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Carving faces is one of the most important features of carving a likeness of a human.  The face is the central focal point of any carving in the likeness of a human be it realistic or caricature.  Carving a bust is ninety percent face and ten percent the chest area of a bust.  It is the head covering and the clothing outfit that determines the character of the bust while almost any face could go with any of the outfits.  Thus learning to carve faces is essential to carving a full figure as well as a bust, a bottle stopper or a shelf squatter.

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“Magnificant Seven” was an earlier posting of busts with a Western theme.  With this posting the newly carved busts offer a variety of themes to highlight the faces of each bust. These busts were carved in an inch and half square by three inch tall block of basswood.  The monochrome finish is artist oil paint color “raw sienna” mixed with boiled linseed oil followed by a brushed on coat of Deft.  The monochrome color is to emphasize that “texture is color” by allowing the texture left by the carving knife shaping the wood to amplify the “color” of the carving.

Go for Bust is an invitation to consider carving busts of human characters as an exercise in facial carving with the proven reality that every carving project is a learning project and the more one carves the better on carves.  Go for Bust by facing up to the challenge of carving more faces of a variety of subjects.