Carving a Fisherman

page 2 of 3

Continuing on with our unlucky example of "Why fisherman wear sou-westers".

Refer to the pictures and illustrations, to help make the instructions clear.

Step 4
Shaping the body:

Basic locations of the body features were defined in lesson 1. Now we can begin to carve the features to their final shape.
Begin with the right arm, rounding it and making it smaller.Remove wood from the shoulder to leave it 1/2" out from the edge of the neck.
Narrow in the chest until it meets the neck, then do the same with the back. Some shaping of the neck may be needed to give a ballanced look. Separate the arm from the body with V cuts. Locate the hand and separate it from the shirt.

The left arm is about the same, except you have to keep refering to the right arm, to make sure the length from shoulder to elbow, and elbow to hand, are the same with both arms. More separation of the left arm from the body is needed than with the right arm. A few wrinkles may be added at the elbow creases.

Shape the trunk and lower body, defining the belt line at the level of the left arm. Our guy has ample belly - a few too many lobsters, no doubt. The saw cut from step 3 separated the legs. Widen this to about 1/4". Don't forget to shape a decent bum, after all, he should have one. A line around the legs about 1" up from the bottom, marks the top of the boots.

---

STEP 5
Detailing:

Now to bring it all together.

After the face, I spend the most time on the hands, since they can add a lot of expressive and action. Use your own hands as a guide. Notice that when you hold your hand palm up, in a relaxed manner, the thumb is higher than the little finger and the fingers curl up but the thumb goes out to the side and in, not up.
Er, do take note that when the hand is palm up, the thumb is on the outside of the hand.
It might be best to do the right hand first, since it will later be holding the sou-wester and partly hidden by it.

Detailing the body, involves defining the shirt, pants, belt, and boots. The collar is first, leave it open at the neck. Define the seam where the shirt is buttoned, and leave the shirt open at the bottom to show a little belly. A sight sometimes seen on a busy wharf. Shape the shirt pocket and add wrinkles at the jonts.

The belt is next. Just cut it all way around, except where it is hidden under the right arm. once the belt is defined show belt loops by cutting them out and narrow the belt to pass throught them. Define a simple buckle as a round bulge at the front of the belt.

The jean pockets are cut, and then marks to represent the seams, first the crotch then down the outside of the leg. A single cut shows the seam on the inside of the leg.
The back pocket can have a couple of extra V cuts at the top to represent a wallet. Finally add wrinkles and creases in appropriate places. The boots need some shaping and a seam at the top, bottom, and toe.

---

Step 6
Painting the figure:

Many carvers delight in the wood work, but panic when it comes to painting. The best advice I can offer here is to use the block in method. Block in basic colours, not worrying too much about smearing paint in the wrong places. When it is time to tidy up where two colours meet, simply go over it with the first colour, then touch up with the second, return to the first to get a few spots and continue until a nice even line is reached.
This may be a rough approach, but it works for me.

I will be working with acrylics. If you use other paints simply follow your usual routine.

Of course the first step is the primer. This should be a good quality primer that is 100% acrylic (rated for exterior use). For woods that stain paint, such as cedar, you can use a sealer first, then prime.

Block in the base colours, using crafters flesh tone for face and hands. Paint right over the eyes and eyebrows for now. If you like to mix your own skin tone, I use yellow ochre with a touch of crimson, lightened with white for light skin and add burnt sienna for ruddy skin.

Thin blue with water, until it is very thin and use this on the pants to simulate blue jeans. Don't forget the belt loops and top of pants above the belt.

The shirt is red. The hair is grey. The boots will be black with red trim. Belt is black.

Use a detail brush, to trim up the edges. Solid blue paint will be needed to tidy up the jeans.

Add detail to the flesh tone by having the top of his head a little lighter in colour (mx a little white into the flesh tone) and touching up the cheeks with reddened skin colour. Add a little more red to the skin colour to make the lips, which are not too pink. More like half way between pink and red.
Paint the eyeballs white, the eye brows grey and lashes dark grey. Add a blue iris, a half circle near the top eyelid to give a looking up appearance. A dab of black makes the pupil.

The palms of the hands need a lighter flesh tone and the fingernails can be painted in a very light flesh tone, or given a thin coat of white. Avoid a harsh edge between the light and dark flesh tones on the palms and bald head.

Trim the top and bottom of the boots with red, and do the belt buckle with crafters metalic silver paint.

The final touch is a plaid shirt. The plaid is black over the red base colour. Start with wide verticle stripes, following the contours of the shirt and spacing them out well. First do the back of the shirt, then the front, then the arms.

Do the same thing with wide horizontal stripes.

The final step is to add thin lines (with a detail brush) to the right of the verticle lines and just above the horizontal lines.

With a little luck your shirt should look something like this.

To finish the painting, put a large dab of white paint on his forehead, to represent ... well, you get the idea.

The final step is the finish. Many carvers prefer a good quality varnish and if that is what you use, just proceed as usual. There are now acrylic based varnishes available in craft outlets, that I feel are better suited to coat acrylic paints.
Personally I prefer something that doesn't deteriate and need replacing in 20 years. Okay, so I'm an optomist. My solution has been wax. I give the carving several coats of clear acrylic wax. Then I dull the areas of clothing and flesh by brushing on a coat of carnauba wax. Boots, belt buckles, etc., are left to shine.

---

On the next page we'll do the accessories.

I am available for questions and comments. Send an email.

Carving Lesson final steps - Page 3

Back to - Page 1