My first, awhile back.

[HillBilly]

I`ve only had my little baby up and running since around the first of March, but I thought I`d share with all of you a bit of what I`ve been able to do so far.

I`ve had my fair share of trying to get the photographic images to correctly respond to the "3d" aspect that I know this "Lady" is capable of. I`m learning each day, as I beleive most others are. Many of you have several years of experience in the use of the software necessary to get these photographs to be shown correctly, and I do appreciate everything all of you have posted. Please, don`t give up on us that so much look toward you for our own help in the doing of such.

Anyhow, here`s a brief look at what it took to get my "third" carving to come out halfway respectfully.

The first picture is the photo I used, the second is the extreme I went to to give it a shot, while the third is the result of it all.

Gezz, this learning curve is something else....LOL

[HillBilly]

Just to add to this a litle bit. I did move past that somewhat (however have not given up), and try something that I thought would be a bit simpler for the the time being.

I gave it a shot at doing some simple signs, as I figured I might have asked to much of myself out of the gate, so to say (As always test yourself, you`ll never know unless ya try).

I did a little something for my neighborhood store that so graciously provides me with the fuel to keep me up so late to invision some of this. (Besides we did get to hang the sample in the window...<grin>)

As always though, "The Grandson" comes first, so we did another in that regard. Played with the paints this time. That worked, for me, the wife was happy.

We also downloaded the "Last Supper" and ran that as well. Used the colored pencil trick that was posted as well as used crayons on the frame, along with a little bit of time in the oven to warm it up before the "rubbing".

The last one I`m providing tonight, is one that I shipped out to one of the moderators of my own site, as she kind`a requested it, and it did give me a chance to try out the use of a gold-leafing, just a bit.

Like I said before, "Don`t ever give up". "There`s no such thing as a problem, only a solution that hasn`t been found just yet"...<grin>

[Bill]

Hello HillBilly,
Excellent! You have done some very nice work in a short time thanks for the pictures http://www.carvewright.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[oju392]

I'd like to know about the colored pencil trick. Tried searching for it, but did not see it anywhere.

[pamjmayo]

The colored pencil "trick" is really fun. Just buy a set of kids colored pencils and color your carving any way you want...any color. When you are done, do a light coating of stain, let it dry and spray a sealer on it. Pastels look beautiful under a white wash.

Pam

[pamjmayo]

Hillbilly, you are amazing. These signs are terrific. What kind of paint did you use on the store sign. I love the finish on it. But here's the biggest question. What did you do to your picture of your grandson. I haven't got a picture to come out nearly as well. You've discovered something wonderful.

[HillBilly]

Thanks everone for the compliments, they are much appreciated.

As for the "colored pencil trick" oju392, pamjmayo is correct. I used nothing more then some quite inexpensive pencils I found at a local Family Dollar store. They allow you to add only a slight amount of color unlike acrylic paints do. As for the "waxing and rubbing" the outer frame with the crayons. It was jsut something that came to mind as I was buying the pencils, so I thought I`d give it a try. I was hoping to get a somewhat antique look to the carving. For the most part I was fairly pleased with it.

As for your questions pamjmayo. The paint used was just simple acrylic that I got at Wall Mart for about a dollar each. The sign was carved in some inexpensive 3/4 pine from Home Depot or Lowes, don`t quite remember which one I got it from to tell you the truth. I sealed it and stained it with a colonal maple from ACE Hardware after it dried, I finished it off with beleive it or not some "spraycan semi-gloss" from the same.

Now as to the picture of the grandson. That was my forth attempt at using my machine. I had really wanted to try doing the photographs and get them to at least come out about halfway reasonable. After the fist carving I did and saw how the machine responded to light and dark, which was also an image file. I started looking into some programs I had to alter the images somewhat. I didn`t have Photoshop at that time, so I used a ten year old program I had called "Micrografx Picture Publisher Version 6.0a". Instead of just making the image grayscale I left it in color however removed most all the red and highlighted the blue spectrum more so. This allowed me at least, to better see the lighter areas and have a much clearer idea of what I hoped it would become a "raised relief area. Now don`t go beleiving I didn`t spend quite a while doing it as well. I beleive I worked on that picture for about four or five hours to get it the way I wanted it, and that was after having carved it as number three and finding that I had mistakingly left in an area of darkness in his hair that produced a significant dimpling along the top of his head.

I now have Photoshop as well as CorelDRAW (a much older version), so now I`ve got even more stuff to figure out.

By the way. In case anyone is interested I have a website that deals mostly with retail workers. However we do run some live chatroom programing that allows for the use of multiple rooms, and as such could be used to hold discussions on the CarveWright/CompuCarve in a seperate room that could be made. If anyone would care to give it a look see. The community is moderated and spam as well as trolling, cursing, etc is always kept to a minimum. Please feel free to vist us. I`ve added the link in a signature line below.

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