Custom Woodcarving

Interested in a custom woodcarving?  You’ve come to the right person.  Dylan Goodson specializes in bringing your dreams and ideas into reality.  Although Dylan can (and has), carved just about everything, he excels at carving landscapes in relief style and realistic 3-dimensional human figures.

If it can be imagined, Dylan can carve it for you!

Commissions of original ideas and concepts welcome.  Dylan will not do reproductions of other artist’s work.

 

The Process:

Gun rack with a relief scene carved into it featuring cowboys and a log cabin.
This gun rack was carved for a client’s antique Winchester rifle. The client simply told Dylan what elements he wanted included in the relief scene.

If you have an idea for a custom woodcarving, please contact Dylan to discuss the project.  Before the carving process begins, Dylan will provide you with concept drawings and/or pictures of a clay mock-up so you can see how your custom woodcarving will look.  Click here to read the terms and conditions that Dylan uses when working on commission.  The terms serve as a contract.  Projects are completed in chronological order based on the date when the deposit is made for a project.  A down payment of at least 25% of the total price will be required before carving begins.

There are a number of factors that influence the cost of a custom woodcarving.  In addition to physical size of the project, features such as wood preference, complexity of the design, amount of detail required, and finish type (painted or stained), determine project cost.

The design process can take many routes, check out the pictures below to see how a custom woodcarving can evolve from idea to art.

Relief Carvings – what is needed

collage of a photo of a log cabin, a line drawing made from the photo and a picture of the custom woodcarving made from the pattern.
Reference photo, pattern made from the photo and the finished relief carving.

Imagine being able to immortalize a favorite photo or landscape scene in wood.  A single photograph is all that’s needed for Dylan to create a custom relief carving of your favorite person, place, or thing.

Relief woodcarving involves carving images into a flat piece of wood and removing excess wood around the focal points to create depth, light, and shadow, in a way that gives great dimension to the images.  Dylan specializes in relief carving, and has won many awards for his detailed work.  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the life Dylan can carve into wood is beyond words.

Some ideas of projects that require relief carving include, but are not limited to:

    • Landscape scenes
    • Portrait carvings
    • Cabinet doors
    • Fireplace mantels and surrounds
    • Gun Racks
    • Interior and exterior doors
    • Signs

Please visit the gallery of Dylan’s Relief Carvings to see examples of pictorial relief scenes.

 

 

Clay model of Dylan's Magician carving. Models like this are extremely useful when doing a custom woodcarving

Figure Carvings – what is needed

The art of carving wood in three dimensions (or “in the round” as most woodcarvers say), presents unique challenges and endless possibilities.  So whether you want a custom designed nativity, or are looking for a hand carved Santa Claus to complete your collection, Dylan can handle it.  Want a bust or figure carving of a favorite family member?  Dylan can do that too.  Not surprisingly, in order to carve good realistic figures in 3D it requires a great deal more reference material.  So for example if you wanted to commission Dylan to carve a bust of a family member for you, then you would need photos of that person from as many angles as possible.  Front, back and side views at the very least.  (Compare this to commissioning a relief portrait, where you can get by with just one picture).  This requirement of extra reference material is reflected in the additional amount of labor that it takes to do a custom woodcarving in the round, as compared to doing a carving in relief, and it is also reflected in the final cost.

There truly is no limit to what can be carved in 3D.  But here are a few ideas to help get your creative juices flowing:

  • Portrait Busts
  • Realistic Figures
  • Religious Figures
  • Staircase Railings
  • Staircase Post Finials

Contact Dylan to commission your hand carved custom woodcarving.