Foot Carving.

Sitting at David’s Feet...

Let’s continue with the life of “Foxy David”!

The time has come for him to stand on his own good feet! When I first make his legs and feet (as you can see in the picture above) they are large, over sized, looking like he should be going to his doctor to get something for his bloated legs and feet. Never-the-less I do try to place them in the right positions, so that the only thing left is to begin detailing them. We will do the doctor’s work by carving them down to look like a healthy, yet resting worrier kings kind of feet. OK, just normal male feet with comfortable sandals on.

Then, as you can see, I’ve already placed the soles of the sandals onto his feet. I rolled a thin roll of clay, brushed the bottom edges of his foot with slurry and attached the roll all around. Then I folded the clay against the food all around for a good connection. Yes, it is rough and crude but this will become the edges of the soles of the sandals. This is the base now upon which we detail the rest of the foot.

Because the foot is over sized it will now be carved back to fit the size of the overall figure. Usually I use the head size of the figure as my reference point for the proportions of the whole figure, but, in this case we have a fox head, also over sized for affect so this will not work in this case. His feet would be too large for his overall figure. So, now we need to be a little creative and measure from our own bodies. I’ve already made his arms to the correct proportions of his body so let’s use that. So I take my ruler, measure my own foot and compare that to the upper arm of my body. Beginning at the bent elbow lay the ruler along the upper arm towards the shoulder and see how your foot compares. Then we go to the figure already made, make a measurement of the same percentage of the your foot size on the upper arm and you have the size his feet should be.

The tools I used for this project.

So I cut back the front of his foot, keeping the sole of the sandal intact. I would trim the sole all around after the whole foot was completed. Once the size is confirmed the whole foot and leg must be carved down to match the new smaller size chosen for the foot.

Then, when I finished with the foot, I cut back the edge of the sole to fit. (Size 9.5 W, of course!)

Now we wait for further drying...

You can see that the finished product will need more detailing later for now the clay is to wet for that purpose. When the clay becomes leather hard I will again go over the feet to continue fine tuning the toes, making the leather straps thinner and finer etc.

Centipede to his doctor, “Doc. when my feet hurt, I hurt all over.”

“Look out for the path that your feet must take, and your ways will be secure.”

Prov. 4:26