Happy Turtle

I made some minor changes on the turtle on my March 25 post. This will be my class project for the Spokane rendezvous this year. The turtle is 4 inches by 6 inches by 1/2 inch. This is glued on a 4 inch diameter by 3/8 inch circle. The circle was painted with a contrasting color. It was fun to adjust the color and the placement of the circle. The turtle with the blue circle is a pin, 2 inches by 3 inches. I haven't made up my mind if I like the red or blue background, but I'll carve another with the blue and maybe change the turtles color a little. Since this is a comic relief I can think of several titles. "I spend a long day carving."

Angus

Angus comes from the way of Pete LeClair. He has done so many facial expressions over the years, and they are available to everyone. My thanks goes to Pete for my learning experience. The term expression usually happens when anyone change its face muscles in positive of negative response, at that point you say that what is the face is expressing or the person want to say. Usually the eyes present a clear view of the words which a person want to say. I just painted the hat and eyes, with a little red on the lips. The picture washed out the face but it looks good in person. I drilled a hole in the bottom so you can use it as a finger puppet. It' good for people who talk to themselves as others will think they are talking to the puppet. "Laughter out loud"

Chipmunk

Spending time in the woodland it is hard not to notice the chatter of chipmunks. They range in color from gray to red. Chipmunks lives underground. They prefor to burrow near a rock, log or other object. The chipmunk will continue to dig for it's entire life. Burrows have been found over thirty feet long. Chipmunks feed on insects, nuts, seeds, berries and grain, which they stuff into their generous cheek pouches and carry to their burrow or nest to store. Chipmunks hibernate, but instead of storing fat, they periodically dip into their cache of nuts and seeds throughout the winter.

 

Big Eyed Fish

This is a comic fish if you can't tell. It may have come up from deep in the sea. I carved two different fish with the same pattern in cottonwood bark. I didn't sand them so they show the tool marks. My hope was it added a scale  look, plus I don't like sanding.

Low Flyer

This time of year we have a migration of geese, ducks, and swans through our area. This is the first time I attempted a project in pyrography like this Mallard Drake. It was a woodburning with a variable temperature tool and a writing tip on basswood. I burned in curved lines, dash strokes. dots, and scrubby lines. The colored work was with watercolor pencils. I used pencil kit so the colors might not be exactly right. Some area's have several color layers.Temperature control and line techniques take a lot of practice.

Lady Praying

This is a small simple carving of a lady praying. It's carved out of butternut with a natural finish. Butternut is easy to carve and it works well with this type of carving.

Comic Relief

This was a comic drawing with the title "It's been one of those days". It's carved from 1/2 inch thick basswood and painted with acrylics. I learned a few things carving this turtle and I'm going to carve another one with a few changes. It was fun to carve and bring out the different levels. He does look a little punch drunk after a hard days work or maybe it was play.