FACE STUDY STICK ~ whittle carved with knives with four faces on each stick ~ one inch wide and and inch and half tall. Each face carved using the Rule of Three for Facial Proportions = Hairline to Eye Brow; Eye Brow to Nose Bottom; Nose Bottom to Chin Bottom in one third divisions.  The width of the face is equal to two, one third proportional comparison or two thirds wide and three thirds length proportionally.

The light colored face study stick in the middle illustrated carving the head and face to Basic Form first and progressing towards finishing with Detail carving. The top two are carved to Basic Form with the third face receiving detail carving of the mouth with pipe in the corner of the mouth.  The bottom face has received detailed carving of the eyes, mouth and cigar in the corner of the mouth.  More detail carving will be required on the bottom face to become like the completed four Face Study sticks on each side of the Basic Form study stiock.

A universal experience all carvers have is to have an urge to carve but is in a quandary as to “What to carve?”  Every caring project is a practice piece. Every carving project is not a waste of time. “The hardest part of any carving project is getting started.  Once began the creative juices flow to imagined possibilities.”  A 20-minute a day carving exercise of doodling with knife and a block of wood is an exercise of exploring discovery of creativity.

Any carving a carver does is a “SELFIE” ~ that is a carving for oneself through learning for oneself what is being created with imagination and skill as each carving is being done. First and foremost, each carving is for the carver’s benefit, making practice and study carvings for the carver to grow in skill, imagination and inner vision. One suggestion is to Carve your own study sticks. Learn before you need it for larger project. The photos below are examples of face study sticks for a carver’s own study while carving and later as a diary of the faces carved for future study. “Carve to learn as you learn to carve and the more one carves, the more one learns.”