Opps! Out Of Memory

In uploading the new videos on the carving of the body and hat I came up against my allowed weekly memory allocation of 5 gigs so it will be next Thursday before I can add the last two segments on the carving of the hat. After that it will be on to the painting and then wrapping the whole thing up. I hope you're enjoying this series as much as we are making it. Stay tuned!!

Carving A Cowboy Bust – Part 6 – The Hat Brim

With the lower body now done we can concentrate on the hat.  In this video we lay out  the brim and carve it’s general shape. 

Carving A Cowboy Bust – Part 5 – Finishing Up The Body

This video will wrap things up for the body portion of the project.  Up next will be the hat and with that things will really start to get interesting. 

Carving A Cowboy Bust – Parts 3 & 4 – The Neckerchief

In these two videos we’ll choose just what type of Neckerchief we want, lay it out on our blank and begin the roughing out process. 

Also, the hole for the head drilled and the proper head position is chosen.  Things are moving fast!

Carving A Cowboy Bust – Parts 1 & 2 – Laying Out and Cutting the Blank

With the head carved in the first group of videos we can now move on to the lower part or body of the bust.   This segment will show you how to lay out the blank using a paper pattern, how to cut the blank out on the bandsaw, and how to begin roughing it out.

  One thing I’ve notice about these videos is that they are a high enough quality that you can open them up to “Full Screen”  and not lose that much detail.

More coming…..and comments always appreciated.

The Ranch House Cook

Every once in a great while I do a carving that I think really stands out and represents the best of my efforts. This, I think is one of those. Everything about this little scene just seemed to fall in place. From the spilt soy sauce on the floor to the coffee grinder to the gold tooth gleaming from Chang Li's wide grin. This is a carving that just makes you smile and I'll bet anything that if you could step into the picture you'd be looking for an open seat at the breakfast table to partake of some of his cooking.
-
For this piece I built the stove first as it is the anchor of all the action. It is made from several pieces all pegged together. I had originally planned on having the oven door open with biscuits baking inside but to do that would have caused the cook to stand further back from the stove and that composition just didn't work. The loaf of bread carries the oven. The same goes with the Quaker Grits container. Seeing that you can easily tell what is boiling over on the stove. The coffee grinder and Arbuckles crate on the floor ties in with the coffee pot and the bacon with the eggs. Even though there's no bacon visible thats been fried we know that it eventually will be. The spilt bottle of Soy Sauce I just added as it's something that a Chinese cook would have. There is also a bottle of Brandy setting on the stove top. I don't really know why thats there......Maybe Chang likes a little morning nip once in awhile.
-
I think I'm going to hang on to this guy for a while but I'll take him to Dayton to give him some exposure. There are lots of photos in the Gallery and, as always, I'll look forward to your comments

The Skipper

I did this one back in 1998 for the Oklahoma Director of Tourism . He'd seen my display in a local store and, as he was into boats, asked if I could do something of a nautical nature. I told him sure as long as I could stay within the time period I like to carve. This is what I came up with.

-

I really liked the idea of the ships wheel dipping beneath the floor. Actually, if I had made the wheel in the exact scale with the figure the figure would have been lost as the wheels were quite large. To keep the piece within size limits I reduced it.

-

If there was one thing I would do different if I could it would have been to use a better piece of wood for the mid portion of the mount. By the looks of it I just used a piece of 2/4 which had a really heavy grain. A hardwood would would have worked much better. Anyway, I think it worked and the important thing was that the buyer really liked it.

-

There are a few more photos in the Gallery and as always your comments are appreciated.

The Renegade

Well, here's one I completely forgot about! Probably one of my best horses too....certainly the paint job. I didn't feel an actual rider was necessary as by seeing his hat on the ground you can let your imagination figure out what happened to him.

-

More photos in the Gallery and comments always welcome.

Pop-A-Top!

It's about Beer-30 and time for a cold one after a dusty day in the saddle. No long-neck for this wrangler...a frosty can with a pop-top will do just fine.

-

I did this one back in '03 and it's probably setting on a bar somewhere in Virginia, at least that's where he was heading with he left the Out West Gallery. One of the things I really enjoy doing is to see just how realistic I can reproduce various objects I put in my figures hands or scenes. In this one he has a great looking can of Coors along with a nice headstall and bit. I also made sure that the lariat hanging on the fence post exhibits the weight of the lower part of the rope. He's holding his right-hand glove, having removed it as those little aluminum rings are hard to grab hold of with gloved fingers. It's the little things that some might miss completely but mean a lot to me.

-

A few more photos in the Gallery and as always your comments are welcome.

A More Detailed Look At Carving Eyes

Some of you out there ask if I could go into a little more detail on carving eyes so here’s a video that I hope will answer that question.

As always, comments are welcomed and appreciated.   And I apologize for those little flurrishes at the beginning and the end of the video.   I just couldn’t resist the impulse.  Give me a movie camera and I think I’m John Ford!