“Face Study Stick – Three Version”  found under “BEE HIVE”  is a visible and printable instructional aid for practice carving faces.  The top exercise is carving a ball out of the one inch square at top of the stick.  The ball is later used to carve a face that is looking sideways and upward.  The second practice face is carved on a corner to illustration that the face fits into a ninety degree space from tip of nose outward to the cheek bones.  The third face at the bottom of the stick  has been carved to emphasis  the width of the face as being two thirds of the length of the face. Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Richmond,  a MAD Magazine  artist has just published his book on the art of drawing caricatures. It contains a vast library of instructional information on the art of caricature that can easily be beneficial to wood carvers, of both caricature and realistic human faces and figures. Tom draws two dimensional art with pencil/pen on paper and what he presents in the book can be applied to carving in wood. Carving in wood is to draw with a knife three dimensional art. His book may be ordered off his blog site: http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/ for $29.95 which includes shipping.

Below are photographs of examples of pages that are published in the book that begins with a workable definition of what is a caricature and proceeds with each chapter covering the various elements in exaggerating realism into caricature of the various facial features.  Using his “basic caricature theory” Tom covers head shapes and caricaturing of facial features.  He then goes beyond the face to include drawing live caricatures and use of caricature in illustration.  Of course, being an artist for MAD Magazine,  Tom adds many anecdotal vignettes about MAD. Read the rest of this entry »

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next to carving eyes and next to carving the human face, carving hands can be a challenge to carvers.  Hiding hands in a pocket is the easy way out and the quickest way to produce a boring carving.  Like any other carving project, carving hands is a matter of first taking a good look at hands, studying hands and then practice carving hands on a scrap piece of wood.  These “scrapper” lessons are beneficial in the long run. Read the rest of this entry »

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First things first are always important in the carving process.  Carving a good foundation of the basic form first allows the details to be carved in their proper places.  These four photographs show “carved to form” caricatures ready for detail carving to take place.  The first two photographs show a block of basswood having the top corners rounded into a dowel shape to receive the hat and head of the caricature as well as the back of the arms and shoulder area sliced forward on the back side of the block.  Each block is standing profile with a “carved to form” caricature for comparison.  The next two photographs show four “carved to form” caricatures to be studied as a short tutorial in “form ready for detail.” The lesson of this “Short Tutorial” is that there are no short cuts to carving the details.  First the form and then the detail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Often an artist will sight past an upright thumb at arms length to gain approximate perspective of a distant object. No one knows for sure who originated the “Rule of Thumb” but it has been suggested that Leonardo DaVinci used its principle in his study of human anatamony and artistic proportions.

Carvers can use the “Rule of Thumb” for a quick and approximate measurement while carving to visualize proportions, sight comparison measurements or one inch incremental measurement. Read the rest of this entry »

 Bill Fournier, a woodcarver from Charleston, South Carolina was kind enough to give his face to a ” Real Life Face Study”  to illustrate the value of studying faces to be able to carve faces.  Perhaps the best model any carver has is one’s own reflection in a mirror whereby one can “make faces” to see how the muscles in the face change due to the mood.  The more a carver becomes familiar with the human face that much easier it is to carve faces in wood.  Such a study also will create a good mental image to guide the imganation of the carver in the carving process.

Bill has a very expressive face be it a full grin or a sober face.  In the gallery of the various facial views of Bill notice how his eyebrows, eyes, smile line, mouth, cheek  and character lines change as the expression is changed.  A Real Like Face Study will help a carver to begin to notice facial features in other people as well as carve “real life facial features”  into carving faces in wood.  So, let’s face it through the photographic gallery of Bill’s face. Read the rest of this entry »

JESSE of the animated movie Toy Story series is an animated cartoon character.  Carving  JESSE as a caricature of a cartoon character is a reversal of what is commonly understood about caricatures.  A caricature is an exaggeration of realism that sometimes appears to be almost a cartoon interpretation of the real thing.  Caricatures and cartoons are separate forms of art and interpretations while having similar characteristics.  Caricature carvers often will study cartoon drawing as reference for exaggerating a realistic human face and figure.  Sometimes a caricature carving will tell a cartoon like story in its visual appearance.  That said, a caricature is still a caricature and a cartoon is still a cartoon standing on their own merits.

A caricature carving is intentionally designed and carved to be a caricature  in order to emulate a humorous visual story.  A caricature is never a carving that has turned out bad, thus making it a caricature as is so often said by an amateur carver who says, “If this carving does not turn out to be a realistic cowboy at least it can be a caricature cowboy.”  A bad carving does not make a caricature even though a poorly designed and carved caricature can become a bad carving.

A caricature is determined by either its style or theme.  Andy Anderson, Emil Janel and Harold Enlow wrote the book, so to speak , on a style in  caricature carvings inspiring carvers to learn a style of caricature carving.   But within that style of caricature carving there developed the theme of caricature carving which has branched out into many other styles of caricature carving.   Some caricature carvings are very exaggerated while others are very subtle in their caricaturization, thus remaining true to the theme more than the style of certain types of caricature carving.

Read the rest of this entry »