How do you practice?

[Texas_Jim]

I have heard and read various places that the way to improve one's carving is to carve, carve, carve or practice, practice, etc.

Exactly what does that mean? Do you carve the same thing over and over? So, does repetition improve your carving ability?

I'm interested in hearing what the rest of you do to improve your carving ability.

No you do not have to carve the same thing over and over.
Carve different things if you like. With every carving you will get better. After a while it just becomes natural.You lear how to use the tools better, how deep to make the cuts.

I have read on line somewhere where 1 particular instructor has his students carve several faces in a row before moving on to something else.

[Colin-Partridge]

I guess it depends on the person and how well they catch on to carving. Unlike Wayne I find that I will carve things over and over again until I get them perfected. Once I have perfected them I then try to change them a little here and there ie. the shape of the nose the eyes the beard, etc. I also practice sometimes before I actually apply it to the carving. What I am saying is to get yourself a piece of scrap wood and if you want to change the eyes practice them on the piece of scrap wood. Once you are satisfied with the result then apply it to the carving. This elliminates you doing something on a carving you dont want and have to change the whole carving. I was doing a show one time and a gentleman asked me to demonstrate how I carved eyes so I did so on a scrap piece of wood and carved a few different style eyes. When I was finished I the crowd started a bidding war on the sample without me saying a word. I was going to throw it in the garbage but ended up selling it at a very good price and the customer made me sign the demo piece. go figure.
Not saying that Wayne is wrong I am just giving my opinion of what works for me. Some people get bored and disinterested in carving the same thing not me I love my treespirits and woodspirits although I am not starting to carve santa's.
Colin

[lorax]

People who draw, do guesturing (really fast drawing) to get loosened up before they draw. I wouldn't suggest carving really fast, but carving something familiar may prove good practice. I used to carve little turtles when I was in between carvings, they were fast and I could see immediate gratification of finishing them. It was great practice to do the same subject, several times, in different kinds of wood. Each one is different, though they started with the same pattern. The two important elements at play were: I was carving, and it was something I was interested in. You could practice by taking blocks, and making a ball out of it with nothing but a knife- great practice but where's the motivation going to come from to finish it.

[mdallensr]

I've been one of the preachers of 'carve, carve, carve'. There are several good things to do, and several good results you can expect. If you carve with knives, gouges and chisels, you will build up some muscles and hand-eye coordination from a lot of carving. You'll also get some calluses. If you intend to carve people and their faces, you really need to practice facial features, and 100 faces is not too many to try. You can build your confidence for any project if you've at least tried to do the critical step beforehand. Do some practice boards of lettering, feather burning, animal eyes, fish scales, fur, beards, bird beaks, hands, relief perspective, etc. Try to copy a part of a really good carving and note that trying to copy the appearance is not the same as duplicating the technique used to create that appearance. Other than the muscle building part, you'll soon convince yourself that you can carve just about anything if you work at it, and that's huge. If you can get some help or lessons, that's even better. You'll also find that carving becomes a natural part of your life and you'll stay with it. Success will build on itself and you'll be hooked.

[Texas_Jim]

Great responses everyone.

Thanks for the information and I am encouraged to continue the effort.

I am currently having difficulty carving eyes on a woodspirit. They don't look right yet. I do practice on scrap wood and I hear you saying that with continued effort the eyes will start to look natural. I will continue the trial and error routine but I was just thinking that if I made 100 faces they would all basically look the same. Probably everyone has heard it said that practice does not make perfect but perfect practice makes perfect (or some such quote).

I don't know who came up with that practice makes perfect line, but it don't work for me ... practice just makes better (most times) in my case.

Jim
I too carve mostly wood spirits. i am not good at explaining how. best source I can give you is a book by Tom Wolfe called 'Tom Wolfe carves wood spirits and walking sticks'

It helped me tremendously.

[mdallensr]

Jim: I think if you carve an ugly face, you won't carve 100 more the same. When we do a bad job on a face, we all know it. You'll see the face is wrong, and you may not be able to put your finger on the real problem right away, but it'll come. Look in a mirror, look at others, look at them from the side, turn you carving up-side down, and after awhile, you'll see exactly what's wrong. Ditto for most recognizable items. Or you could carve acanthus panels and other European styles and no one will know what they're supposed to look like; that's my secret. Just don't display the carving with the pattern or photo you used for inspriration and hardly anyone will know what it's supposed to look like.

When i first joined a carving group, everyone told me to never tell what it was suppose to be. That way no one would really know what i was trying to achieve and think it was a good carving. Example ( dog) just say an ugly dog.