"Wild Man" From A Tree Limb

In the beginning I didn't intend for this to be much more than a momentary pastime carving. But the more I carved, the more that I began to like it.

Like a lot of my carvings this one began with a piece of dry poplar limb that I picked up off the ground. Basswood is nice but there's just something super special about picking up a piece of found wood right up off the forest floor then transforming it into something to admire. Just don't get much better than that in my raw approach to carving.

Also in the beginning I never intended for it to make it to the blog or I would have taken more pictures along the way. The picture to the far left shows the limb just after I'd roughed it out on the bandsaw. The original branch had two limbs forking outward and directly across from each other and yes, outreaching arms is the first thing that went through my mind. I love finding wood like this since there are so many possibilities.

Also notice how the wood of the right arm is dark as compared to the light color of the left arm. Sometimes poplar can vary in color from white to cream to even shades of green. After carving I then went on to lightly sand it with 220 grit paper and painted it with watered down acrylics.