Wood Carving Animals

Students will create a wood carved pendant with recessed levels.

This unit has four parts: research and design (designing a project, measuring for materials), prototype (practicing carving with soft wood), final design in hard wood, and documentation of the finished work (photos, email, reflection, and critique).

Overview Unit Goal

RESEARCH & DESIGN

Find images to base a creature design from
Design a creature that is recognizable and specific

CREATE

Create 2 different versions of that creature in wood sculpture
Learn how to whittle soft wood into a fully dimensional form that stands on its own in the round
Learn how to cut and shape hard wood into a wooden likeness

DOCUMENT, ANALYZE & REFLECT

Document your artwork using professional techniques, with solid colored background, lighting, and cropping
Analyze your own work
Reflect on the creation process
Identify other students' work that you appreciate and figure out why you like theirs more than others

Composition Concepts

Designing a Wooden Object with Recessed Levels
Functionality
Abstraction that has a clear reference (Simplifying without losing specificity)

Technical Skills

Carving
Whittling
Filing / Gouging
Sanding / Polishing

Tools & Supplies

Jewelry Saw, Scroll Saw, Band Saw
Cut resistant gloves
Cutting tool (whittling blade - 6)
Cutting tool (gouging blades - 1 through 5)
Wood rasp
Sandpaper, Sanding Twigs, Bench Sander
Wood Glue, Wood Filler
Wood Oil

Technical Skill Videos

BEGINNING WHITTLING

PLANNING OUT THE CARVING

WHITTLING CUT TYPES

WHITTLING WOLF PENDANT

HARDWOOD ANIMALS

SOFTWOOD CREATURES

ADVANCED IDEAS

Order of Work

Determine Your Design

RESEARCH the animal or character you want to create - consider the best way to simplify your forms, so that they are recognizable and yet easy enough to make
BE SPECIFIC - "dog" is too generic, instead choose a type of dog, like "poodle"
DRAW out your design in three views - side view, top view, front view. The three drawing should be the actual size you will carve, and the scale of each drawing should match each other. So if the head is 1" wide in the top view, it will also be 1" wide in the front view.
Use a 1" by 4" rectangle as a starting dimension for your character. If your design exits the box, you'll want negative space you don't use to match that volume.

Soft Wood Carving

Draw your design on the BASS BLOCK wood on the front view and side view
Using carving gloves and a cutting tool (blade 6), carve away at the negative space.
Cutting with the grain removes large pieces with ease. Cutting against the grain will remove smaller bits.
Use precise cuts prior to carving a large area to prevent the wood from pulling out of an area you don't want
Work from the side view, then the front view, then back to the side view until you have removed all the main negative space areas.
Then, sculpt it into a more organic, natural form
You can use a rasp to file away areas you don't want
You can sand parts you want to be smoother.
You can carve grooves and details using the alternate blades inside the handle
Your sculpture should sit or stand on a table without falling over
You can finish your carving with a wood sealer or paint

Hard Wood Carving

Choose your wood (you want to start with a minimum of 2 different woods: WALNUT (dark brown), CHERRY (reddish), OAK (tan)
Tape the two blocks together.
Optional: Sand the top block surface using the bench sander, if necessary
Draw the design on the top block.
Cut out the shapes for your design from both blocks at the same time
Once all the parts are cut, remove the tape from the blocks and fit the pieces together like a puzzle
Glue the pieces together. You will end up with two sculptures, one in the intended colors, and the other in the opposite color pattern.
Fill any gaps with wood filler. You can use colored wood filler to create additional colors, or using matching wood filler to extend an area.
Drill a hole for the eye and use wood filler to fill it in
Sand wood joints smooth (sandpaper, sanding twigs, belt sander)
Optional: You can ebonize any of the woods using an iron/vinegar solution that will make your wood darker, if you want a third color
Optional: Sand the sides flat with the belt sander for a max of 10 seconds
Sand your finished pendant with progressively finer sandpaper - 320, 400, 500, 600, 1000, 1500- dip your wood in water and re-sand it at 500 and between each level higher
Oil your finished sculpture
Optional: tiny eye hook on top to make it hangable.

Documenting

PHOTOGRAPH your project (3 photos: Front, Back, Together)
Fill out the REFLECTION
Record a FLIP VIDEO
EMAIL an important adult about your work

Research & Design

RESEARCH

Research photos of the animal or creature you want to make
Be specific - "dog" is too generic, instead choose a type of dog, "bull terrier", etc.
Find at least one of each view: side view, top view, front view, back view

DESIGN: Hardwood

This design should have enough details to make your creature instantly recognizable
Start your design by trying to match the animals form in real life from the side view
Then simplify the colors and shapes into easier to draw elements. (So instead of twenty patches of grey and brown fur, have two bigger areas - one grey and one brown)
Be sure to keep enough detail that your animal is recognizable as the specific type.
You want to have at least 2 colors, but could have up to 4 colors. Your colors will not be the original colors of the animal - they will be different types of wood.

DESIGN: Softwood

This design should be drawn inside a 1" by 4" rectangle
If an area of your design sticks out from the rectangle, you'll need to glue some of your scrap wood to fill that spot
The three drawings (side view, front view, and top view) should have the same scale - so the size of each element is consistent across drawings

Softwood Carving: Whittling

Draw or cut out and glue a drawing of your creature onto your wood block on the side, front, and top views.
Optional: If some areas of your creature stick up beyond the block, you'll need to cut some of your negative space off and glue it to that area
Using carving gloves and a carving tool (blade 6), remove the negative spaces - first from the side view, then the top, then the front view.
Have your original drawing or reference photos on hand to check back on your carving accuracy as you go
To prevent too much wood from being removed in an area, make a cut where you want your next piece of wood removed to stop - this will improve accuracy
Cutting with the grain of the wood removes a lot of wood quickly - cutting against the grain makes choppy irregular cuts and jagged edges
Continue carving the main body elements, and then focus on the details
Other tools you can use:
- Wood Rasp - filing away areas
- Sand Paper - sanding
- Sanding Twig - sandpaper on a stick
- Blades 1-5 (inside the handle) are great for creating details
Once you have your sculpture carved, you can finish it by sanding and then oiling or painting the surface

Hardwood Carving: 2+ Wood Type Animal with Saws

Draw or cut out and glue a drawing of your creature onto your wood block
Optional: if parts of your drawing stick out passed your block, you'll need to cut some of your negative space and glue it to the area you need more wood
Tape your two blocks together
Cut out both blocks at the same time - you need to keep your saw vertical - not angled or the bottom block will be a different shape than the top one (by a lot!)
Once you've cut out all the elements that are different colors, take the blocks apart and put them together like a puzzle.
You'll end up with two different versions of the same animal. [In the example on the left, I took the extra body and face from the fox leftovers and turned it into a lion - you can do that too, or repeat the original animal in an alternate coloration]
Optional: if you have any elements that you wish were much darker, you can use the ebonizing solution
Glue the parts together using wood glue.
Sand the two side views using the bench sander (10 seconds max)
Drill a hole for the eye.
Use wood filler to fill any holes (there are 5 color options)
Finish by sanding to a high level and applying oil to shine

FIND A PHOTO OF AN ANIMAL

DRAW YOUR DESIGN ON THE WOOD STACK

CUT OUT THE WOOD STACK ALL AT ONCE

SWITCH THE WOOD COLORS TO INCREASE CONTRAST AND MAKE THE DESIGN MORE CLEAR

GLUE THE WOOD PIECES

Things to Consider

Your animal should be unique enough to be specific - not "dog", instead "great dane"; not "bird", instead "heron"
You won't get every detail in - prioritize which details are most important to communicate that specific animal
Consider exaggerating or simplifying certain parts to emphasize the animal type
Consider an animal or creature with good negative space - the silhouette should be interesting to look at

Deer Example

Draw your animal designs - BIG drawings should touch the edges of the boxes

Draw or transfer your animals onto the wood (tape your hardwood stack on the edge; cut and glue your softwood into the ideal shape for your animal)

Cut out the outside edges of your animals (the scroll saw is faster, the jewelry saw in your toolbox also works)

Draw the front view on your softwood before starting to carve

Wood Animal Ideas

4 Photos of your Wood Sculptures

Use a solid background (no distracting lines, shadows, table, or other stuff) like the photo cube
Use quality lighting (soft shadow from artwork only)
Photo should be in focus, with artwork centered
One photo of your softwood sculpture
One photo each of your hardwood sculpture and your sculpture made from the excess pieces
One photo of all three together
Four photos in total

Email an Image of Your Project

Follow the email instructions to make sure you get full credit for your email.