A face not even a mother would love

[Jaysonmol]

Hi all,

I have been trying to carve small figures from Jack Price's "Carving Small caricatures" book...I did ok...untill I got to the face tutorial...I've carved several practice sticks now (well 4 anyway) but I'm not seeing any improvements from the first one.

My problem is I keep getting knife cuts where they don't belong. For those that read the book I do ok untill step 5. (the triangle cut) then things go south rather quickly. Jack mentions he uses a detail knife, and a small (1/8'' v-tool) for some of this. I'm using the regular bench knife that comes in rick's beginner set.

So My questions...Would a smaller (thinner) knife and or V-tool tool make a difference? Are there any better books (or ones with a different method) out there?

Thanks

Jayson

...To you instructors out there, do you ever say to your students: "I hear Bird Watching is a rewarding hobby."

[rick-in-seattle]

Jayson,
The knife that comes with the kit is the same knife I normally use for that cut on my carvings.

Not meaning to sound too blunt, but the problem of unwanted cuts has more to do with knife control than the knife.

The cuts Jack talks about in step 5 are two cuts shaped like the roof of a house (in his example) with the peak being the deepest point. Then the chip is removed with the third/last cut.

A good way to learn knife/depth control is by making three cornered chips as if you were chip-carving. Do this on a scrap piece of wood and you will soon have the technique down.

P.S. A V-tool won't make this cut as easily as a knife.

[Old_Gord]

Hi Jaysonmol, I think what Rick said was "practice, practice, practice".Smile
And he is 100% right.
Now if you want a little help, you might consider buying a DVD with Jack Price carving the little characters.
You might find it on eBay for $18.95 or buy it now for about $24.95 plus shipping. (Just checked not there right now, but it will be up there again.)
Or you could buy it from the web site of Richard Stamats at :
http://www.richardstamats.com/JackPrice.html,
it's well worth the money, books are great but they never seem to have a really clear picture of the one cut you don't understand.Smile
Not saying the DVD will be 1000% better but it will be a great help.

Cheers.

OG

[rick-in-seattle]

Jayson,
Here is a closeup of one of my carvings; as you can see, it isn't all that clean and notice the knife cut in the same place where you are trying to be perfect.

P.S. This was carved by Jack

[mikeg]

I'm not anywhere close to the category of carver as Rick or most of the other carvers on this forum but I love Jack's book. I do most of my carvings with a Murphy 1 1/2" knife. As they've saaid, practice, practice, practice! I liked the idea of the face stick in his book. Make sure you've got a good point on your knife.

mikeg

[Jaysonmol]

Thanks all for the advise...I will keep at it, Once I have something the average person would regonize as a face I'll try to post a pic.

How does everyone like this book compaired to others out there? This is probably due to my inexperiance, but there are so many different faces/expresions/etc...I'm having a hard time envisioning what it should look like before taking the next step.

I don't know if this makes sense but...when doing the rest of the body I could kind of follow the "take away everything that doesn't look like a person" philosophy, but I'm not able to "see" what's not face.

I know..."practice! Practice! Pratice!"

[rick-in-seattle]

Jayson,
Use a pencil to draw reference lines on the face before making decisive cuts; such as the bottom of the nose, the mouth, the eyes, etc.