Napoleon

Holy French Revolution Batman....the guy finally carved something!!! Well, he ain't no Cowboy but I at least did something!
-Last night we watched a movie titled "The Emperor's New Clothes" starring Ian Holm about the General's escape from his island prison and his quest to reestablish himself as the Emperor of France. Well, things didn't go exactly as he was hoping but I think it turned out okay. Anyway, I really liked his hat and thought it would make a good carving, especially as the Great Plains Woodcarving Show in Wichita that comes up in a couple of months added a new "Bust" category.
-As the ground is covered with snow and the roads are too slick to drive on I spent the day in the shop literally whipping this thing out! With the base he stands a little over 12" tall so he's a pretty impressive piece. As the hat is really the key to this carving I wanted to get the folds just right. To do that I took and old felt hat and folded it to resemble the one he wore. Of course it didn't look exactly like it but it was enough for me to see how it would look. With that information I sketched out the shape on a 4" thick piece of Basswood and cut the side and front profiles.-
I wanted to head to set deep into his overcoat so I oversized the coat and used a Forstner bit to drill out the cavity for the head and neck. It took a lot of fitting and refitting to get the head to settle down into the coat but I think it really turned out well.-
The hat will be black, the coat a brownish gray and his uniform dark blue with red pipeing. I haven't decided on how to do the fine details of his badges yet but there will be a rosette on the hat front and some medals somewhere. There will be a different base, the one in the photo was just a couple I had laying around.
So, I think this should be a neat little study of an interesting little man with a monsterous ego. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. More photos in the Picasa Gallery link to the right of this post.