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The last full day was a race for the finish line, but I am not going to make it. I am, although, very happy with the results. The carving came out exactly as I would have liked it to come out. Should be an easy finish at home. The barn beam now has one shelf support and one to go.

I've included a picture of George as well.

060611 Update

Today I learned some great techniques, from Pascal, on setting up and carving classical hair. He explained how to break up the forms into S shapes, followed by several basic planes and texturing with a small veiner and shadow cuts along the edges. You cross over from plane to plane with the veiner cuts from time to time, which breaks up the masses into smaller masses which can then be treated the same way for more texture if you like. He also showed me some great texturing techniques on the body using a 12 mm 11 followed by a large 9, which was used to blend in between the troughs left by the 11 (if that makes sense). I have one area of the body that he completed and I will leave his marks for future reference. This is the nice thing about doing a class here. They demonstrate techniques on your carving which is like 3D notes from the class. Today's job will be getting as much done as possible to both get some more weight off the carving and to bring it as close to finish as possible.

Geislor Moroder Trip 010511

What a workout it has been during the last two days. I felt a little behind after losing a day to the clay model. Last night I was thoroughly exhausted and didn't even have enough energy to make a blog entry. I've included pictures of George's & Ed's projects in addition to my Atlantes.

Pascal showed me some nice techniques, using just a wide flat chisel, to do much of the roughing. I really helps keep you from working on detail to early. I ended the day with a great lesson in creating a classical male face, Pascal style. I am very pleased with the results. Now if I can get the rest of the carving to look as good as the face I will have something nice to remember this week by. 2.5 days left and still a lot to do.

Ed's 2nd Childhood

Amazing what a grown man will do when nobody is looking.

Geislor Moroder Trip 010311

Carving the Atlantes

What's an Atlantes? It's the male version of the Carytyd. What's a Carytyd? Wikipedia defines it as a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar. The Atlantes is of course the male version. I have this old barn beam that someone gave me many moons ago and have wanted to carve a pair of ornamental brackets to hold it up. So here is the plan: Carve a male and female version of the Carytid to act as shelf supports for the beam. I should have a good start on the male version by the end of the week and with any luck I will find some time to make the female version. So in other words, by the year 2020 I should have the shelf in place.

Here are a couple pictures of the finished model I completed on Day I. I've slimmed the hips down a little since I took the pictures. The figure was looking a little female like so I made it a little less hippie.

The picture order is reversed. The last picture is the beginning of the clay model. The first and second pics are the more or less finished model. Tomorrow I start the carving.

Chainsaw Carving Day V

Today was the continuation of "Carving the Head with a Kettensager 101". I did pretty well up until it came time to wedge out the face. I had to take off the pieces in two cuts and of course they did not meet. Once I got done creating the two planes for the face I found that I had created the "man with the pointy face". Nevertheless I pressed forward with the carving, after all this was purely a lesson and a vehicle to learn some techniques. Michael had me set in the location for the ears next followed by creating the profile down the midline. Not much different than what one might do with carving tools. Here where it got very difficult. Firstly, you must create two planes, using the chainsaw, one for the tilt of the eye, and one for the side of the nose and sweeping across to the cheek bone. Next came setting in the with of the nose, the smile line, and the barrel of the mouth. Now came the really hard part. Carving an eye with a running chainsaw. I had an extra difficult job because firstly, since I created too narrow a face, my eyes had to be set in deeper. Secondly, I had knots dead center on each eye. The eye was created by using the tip of the chainsaw to first set in the inner corner, followed by additional depth under the eye, followed by additional depth on the outside corner. Did you ever try carving the fold of the upper eyelid with a running chainsaw? It ain't easy!!! Of course Michael made it look easy, but then he did the easy side of the carving (now I can say what all of my students always tell me!!) Just kidding of course. I spent the balance of the day completing the face and giving him some nice wavy hair. Today I will have Michael show me the ear and it will be finished.

Chainsaw Carving Day IV

I couldn't be happier with the end result. I was able to finish the nude and begin the carving of a male head. I spent the morning refining and finalizing the details and just after lunch Michael put a disc sander in my hands and told me to go over the high points of the carving with the sander. He explained that it was good to leave some of the chainsaw marks in the hollows as this added interest to the carving and kept you from overworking the carving with sanding and wiping out details. The final cut was up the back of the carving with a chainsaw cut eminating from the center of the tree. Michael explained that this was a way to relieve some of the internal pressures of the tree as it dried and subsequently shrank. This was not a guarantee that the carving would not crack in the front but increased one's chances that the carving would not crack right up the middle. I took a look at some of the dry carvings that dot the landscape at the school and you could see clearly where this relief cut was made and what was once a chainsaw cut was now a much larger space. If the chainsaw cut does it job the wood can freely shrink from the back and preserve the details of the front. Michael also showed me some additional texturing techniques which were designed to give some contrast to the smoother carving.

I was very happy to finish the carving and get started on the next since there is only 1 1/2 days left before I must fly home. Tomorrow I will continue the male head I started today and am anxious to see how Michael has me set up and carve the details of the face. There are about a 1/2 dozen or so of these carvings on the property and it was always quite amazing to me that they could get this level of detail with just the chainsaw. No offense to the American carvers, but you don't generally see this level of detail on a chainsaw carving.

By the way. The new pavilion kept us high and dry while it rained cats and dogs today.