Fretsaw project gallery: 'Sisyphus meets Indiana Jones' added

[yamatetsu]

"Cutie"

14,7 x 15,5cm, backer board 4mm, cutie 4mm.



Nothing to say about this one. It's cute.


"Horse"

15 x 19,5cm, backer board 6mm, horse 4mm



This one has an 'oldschool cartoon character' feel to me. Silly, but likeable.


"Bon appetit"

21 x 21,9cm, backer board 6mm, vulture 4mm



This one taught me not to use the cheapest plywood, especially not in combination with a dull blade. Terrible tearouts on the backside, took a looong time to sand those down.
Saved a few cents, gained a lot more work and frustration.

[yamatetsu]

"Hagar the Horrible'

21 x 30cm, backer board 4mm, Hagar 4mm

[danny_galaga]

I'm always impressed with these sort of 'one shot's skills. That is, the type of skills where one mistake and you either throw it away or live with it. Water colours are another. What youve just put down is it, unlike oil paints where you normally have several DAYS to just keep going over it.

Well done 🧐

[yamatetsu]

I'm always impressed with these sort of 'one shot's skills. That is, the type of skills where one mistake and you either throw it away or live with it.

Heh. Funny that you should mention that, because this actually is the second shot. The first one went so bad that I threw it away.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty relaxed about this kind of project, because this hobby taught me that with patience, much practice and perseverance ... Murphy's Law is still out to get me. I have to pull off a flawless victory yet, so knowing that something will probably go wrong, I'm not that stressed out when it happens.
I have also learned not to be a bloody perfectionist all the time, because if I settle for good/very good, I'm getting more things done.

[bobbyb13]

Love the Hagar one!  This is such cool work.
I think it might be hard for anyone who doesn't engage in a subtractive art like this to appreciate it fully.

This lesson you are talking about I learned shaping surfboards.

Once you take it off, it is gone, and you can't put it back to take another shot at it.

When people ask I always refer to it as foam sculpture.

I'm always impressed with these sort of 'one shot's skills. That is, the type of skills where one mistake and you either throw it away or live with it.

Heh. Funny that you should mention that, because this actually is the second shot. The first one went so bad that I threw it away.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty relaxed about this kind of project, because this hobby taught me that with patience, much practice and perseverance ... Murphy's Law is still out to get me. I have to pull off a flawless victory yet, so knowing that something will probably go wrong, I'm not that stressed out when it happens.
I have also learned not to be a bloody perfectionist all the time, because if I settle for good/very good, I'm getting more things done.

[yamatetsu]

I think it might be hard for anyone who doesn't engage in a subtractive art like this to appreciate it fully.

True dat. The guy who made the viking that I copied also made some cute gnomes. Now take a wild guess which ones most people liked more 

[pbj]

David was a pillar of the community and pulled a thorn out of my paw once, don’t talk trash about gnomes, bro.

[yamatetsu]

David the Trash Gnome

[yamatetsu]

"Johnny Bravo"

20,5 x 24,5cm, backer board 4mm, Johnny 4mm





"Johnny Bravo"

21 x 24cm, backer board 4mm, Johnny 4mm



I like him. He's silly.

[yamatetsu]

"Hong Kong Phooey"

21 x 24cm, backer board 4mm, Hong Kong Phooey 4mm

[yamatetsu]

"Mr. Lizzardo"

23 x 28cm, backer board 4mm, Mr. Lizzardo 4mm



I wanted to do a more traditional pattern that gave me a challenge, and boy, did I get one. This thing is almost completely about very fine details, and lots upon lots of 'em.
25 - 30 hours of focused concentration, very careful sawing and even more careful sanding.

Despite all of that there are some spots where the cheap ass veneer cracked . Maybe later on I'll touch them up with a bit of stain, right now I'm just glad that Mr. Lizzardo is finished.

[yamatetsu]

"Sisyphus meets Indiana Jones"

45 x 60cm, backer boards 4mm, landscape 4mm, Sisyphus & Indy 4mm



Found this cartoon by Mark Parisi ("Off the Mark"), just had to do it. That look on Indy's face is priceless.

This seems to be a simple pic, but it actually was a lot of work to get it done (cutting all those simple straight lines ... two holes to drill, sawing the line up, sawing the line down... about more than 150 times). It didn't help that it's too big for my fretsaw. Because of that, cutting the letters was tricky, I couldn't cut Sisyphus, Indy & the rocks out of the 'landscape' board, and some of the straight lines were tricky also.
This time, I used stain instead of paint, looks great.

[bobbyb13]

 
These continue to get more fun!
Well chosen piece.

The look of the stain is awesome.

[yamatetsu]

The look of the stain is awesome.

It really is. Sadly, it's a bit impractical as it's very hard to find pics that only use shades of brown 

[bobbyb13]

Well then you haven't looked down the wood dye rabbithole yet maybe?

https://www.woodworkingshop.com/product/CG21713/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw2dG1BhB4EiwA998cqENqZ7QKAL4pY79MQqGqdxjHM8pCeFdVXbwqLVpQeClaZt_JrhjwLRoCtBQQAvD_BwE

I've used dyes for cresting arrows and you can get some cool stuff out of it.
The kind I used was actually powder and I know there are both water and alcohol soluble ones depending on what your end goal finish needs to be.

[yamatetsu]

Well then you haven't looked down the wood dye rabbithole yet maybe?

I have tried some ready-to-use stuff, the brown colors work (mostly well), the others ... Let's say that green and white ended up in the trash. Stain is also a bit unpredictable, if you look at the inner parts of the letters P, D and O you'll notice that each one looks different and all of them look different from the rest of the board, even though it's the same stain and the same wood.

So, if I'm doing a pic that has many parts over weeks or even months, I cut out a few parts, paint them and glue them. I don't want to risk that parts of the some color are looking different.

Plus, there is a risk of overdoing it. I have stained pieces to get a light brown. 1st pass, too light. 2nd pass, too light. 3rd pass, almost black  .
Now that I think of it, I had to paint this one because the stain got too dark.

[bobbyb13]

The stain bit is definitely an art all its own.
Choosing the wood you work with counts massively but there is no way to control grain and density of course so it is inevitable that you get a spectrum of color no matter what.
Sometimes that winds up very cool!
Others it will just make you nutty.

[yamatetsu]

Choosing the wood you work with counts massively

I can only get wood from a nearby DIY store and the choice I have is "Take the least warped one." So, finding a board that has a nice veneer, isn't damaged and isn't warped doesn't happen. I'm seriously contemplating switching to the dark side, using MDF for the backer boards, as I then have something solid to glue the warped pieces onto.