Santa and Fawn

Santa figures are always fun to carve for the Christmas holidays.  I looked through many internet pictures and carving magazines and finally found and inspiration in Wood Carving Illustrated's winter 2017 issue.

I used an 8 inch diameter by 14 inch long piece of Colorado pine from my son's ranch in Coaldale, Colorado.

One of the major disadvantages of this pine is that it splinters very easily plus by the time I got it, it had several large splits known as checking.  This is because the log was very dry before I started to work on it.  It took a bit of creative carving to work around the splintering.

I enlarged the basic drawing from 10 inches to 14 inches using Photoshop then drew the outline on the log with a marker pen.

The next step is to remove the excess wood.

The bark was stripped off and a saw was used to remove large chunks of excess wood.

With any large carving make sure to sweep up the wood chips often in order to keep the work area clean.

Rough cutting takes the most time in order to develop the proper shape.

Start adding the details to each section.

Now comes the really fun part, the painting.  The paints used will be listed at the bottom of this article.

A dark base color is added to the beard and trim areas then white is dry brushed over the dark areas.

Lightly dry brush a bit of brown over the black boots

The eyes are a four color combination.  See the color list below.

The final process is to apply the sealer and antiquing. The antiquing mix is brushed all over the piece, let set for an hour then wipe off the surface excess. Try not to wipe off the antiquing in the low spots.  

Paint Information:

All paints are Ceramcoat acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby.

Face: AC Flesh - 02085

Eyes:
  Base color which forms the outer dark edge:  Midnight Blue - 02114 
  Iris: Denim Blue - 02477
  Pupils: Black
  Life light - white dot in the upper area of the iris:  White - 02505

Coat and Pants:
  Base color: Fire Red - 02083
  Dry brush shading: Navy blue

Mustache, Hat Fringe, Coat trim, and cuffs:
  Base color:  Black
  Dry brush over color: White - 02505

Boots:
  Base Color: Black
  Dry brush over color: Medium brown

Fawn:
  Base color: Raw Sienna - 02411
  Dry brush over color:  Medium brown
  Eyes, mouth, and hoves: Black
  Spots: AC Flesh - 02085
  Breast, inside ear, and rear end:  White - 02505

Antiquing:
  Base: 1 quart Boiled Linseed Oil
  Color: 2 inch extrusion of oil base Burnt Umber
  Note:  Mix thoroughly together then brush all over piece. Wait one hour then wipe off excess.

Optional Antiquing method:
Brush Walnut Translucent Gel Stain over a small area then wipe off the excess.  Continue until the piece has been completely covered.
 
Sealer
Spray using either Deft or oil based polyethylene semi-gloss.