YOU MIGHT BE A SCULPTOR IF

AFTER 30-SOME YEARS AT the drawing board, political cartoonist and illustrator R. David Boyd could feel his passion for the trade fading faster than the ink on his early drawings. ⌠I'd had it,■ he says. ⌠Just burned out.■

But instead of folding his easel, Boyd picked up a lump of clay and from it molded not just a new career, but a new outlook on life. ⌠I feel like a kid again,■ the 62-year-old says. ⌠I could do this forever.■

Although Boyd's early career was drawing political cartoons≈once syndicated in 200 papers≈he is best known for his illustrations. After providing the artwork for several books by longtime friend Lewis Grizzard, Boyd was approached in 1989 to illustrate a book of one-liners by a relatively unknown Atlanta comic named Jeff Foxworthy. Soon afterward, Foxworthy's career took off, along with sales of You Might be A Redneck If┘.

Boyd's misshapen, misunderstood and decidedly unglamorous cast of characters ≈from handyman Harvell to the forever-in-curlers Precious to the perpetually pregnant but never wed Angel≈soon appeared on everything thing Fox-worthy, from CD covers to calendars, T-shirrs and even a line of redneck greeting cards.

Boyd's admirers included Zach Steed and his father, Mike. The Steeds' Bowdon, Ga≈based manufacturing business was looking to diversify, and Zach, a collectible buff, proposed creating a line of figurines based on Boyd's work.

Boyd jumped at the idea. Foxworthy enthusiastically signed on to the project. And, last summer, ⌠Foxworthy's Folks by R. David Boyd■ was born.

Craftsmen working from Boyd's drawings sculpted the test figures in Asia. Though impressed, Boyd felt the only way to get it right was to do it himself. Although his prior experience with clay was limited to scraping it from between his golf cleats, Boyd gave sculpting a try. The results astonished him.

Beneath his fingers, the two-dimensional menagerie he had created on paper gradually came to life. ⌠It was just amazing,■ Boyd says. ⌠I found that if I wanted to make a nose, I could make one. And an arm, or a mouth. And I just kept going until I had what I wanted. Watching that intangible idea turn into a tangible thing, well ┘ it's the first thing I've ever done that I considered art.■

Working at his kitchen table in Newnan, the redneck Rodin has created a line of 10 characters that are currently being marketed as upscale collectibles. It's too soon to tell if the quirky characters will become best sellers.

Why not? When it comes to collecting Boyd's backwoods bumblers, you might soon be considered a redneck if you don't.