Carving & Painting An Heirloom Santa

Rating:
Summary: Not for the novice, but well presented
Review: I am on the finishing details of the featured santa project in this book, so I write from first-hand experience. This book describes (with both photos and captions) techniques to do highly detailed and stylized Santa carvings. You definitely need more than a benchknife and a v-tool to do these projects. Nevertheless, the progression of steps in the project is logically laid out, and if you have some carving experience under your belt, you'll do all right. One criticism I have is that most of the sequence photos on the project are in color. For me, color is actually distracting -- clear B&W photos reveal much more the sense of depth in a carving. There is a very good color gallery of other Santas, however, that should inspire. Painting technique is a bit complex, but yields distinctive results. One final thought...Bolinger's preface story about leaving his software executive job to carve full-time can be a strong temptation for a lot of us who like to work with wood!

Rating:
Summary: Not for the novice, but well presented
Review: I am on the finishing details of the featured santa project in this book, so I write from first-hand experience. This book describes (with both photos and captions) techniques to do highly detailed and stylized Santa carvings. You definitely need more than a benchknife and a v-tool to do these projects. Nevertheless, the progression of steps in the project is logically laid out, and if you have some carving experience under your belt, you'll do all right. One criticism I have is that most of the sequence photos on the project are in color. For me, color is actually distracting -- clear B&W photos reveal much more the sense of depth in a carving. There is a very good color gallery of other Santas, however, that should inspire. Painting technique is a bit complex, but yields distinctive results. One final thought...Bolinger's preface story about leaving his software executive job to carve full-time can be a strong temptation for a lot of us who like to work with wood!

Rating:
Summary: A simple (but large) project with excellant painting tips
Review: I would reccomend this book for someone looking to carve a larger european style Santa. The project detailed in the book is not diffiuclt, but it is time consuming due to its size. The painting techniques contained in this book are among the best I have found.

Rating:
Summary: Well done, but techniques are very sophisticated
Review: The illustrations are excellent and this book is very well written, but the techniques are sophisticated. The painting, in particular, is done with oils rather than the more common acrylics. It makes a beautiful product, but is difficult for the casual amateur to accomplish. I only rate it lower because of the difficulty in replicating the painting.