.

4 Find some loose wood chips to be your food. Glue them in place inside the trough. I dab a little brown paint on mine to make them look more appetizing. Finish with sandpaper, drill a hole for your toothpick, and you’re ready to paint.

TIP

If you’ve tidily cleared away your loose wood chips, you can make some more with some spare scrap wood. The best ones are the curlicues that come from paring cuts made on angled edges.

HAY BALE

1 There’s no need for drawing—just cut your hay bale to size with a saw and tidy up the edges with your knife. Rub the teeth of the saw against the wood to give each side a rough, rustic texture.

2 Make little V cuts in straight lines around the bale to resemble the twine that holds it together. Drill a hole for your toothpick, but don’t sand before painting! I mixed different shades of yellow to create the straw effect, and yellow and brown blended with a little black for the twine.

TIP

To make round hay bales, cut off pieces of dowel or use slabs cut from thick tree branches.

FURTHER IDEAS

If you can think of it, you can probably carve it—eventually. Traditional subjects, such as nativity scenes, are always popular, but there’s no need to limit yourself if you don’t want to. If you prefer to carve a fantastical jungle creature or mythological sea monster, go right ahead.

RESOURCES & FURTHER INFORMATION

Carving clubs are a good place to find more information on tools and materials, and to share work and experiences with like-minded individuals. Wood, tools, and other carving supplies are often offered for sale by local stores at such gatherings. Some clubs sponsor yearly conventions with workshops and exhibitions, where prizes are awarded. If your area does not have such a club, perhaps consider starting one by networking with other carvers via the Internet or in more traditional ways.

Art, community, and learning centers often offer classes or workspace that might be used to improve your skills in all aspects of the creative process. A drawing class can go a long way to helping you plan the next carving project, while a painting class can offer you a structured way to learn about the use of color and expose you to new mediums and techniques.

If you want to develop your skills with different woods, it may be worth talking with someone at a local arboretum, who could give you access to new woods to experiment with.

Researching carving from different cultures is a great way to broaden your imagination as you develop your own unique carving style. Use libraries, museums, and the Internet to build a notebook of ideas. By studying and borrowing ideas from other carvings, you are forming a vocabulary to describe your own work and, at the same time, gaining important insights into a shared sculptural language.

The Internet is an invaluable resource. It lets you network with other carvers worldwide, it provides a way to purchase tools and materials, and it’s a storehouse of photographs for just about anything you may want to carve. It’s helpful to download and print a page of these photos to use as you draw and plan your carvings. If you want to sell your work, the Internet offers a number of ways to do that as well.

I hope all this information will provide you with a solid foundation to whittling and motivate you to try new things. There’s an abundance of ideas just waiting to come to life—all it takes is a knife, a piece of wood, and a bandage kept handy as you’re learning.

USEFUL MAGAZINES

Woodcarving Illustrated

“How To” Magazine for Carvers

www.woodcarvingillustrated.com

Carving Magazine

www.carvingmagazine.com

TOOL SUPPLIERS

Little Shavers Wood Carving Supply

www.littleshavers.com

Woodcraft

www.woodcraft.com

MY FAVORITE BOOK FOR IDEAS

Whittling and Woodcarving

E. J. Tangerman

Dover Publications (2003)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to my parents, Howard and Patte, from whom I learned, despite myself, how to survive as an artist, and to my friend and mentor Glenn Gordon, and to my beautiful and inspiring companion, Randi Rümelin.

INDEX

A

acrylic paint, 18–19, 70

aluminum oxide, 13

American basswood, 10

artisan knives, 13

automatic drawing, 17

B

birds, 38–49, 78–81, 96–99

blades, 12, 13

boxwood, 10

C

carrot rabbit, 32–35

cat, 56–59

CDs, 19

chicks, 98–99

cocobolo, 11

color theory, 19

cow, 92–95

crested bird, 38–41

D

dog, 52–55

drawing, 16, 17

drilling, 17, 18

E

earrings, 18, 45

Easter bunny, 64–67

F

farmyard setting, 104–7

files, 17

fingertip protectors, 15

finishing, 17

flower, 87

food trough, 106

forest setting, 84–87

fox, 70–73

G

gloves, 15

goggles, 15

grass, 86

grinders, 13

H

hay bale, 107

hen, 96–97

hobby knives, 12

holly, 10

honing. See sharpening

horse, 100–103

I

ivory, 11

K

knives, 12–13

L

lignum vitae, 11

M

materials, 10–11

models, 16

mouse, 74–77

Murphy knife, 13

mushroom, 85

N

needle files, 17

notches, 14

O

oil paint, 18

owl, 78–81

P

paint, 18–19, 70

mixing, 19

paintbrushes, 18, 20

painting, 17, 18–19, 70

gradation, 20

lines, 20

outlines, 21

scale, 21

spots, 20

stippling, 20, 70

techniques, 20–21

paring cuts, 14

paring knife, 13

pig, 88–91

pin vise, 17

professional knives, 13

prying, 15

pulling the blade, 14

pushing the blade, 14

pyrography, 21

S

safety, 11, 15

sanding, 11, 17, 64

sandpaper grits, 17, 64

scooping, 15

sharpening, 13

snowman, 60–63

soap, 11, 13, 24–27

soap ducky, 24–27

songbird, 42–45

spotter brushes, 20

squirrel, 82–83

stippling, 20, 70

stropping, 13

Swiss pear, 11

T

tagua nut, 11

turnip bear, 28–31

V

V cuts, 14

W

water bowl, 105

watercolor paint, 18

whiskers, 77

wood, 10–11

wood burning, 21

woodpecker, 46–49

X

X-ACTO knives, 12

Y

yellow cedar, 11