Henry

Henry - 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 1 1/2" - acrylic on wood - 2013

This is Henry, he's one of the newest snowmen I've made. I'll be selling Henry and a whole bunch of his friends at my Etsy shop SnowmenandSanta and at several Holiday Craft Markets this season.

Here's the process I go through to create one of these snowmen.

First, I draw several snowmen on a piece of luan wood.

Next, I cut out the snowmen with a scroll saw.

Then the luan is lightly sanded and painted with gesso.

I then have to redraw some of the details that have been covered by the gesso.

The snowman is then painted.

Once the snowman is complete I cut a piece of wood for the background, then it's sanded and gessoed.

I paint the sky and snowdrift and when that's dry I add the falling snow.

Once everything is painted it has to be assembled; I add a sawtooth hanger then glue a wooden spacer to the front of the piece. When the glue is slightly set I also add a coarse-thread screw to permanently affix the spacer to the background. 

Later I glue the snowman to the spacer and the piece is nearly complete. 

The last bit of business is choosing a name for the snowman and signing my name to the back of the piece.