In February I watched an Etsy video that introduced a puppet maker. Not your ordinary one by any means. The best part is that he was located in Portland. After exploring his website I saw he was conducting wood carving classes to learn to make a Marionette Puppet. WOW, and they were dark and eclectic puppets, just my style. So I signed up.
Now you will see my, hopefully, weekly progress.
Tools
An F clamp
A beginners wood carving knife
A Kevlar glove.
Pencil
A BIG eraser (in my case)
The Teacher is Geack, pronounced Jack sorta.
Here is his website.
WE began the first two lessons with creating and drawing a character.
I stared with Nelly. This is who I eventually would like to make. But soon decided that I wanted to learn to do old men first with their wrinkles and such. So I switched to Xavier.
He has a bit of a beer belly and lots of loose skin on his face. Bald with long grey hair to put in a pony tail. The character’s personality comes from someone I met in Germany over 10 years ago. But the physical look is going for my cousin Warren. No he doesn’t have a nose like Xavier. I am sure he will appreciate my attempts, if not I’ll just hit him with Xavier’s wooden leg.
Actually shaving off wood from a block is fun. Cutting out chunks is hard. I will have to strengthen my hands more. This takes a lot more Umpf than a needle and thread.
Here are my first cuts. Not so pretty. You have to get a 45degree angle to take out wedges. I seem to go shallow.
Then I practiced a bit more and got a better bite out of the wood. The eye is much better here.
Then on my own I tried a small face. Can you see him? He is very rough.
Today is lesson 3 and we should come home with the head to carve. This is getting exciting.
Xavier likes Snuff so he will have a nose that can appreciate snuff. Weird I know. But this guy really does exist in Germany. He likes Beer, Women and Snuff. And he is a lot older than me.
1 comment:
I like Javier! What character! Can't wait to meet him in person when he's all ready. :)
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