Duane Cartwright carves a fun cherry greenman
The greenman as a carving subject is more popular now than ever, and in his many guises, it’s easy to see why. The greenman also has different meanings to different people and cultures around the world, but for me it’s how we put a face to nature; the fusion of man and nature. How we hold nature and its future in our hands, but also how we are entwined with it. For us woodcarvers, we are even more entwined as our chosen medium is wood/timber, and in carving a greenman we’re returning life to the wood.
The other good thing about carving a greenman is it’s great practice for carving facial features, like the eyes and mouth, which can be challenging and take practice – even poorly carved facial features can sometimes work, and even add character to the greenman carving. For this greenman, and some others I’m carving at the moment, I’m trying to follow a theme of carving each greenman so the foliage matches the species of wood. This greenman is carved in American black cherry wood (Prunus serotina), so the leaves, flowers and cherries are from the black cherry tree, and the butterflies and mouse are species that live or feed from the tree. This theme in theory could be used with most species of wood. It comes down to researching the tree’s leaf shapes and the creatures that live in and around the particular tree.
Things you will need
This list of tools is what I used and is a guide only. Try using the tools you own before buying any new tools as this carving can be carved with any basic selection of tools.
Tools
- Bandsaw or jigsaw
- Pillar drill or hand drill
- Scroll saw or coping saw
- No.9, 14mm
- No.9, 5mm
- No.11, 3mm
- No.7, 6mm
- No.7, 9mm
- No.6, 4mm
- No.6, 14mm
- No.3, 8mm
- No.2, 20mm
- No.4, 9mm fishtail gouge
- ‘V’-tool, 2mm
- Hooked skew
- Depth gauge
- Dividing callipers
- Laser level
Wood
- American black cherry – 310 x 240 x 25mm
Design
When designing your greenman, start with an oval egg shape, and draw a cross in the centre. Then draw some eyes on the horizontal line and the nose on the vertical line. Then using a list of the leaves, flowers and creatures you want to add, start to draw the placements of the leaves, rearranging and redrawing them until you’re happy with how it looks. If you find drawing difficult, then make some cardboard templates of the leaf shapes you want to include. Then draw around the templates, and keep rearranging and redrawing them until you’re happy with how it looks. Of course, you can use the design provided or even make some changes to it, making it more personal and to your liking.
Whether you use the design provided, or you make your own, start by printing the design at the required size for your piece of timber, then either glue the printout onto the wood or trace it on by rubbing a carbon stick over the back of the print and trace over it. Now if you want a pierced relief as I have done, you will need to drill and cut away the waste with a bandsaw/jigsaw or by hand with a coping-saw, or you could carve it as a relief panel and carve the background down to a thickness of about 5mm from the back.