People are often surprised at how quickly I can carve something. As I was finishing up teaching an introductory carving class on how to carve a dogwood flower in relief that took approximately 4 hours for the students, i demonstrated that I could carve the same flower in less than 10 minutes. I did so for three reasons.
Reason one: I demonstrated how to carve fast because some students were very tentative and unsure about how to get the shapes they wanted and as a result they nibbled away at the wood, tiny slivers at a time. This is normal and common among anyone trying something for the first time. Especially so when an expert is nearby, presumably evaluating them and their abilities with a critical eye. They do not want to make a mistake. My demonstration was partly intended to show how them that when you have practice and a clear idea of the shapes you want, you can really speed things up by carving the low spots away aggressively. But the risk in this is that carvers can carve messily – tearing wood and gouging too far into another piece you want to keep. This works against the goal of carving a beautiful piece that is crisp and clean, and does not speed things up because the carver has to recover from the mess, making adjustments to the original design and having to go over the sculpture again with a few cleaning cuts with knife and gouge. I have found that a few cleaning cuts often stretch into many cleaning cuts….
Reason two: I demonstrated how to carve more quickly because some students, in their nervousness about taking things too far, didn’t take them far enough. This is also normal. These students know the dangers of cutting off a piece they want to keep. However, my experience is that nibbling away at a carving often works against getting more bold curves and dramatic curves, and students end up with a rather blah carving that doesn’t really grab attention. Shadows are muted, and the drama falls flat. The beginning carver is often dissatisfied with this and must either give up or go back and recarve the piece, which takes much more time. Carving deep early on, focusing on the sculptural shape first, solves this problem.
Reason three: I showed students the value of carving quickly because it can help maintain the overall vision of the piece. Some students get so focused on each individual cut they miss the forest for the trees. By this I mean they lose the overall shape of the sculpture because they are so attentive to the current cut. This is akin to the carver who starts by carving a feather on a block rather than first cutting out the entire shape of the duck. It can be done but not fast, because every feather cut must adjust the overall shape of the sculpture and this is very inefficient. The principle of first cutting out the shape of the duck on a bandsaw applies to using gouges and knives. Focus on the overall shape before attending to the details and you can speed things up because you will know exactly where those details should go – where to start and stop your cuts, lines, and curves. As a result you limit the need to go back over the carving and redo various parts. Carving fast, focusing on the overall shape first, speeds up the sculpting.
I showed the students how I can carve fast because many of them were nervous. I understand that. It took me years to get over my fear of ruining a piece of wood, and I didn’t have anyone to show me. It was only after watching videos by Chris Pye that I learned about setting the sculptural shape quickly and early before worrying about the details. Sometimes watching someone do it is just what is needed.
Grant McMillan Wood Carvings 
Hi Grant! All true. I am coming to think that focusing on the shape you want to remove can have positive benefits. What tool to use? How is the grain sitting?