THREE VERSION FACE STUDY STICK tutorial is located under “BEE HIVE” as a pdf document which can be viewed and printed. This instructional aid presents three versions of carving a practice face on one stick. At the top of a square stick a ball is carved out of a square area to teach the roundness of a head and its ability to rotate as a ball joint up and down, side to side and tilted at an angle. The second version uses the corner of the stick to teach that the face fits into a ninety degree angle . The third version at the bottom of the stick teaches the narrowing of the width of the face as being two thirds wide while being three thirds long. In each version of the practice faces the Rule of Three of Facial Proportions is utilized to carve in the basic form of the angles and planes of the face.
This Face Study Stick teaching carving to basic form. A Facial Detail Carving tutorial is located in another pdf document in “BEE HIVE” under the title “FACE EYE STUDY” which can also be viewed and printed. As with any practice carving project, the more one carves the more one learns while carving. “The more one carves the better one carves,” is experienced as one carves, so carve as often as possible remembering that every carving pr0ject is simply a practice piece until finished.
Stay Sharp and BEE CARVEFUL.
Seeing the A – B – C shapes in a human face is a good way to look at all faces to study. Once the image of reference points of the A – B – C of a human face is embedded in the carver’s creative sub conscious, then the carver can see the face with both an inner eye and natural eye. If the carver can see the face in the mind then the carver can carve the face in wood. Study the face of the carving by John Burke and look for the A – B – C shapes in the face. Look for the shape of a letter A. Then look for a separate shape of the letter B turned clockwise one turn so that the straight part of the B is at the top and the rounded part of the B is at the bottom. Then look for the shape of the letter C , either frontwards or backwards. Read the rest of this entry »
“Whittle Folk Spuds” – an article written by Don Mertz, is in the current Sring 2011 issue of Carving Magazine http://www.carvingmagazine.com/issues/current.shtml This “how-to” instructional article offers a step by step verbal description accompanied by appropriate photographs. The article in Carving Magazine is in more detail that a previous posting entitled “SPUDS ” https://woodbeecarver.com/?p=4554 Also in the same issue, my good woodcarving friend Mark Akers has a tutorial on carving a Civil War Soldier as in the photograph below.
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A FACE-EYE STUDY has been put in a pdf format and can be viewed and printed by going to “BEE HIVE” under the left hand column and click on “FACE-EYE STUDY”.
This is one of the educational projects used in the classes I teach about Whittle-Carving or carving only with a knife. Read the rest of this entry »
Whittling is the art of shaping a hand held piece of wood with a knife using various cutting strokes. The most efficient cut is a slicing cut since the cutting edge of the knife blade is made up of very small teeth very similar to saw teeth. Think of trying to cut a slice of bread. If the knife is laid across the loaf and pressure forces the blade straight down with a wedge cut, the bread will be cut eventually but will be squashed before the blade is forced through the bread. If, however, the knife is used in a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to separate the fibers of the baked bread then a slice is possible with a smooth cut with little squashing of the bread. The same happens when whittling by using a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to do what it is intended to do without forcing the blade into the wood. The key is to learn to develop a slicing action as often as possible to create clean and crisp cuts. Read the rest of this entry »
Whittling is the art of shaping a hand held piece of wood with a knife using various cutting strokes. The most efficient cut is a slicing cut since the cutting edge of the knife blade is made up of very small teeth very similar to saw teeth. Think of trying to cut a slice of bread. If the knife is laid across the loaf and pressure forces the blade straight down with a wedge cut, the bread will be cut eventually but will be squashed before the blade is forced through the bread. If, however, the knife is used in a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to separate the fibers of the baked bread then a slice is possible with a smooth cut with little squashing of the bread. The same happens when whittling by using a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to do what it is intended to do without forcing the blade into the wood. The key is to learn to develop a slicing action as often as possible to create clean and crisp cuts. Read the rest of this entry »
Every carver wants to jump right in carving without the benefit of the time invested in practicing and doing exercises. That is normal and natural until each carver learns that every carving one does is a practice piece, and the steps to complete the carving project are exercises in learning by doing. The WOOD BEE CARVER’S philosophy is: “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood,” meaning that we only learn by doing (practicing and exercising) the carving process. Read the rest of this entry »
Seeing the A – B – C shapes in a human face is a good way to look at all faces to study. Once the image of reference points of the A – B – C of a human face is embedded in the carver’s creative sub conscious, then the carver can see the face with both an inner eye and natural eye. If the carver can see the face in the mind then the carver can carve the face in wood. Study the face of the carving by John Burke and look for the A – B – C shapes in the face. Look for the shape of a letter A. Then look for a separate shape of the letter B turned clockwise one turn so that the straight part of the B is at the top and the rounded part of the B is at the bottom. Then look for the shape of the letter C , either frontwards or backwards. Read the rest of this entry »
