Valentino's leg, the ongoing saga

 One leg finished, or maybe not. I haven't veneered anything for years so I've been reacquainting myself  with the technique as I've been going along. I may come back to this if I think I could improve it or tidy it up without causing unnecessary damage.It's always the way; by the time I finish I'll have the skill to begin.!

So, onto the other leg. This is a graphic of the moon which looks hideously tricky to approach. I'm starting with the main block of colour on the face and all the features can be laid over it.

 Some wood veneers are very brittle and break or crumble when cut down to very small pieces so sometimes, as is the case with the red veneer around the side of the face, you need to put the woods that can be re cut and overlaid upon on first. The red wood will be surrounded with dark Indian Rosewood which is very brittle when it's cut into thin lines. Had I put it on first and tried to put the red veneer down the middle afterwards,I think it would crumble. Well, that's the theory I'm sticking to today, you'll know shortly if it works.

Entering the digital age with a chisel and a mallet

Friends have told me to get online so finally I've taken the plunge and started this blog to put some of my sculpture out into the digital world.I've been sculpting,mainly in wood, for over 20 years and have carved a variety of different subjects over the years, relief carvings, animals, furniture. What I've chosen up until now to concentrate on is motorcycle racing as I've have had an interest in bike racing for many years (in fact, racing runs in the family ).I wanted to do contemporary carving rather than restoration or apeing older styles. After all, all the old styles were contemporary once! So I mixed the two together to see where it might go.

So let's just jump in to what I'm working on at the moment.

At the moment I'm veneering some graphics onto a figure I've been carving. This is a carving of Valentino Rossi, the MotoGP rider. This is my first portrait carving and has taken an age to complete.Getting it right without getting it wrong and learning to sculpt faces has made this the most challenging piece I've ever undertaken.The eyes have yet to be veneered and the hair will be stained and then the whole figure will be oiled.

 This is Valentino Rossi, carved in Limewood standing 91cm in height. The veneers you can see are Yew for the face, Madrona burr for the suns rays and Indian Rosewood for the dark facial details.











The elements are built up bit by bit. Its not possible to create the whole image and afterwards apply it. The curve of the leg alters the relationship between each piece so they must be custom-fitted to match to it's neighbour then the hole is carved out to sink it into.

Almost finished.