moving right along...

[randall rosenthal]

my wife thought it would be fun to have a progress series with this piece. ultimately it will be a cardboard box full of rubber banded baseball cards...bout half way through the carving. ill post some more and the painting later...for now.....and merry christmas!!

[Kevin Adams]

Randall--

Very neat, thanks for sharing this.

Would it be possible to briefly describe how you got from photo #2 to photo #3? It looks like you just roughed out the shapes with a plunge router maybe in #2, but it's a big jump to #3. Was this with both hand and powered tools or more power? Do you usually have a model or photo to work from or is this just from an imaginative mind?

Thanks again--your work is fantastic.

Kevin

[Ted Shrader]

Randall -

What a unique concept for a piece of art! Thanks for the progress pictures.

I'm with Kevin on the steps between pictures. Would it be possible to include a brief description as you walk us from step to step?

Regards,
Ted

[randall rosenthal]

yeah...thats a pretty good leap. what i did is carve down another layer by striking lines with a chisel and carving to the line with a variety of tools....mostly fish tail and bent gouges. then i lined the rubber bands with a matt knife and started on the shapes of the bunches of cards in the packs....this is totally unrealistic as i do have a bunch of cards and they dont naturally do this.... its scribe a line and then cut to it. once its all kinda roughed in i start attacking the negative space. since i dont really plan it ....its just how it falls out......it can be quite a challenge....

im at the point now where i am starting to think about individual cards and actually finishing surfaces.....i use power tools also...i like to glue sandpaper to things like saws knives and rotary disks...top and bottom. i have a little aid grinder also.. mostly i use the power tools for those thin line undercuts and face smoothing.

i wont even think about the box till the cards are 95 % done so i can abuse it now....a lesson learned the hard way.

thanks for the replies......oh....just making it up as i go...no model and i havent thought about the cards yet....but probably 50's (sandy kofax, mickey mantle, etc)

[Kevin Adams]

Thanks again, Randall. Please keep the photos coming...and how about a Say Hey Willie card in one of the stacks?!

Kevin

[randall rosenthal]

kevin.....heres a finished piece called "sweet memories" willies in there (upside down. its hard to believe but when i was a very little kid one of my best friends dad was dentist for the giants.....we used to go to the polo grounds and sit in the dugout during batting practice.....sat right next to willie a bunch of times and of course....played with the signed balls till they were ruined.

[Vic Castello]

I love "work in progress" pictures! Great stuff!

[Kevin Adams]

Randall--

Thanks, I had forgotten about that piece on your website. And while I didn't have any autographed baseballs from Willie, I did have his card (can't recall what year), but I gave it away somewhere along the way. I played centerfield myself as a kid and always remembered Willie saying that he honestly thought he could catch any ball that stayed in the park--he sure showed that over and over...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dK6zPbkFnE

Can't wait to see this piece progress--Happy New Year!

Kevin

[Howie French]

Randall -

your work is very impressive, I really enjoy the "in progress" pics as well.

thanks for taking the time to post.

Howie

[Zahid Naqvi]

Randall, thanks for posting this. I am fascinated by your carvings.

[Khalid Khattak]

Randall..this is one thing that i never saw in my 29years of life..unbelievable,remarkable,stunning,fabulous,be autiful and great job u did on it..and thanks for posting steps by step pictures of ur work..you are very creative man...
How long it took to complete this piece of art?
Thanks
Khalid

[Dewey Torres]

Randall,
Absolutely stunning. Can you please direct me to where I may find more form you?

[Kevin Adams]

Dewey, I'm not Randall, but I also admire his work:

http://www.randallrosenthal.com/

Enjoy!

Kevin

[Kristi Sprinkle]

Wow! At first, I thought these were bound up bundles of letters. Interesting to see the progression.

[randall rosenthal]

thanks....im about a month into the carving with about a week to go....then ill post pictures of the finished carving and the painting as it goes along. the last few steps are the most important and time consuming.....this is quite a challenge because of all the straight edges and 90 degree corners. its all eyeballed on the theory that if it looks right to me.....its right enough.