The Scroll Shop

After buying a book on scroll sawing portraits by Gary Browning and taking one class at a nearby Woodcraft store, I decided to attempt doing family portraits. Now, understand: I can't draw a stick figure. If it has more than two lines in it, I'm dead in the water when it comes to drawing.

Since my husband is retired military and still sports a military haircut, I decided his portrait would be the one to start with. His portrait actually wasn't difficult to do, and you will find his finished portrait below.

Encouraged by the success of my husband's portrait, I eagerly went to work on one of me. I didn't have the computer technology at the time to assist me, so I used a light box under my photo to outline my picture on tracing paper, then did a lot of pencil work (and erasing) to end up with something that I thought might work. I double checked my lines many times, making sure I hadn't made a mistake that would drop a big piece of wood out of the picture. It wasn't until that last stroke of the scroll saw blade that I finally knew I had drawn it out ok. It always LOOKED like it would saw ok, but I've thought that many times only to make a cut that instantly wrecked the whole project.

Self Portrait

Based on this photo:

After doing this project, my portrait skills went to the dogs...literally! My next portrait was of a friend's dog, Buddy.  His beautiful mug shares a spot in this section, too, with a copy of the actual photo.