Follow My Carving - Gnarly Tree - Step 11

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in upcoming issue of Woodcarving Illustrated the "Follow My Carving" series was created to give you a an insider’s view on how the art is made.

Shaping the limbs is one of my favorite parts of carving these trees. Each one has its own personality.



I start at the stop cuts between the limbs. Angling the cut down into the stop cut helps give the illusion of the lower limb slightly receding behind the upper limb. The same treatment is given to the branch area on the left. These angled areas will cast deeper shadows than the surrounding wood and add to the illusion.

The rest of the limb is rounded using long, shallow strokes. These lines will later be broken up with short, shallow strokes.



The lower part of the limb is shaped in the next installment.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.