The WOOD BEE CARVER  begins with a block of wood carving the subject to its basic form without any detail.  His rule is: “Form Follows Function – Detail Follows Form,” meaning that before any details can be carved the proper form or foundation must be established in order for the details to fit.

All his human figures begin by carving the rough form of the head covering of the subject being carved, the reason being is that the head fits into the head covering rather than the head covering sitting on top of the head.  The head covering could be a hat, a head dress or simply hair.  If there is no head covering then the head is the first thing carved to the basic form of a head.

As the “form of the head”is carved into and underneath the head covering, this helps to establish where the shoulders will be, keeping in mind that the head sits on the neck and the neck sits on the shoulders and when head is turned sideways all the way it can move, the chin is above the line of the shoulders.  With the shoulder established then the rest of the block of wood is divided by the “rule of three”: top of shoulder to the waist line is one third; the waist to the top of knees is one third and from the top of knees to the bottom of the feet is one third.

The body parts are penciled in indicating the angle of the arms, what the hands are doing or holding, the stance of the legs and the twist of the body.

Once these areas have been drawn in, then the body portion of the figure is carved to the basic form, leaving body parts boxy and a little larger than they will be in the final detail carving.

Gradually continue to remove wood all over the body bringing the  boxy portions into a rounded contour of the various parts, continuing to refine until the refinement turns into carving each part with detail carving, e.g. turning form of the shoe into a shoe, the form of the pant leg into a pant leg  with wrinkles and creases that match reality, the form of the hands are detailed with fingers, wrapped around what the  hand is holding and so forth until one is ready to move back to the head

to carve in the facial features which also follows the “rule of three” for the proportion of the face: Hair line to eye brows is one third of facial proportion; eye brows to bottom of nose is one third; bottom of nose to bottom of chin is one third.

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DETAIL FOLLOWS FORM

The full figure “Head to Toe” has received detailed carving of the moccasins, buckskin fringe, breast plate, necklace, hands, peace pipe and including the eyes, hair and two feathered head dress.  The final detail carving will concentrate on the other facial features as revealed in the progressive photos below.

These series of photos reveal the eyes carved with the rest of the face still in the basic form ready to receive detail carving.

These series of photos reveal the nose carved with the beginning of the smile line evident while the mouth mound is still in its basic form. Notice in the profile photos how the nose was carved at the beginning of the smile line (that triangle area where smile line and back of nostril meet) to position one half of the nose to sit on the dental barrel of the face and the other half of the nose to protrude off the face.

These series of photos reveal that the mouth has been carved, the smile line completing its arch and facial wrinkles adding character.

This carving was carved using only knives carving in a bass wood block of wood one and a half an inch square by six inches tall.  It was carved first HEAD TO TOE to its basic  FORM. Once the FORM was established then each individual part was carved in DETAIL as “DETAIL FOLLOWS FORM.”

Once the facial details are carved along with the detailing of hair, then the entire carving receives the final “going over” with the last of detailing and when it looks right, STOP.