Artist author and instructor Andrew Loomis influenced several generations of budding artists and his work still is influential.  The plate to the left is one of his illustrations of facial planes to help in viewing the basic shape of the human face.  If one is to become comfortable with carving faces in wood, one needs to be able to see the human face in various ways to fix an image in the mind.  It is part of what I mean when I say, “Think inside the Block,” (the Block Head as well as the Block of wood)  as being able to see in the mind first the basic shape of the human face.  It is the mental image that guides the carving hands and tool to shape the wood into a human face.  By using a study of facial planes both visually and carving facial planes the carver will be able to carve to shape a face that looks natural and pleasing. Read the rest of this entry »

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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BEE ALL YOU CAN BEE ~ The Bumble Bee can not fly, at least that was the determination of aerodynamic engineers who concluded that the Bumble Bee’s wings are too small and weak and its body too large and heavy to be able to fly.

BUT no one told the Bumble Bee and it flies.

Be all you can be by always thinking,   ” I can if I try for I am to be all I can be.”

The WOOD BEE CARVER sez, “Would be carvers would be carvers it they would carve wood.”

~~~~~BEE ALL YOU CAN BEE!~~~~~

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Michael Keller of  White Eagle Sutdio in Washington State is my internet carving friend.  We have never met other than through internet connection and yet it seems like we have been life-long friends who grew up together. He is an accomplished carver as well as an artist with words whenever he writes about his carvingpassion. 

 A CARVEFUL good time can be found by visiting  http://whiteeaglestudios.wordpress.com/    from which one can  link up to his web site which contains a gallery of his carvings.

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Don will teach at Woodcraft of Dayton on Saturday, February 19, 2011 from 9 am to 5pm. Don teaches a completely different style of carving which he calls Whittle-Folk Carving. In this class you will learn his A-B-C’s of face carving using a 1 ½” x 3” block of basswood. The figure will be a larger version of the shelf squatter. Also, using a basswood hen egg, bottle stopper heads or bobble heads are other choice of projects for this one day class. Once you complete this project, you will understand the principles of whittling in folk art style. Don has some tutorials on his web page www.woodbeecarver.com that will help you prepare for this class. There are also some “Cool Links” for your further study. Don is an accomplished carver and an excellent teacher so this class promises to be a wonderful learning experience and a fun way to spend a Saturday. This is a beginner skill level class. Bring a carving glove and a small whittling knife. Cost is $70.00. You can sign up by e-mail at:  dayton-retail@woodcraft.com or call Woodcraft at (937) 438-1282