Stump Dragon

[Will Fogarty]

Hi All,

The recent storm left me with this stump at the front of my house. I thought it would make a good Dragon and it's turning out alright so far.

I need some advice.... I want to use some flame to bring out the detail when it's finished but I've never done this.

I would appreciate any hints, tips or advice you would have to offer.

My plan is also to give him lots of scales and I have an idea how i'm going to do this but once again would welcome any advice.

Thanks, Will

[dervishcarving]

i do a lot of scales, trick is to use the side of the bar not the flat. mark out the pattern first, its easy to go off on a tangent otherwise. each scale takes up to 4 cuts the way i do em so its quite slow BUt they do look like proper scales. cut the lines first then cyt-again using the flat of teh bar into the scale, gives it a flat surface and each one looks like it is overlapped by the ones above it. a little hard to explain but easy to show.. u dotn live in NE scotland do ya?

the scales along his throat (underside) to the belly i do like a snake or a crocodile, wide flat scales.

as for burning, get yerself a decent blowtorch, i got mine from B&Q and it does fine. the hotter the flame the better

scorching is great to make 'shaddows' between areas of different height, like between scales. scorch the gaps between the scales and then use yer sander to remove the scorch from the top of the scales, just leavin the shaddows under the edges

[Will Fogarty]

Thanks for that Dervish, that's really helpfull, cheers

 

i do a lot of scales, trick is to use the side of the bar not the flat. mark out the pattern first, its easy to go off on a tangent otherwise. each scale takes up to 4 cuts the way i do em so its quite slow BUt they do look like proper scales. cut the lines first then cyt-again using the flat of teh bar into the scale, gives it a flat surface and each one looks like it is overlapped by the ones above it. a little hard to explain but easy to show.. u dotn live in NE scotland do ya?

the scales along his throat (underside) to the belly i do like a snake or a crocodile, wide flat scales.

as for burning, get yerself a decent blowtorch, i got mine from B&Q and it does fine. the hotter the flame the better

scorching is great to make 'shaddows' between areas of different height, like between scales. scorch the gaps between the scales and then use yer sander to remove the scorch from the top of the scales, just leavin the shaddows under the edges

[Goodpig]

Sorry.No advice for you sir. Only played with a blowtorch and never done scales but it sounds like dervish has it it covered. Anyway, that is coming along great, perfect idea for the stump.

Look forward to finished pics.

[TheJerBear]

Dude, just so you know: this carving was getting some attention on a site called reddit and people that have never heard of you or reddit keep showing it to me and asking if I had seen it. I live in the US, so congratulations on the media attention. May I ask what your carving experience is? Perhaps we have similar origins.

 

Anyway, cheers mate. I hope that in an ironic twist of fate you are being besieged by all your Facebook friends asking you if you have seen this flower that some guy carved out of a tree stump.

 

Art Hard,

J

[Will Fogarty]

Hi TheJerBear,

Yaeh I knew about the reddit post. A local lady took a photo and put! it up, she reckoned it had been seen by over 300,000, which is a bit staggering !

I've been carving about 18 months and love it. Doing my first carving demo next weekend so things are going well. Attaching a link to my Facebook page.

 

https://www.facebook.com/william.fogarty.9

 

I saw your Brave, awesome piece of work, well done, how long are you carving ?

 

Will Fogarty, Ireland

[TheJerBear]

I've been carving for about a year and a half, and even though that's not very long in the grand scheme of things I'm pretty sure this is what I'm going to do with my life. Haven't done any demos or shows or anything. Haven't even BEEN to one, but I'm going to Ridgeway this coming year (probably only as a spectator), and someday I hope to be invited to Chetwynd and the Husky Cup.

[simonorourke]

I used an angle grinder with a burr disc for this one, worked really well.

 

Sent from my C6603 using Arbtalk mobile app

[timbernut]

I used an angle grinder with a burr disc for this one, worked really well.

 

Sent from my C6603 using Arbtalk mobile app

 

 

That is awesome!

[TheJerBear]

Wow that one looks awesome. Have you some pics from other angles?