Create Fun Wooden Gifts: Fireboy and Watergirl Figurine

This blog post shares with you interesting and unique wooden gifts of the two main characters from the classic game Fireboy and Watergirl. We accompany each step of the production with motion pictures and explanations to give you a clearer understanding of carving wooden figurines.

Preparing the wood and tools

We still recommend using basswood for most wooden gifts. If your purchased wood is a long strip like ours, then it can be divided in half, as we intend to carve a pair of wooden figurines of the same size.

Draw a straight line down the center of the long strip of wood and use a saw to cut away vertically along the line.

Cutting out the beginnings of the Fireboy and Watergirl figurines

Search for the front view of Fireboy and Watergirl on the internet or refer to the sketch in the motion picture we have provided. They have a large proportional head, which allows the head to take up almost the full width of the wood and the body to be relatively small. When sketching, please pay attention to draw the center line to make the left-right symmetry of the wooden figurines, but the details of the head can be drawn freely, such as the shape of the fire.

After drawing the front view, cut the prototype of the wooden figurine along the contour line, leaving an extra 2mm of space from the contour line, so that the contour line will still be visible after cutting, this is to avoid cutting mistakes.

Rounding and carving details

Drawing auxiliary lines for the side view of the wooden figurine to determine the thickness and position of the body. Draw a center line centered below the head and two lines on either side of the center line to form the body. Draw two lines centered below the body to define the position of the legs. Then cut away any excess wood beyond the auxiliary lines.

At this point the wooden figurine is still nearly square in shape with angles on each side, so we need to use a carving knife to cut off these angles to round the piece, please refer to the following motion picture.

Coloring and painting details

The Fireboy and Watergirl figurines are painted in a single color, one color for the whole piece and a second color for the facial expression. Take Fireboy as an example, we use red color to paint his whole body, then use yellow color to fill in the reserved eyes and use black pen to trace the edges.

Summary

The wooden gifts shared in this blog post are relatively easy to make. Although they are humanoid, the structure of the body and head is very simple due to the cartoon style. This work is very suitable as a practice object for novice wood carvers, and we believe that if you follow this tutorial carefully, you will be able to finish them!