"Tweety Bird"

It's safe to say "Tweety" is one of so many people's favorite cartoon character. He also happens to be very special to a friend's wife and will make an awesome surprise gift. You may recall my last carving, "Double Nuts," well when Brad's wife saw the carving she "hinted" about her favorite cartoon character of all times... "Tweety," and right then and there I knew a surprise gift is in order.

As with so many carvings, some appear to be simple to carve due to their shape, detail, etc. Yet, sometimes the (so called) simple carvings can be the most frustrating!. I'd say "Tweety" worked up quickly but making a couple subtle features caught me off guard. First off, I could not find a profile photo of "Tweety." As a kid I was a cartoon junkie and every Saturday morning, (just after the TV "Test Pattern" went off the screen) I was glued to the TV for a morning of cartoons with my bag of chips and Coca-Cola. As often as I watched "Tweety" get the better of "Sylvester" I can't tell you what "Tweety" looks like from the side! So I went with my "gut!"

Starting out with a piece of basswood, I begin to cut away everything that doesn't look like "Tweety!"

 

Don't let the flat spot on "Tweety's" head fool you. His head is large enough so I have plenty of wood to work with.

 

Although, that flat spot did drive me to frustration! It took longer than I thought to get his head round.

 

 But I managed!

 

His basic shape worked up quickly and now to try to work in the proper sizes of his arms, legs, etc.

 

I am (what is known as) a power-carver. I use a Mastercarver rotary tool with various burrs/bits to shape and remove wood. As such I've had a long struggle with wood grain swelling when I use water based sealers/paints. As I've learned from the Woodcarving Illustrated Forum, power carving is not a friend to wood grain. The grain is severely damaged by the cutting tools which results in far more surface smoothing than if you use a sharp carving instrument. Consequently, I've been plagued by texture problems through most of my pieces. I'm also spraying the piece with water to actually raise the grain so I can finish sand the piece again with an extremely fine sand paper/burr.

Finally, after my thirty-seventh piece since 2009, I'm actually seeing an improvement in my finish work

 

 Next we fit him to the base...

Time for sealer.

 

...and then the color.

 "Tweety" stands 5 1/2" tall without the base. He's cut out of a 3" X 3" piece of basswood.

 The "tufts" of hair on his head are strands of plastic bristles taken from my shop broom!

 

He was sealed with Minwax 209. His colors are acrylic and sealed with clear Satin Polycrylic. His eyes are sealed with clear gloss Polycrylic.

 

I tawt I taw a putty tat.

I did, I did.

I did tee a putty tat!