A Few Questions about Study Sticks

[K. Ellenburg]

Okay Guys and Gals, I know this subject has been brought up a number of times but I have a few questions about study sticks.
1. How many of you used them when first starting out?
2. Why do most study sticks seem to all be started on the corner instead of the flat part of the stick? Is this to replicate the side profile, such as the nose?
3. I have noticed even eyes are done on the corner of the stick,why not on the flat side since this is the way it would be on a carving.
4. Finally how much help do you guys think study sticks will benefit a new carver.
The reason I ask these questions is simply because none of my characters faces turn out the way I want them to. These questions my seem dumb but I really want to improve on my facial carvings, even when starting out with a really good cut out I still have trouble with facial detail.
Kevin

[CarverFromNoWhere]

Kevin I never used one, no reason to buy something ya can make yourself. I have no idea how to answer your other questions. If ya want to improve your facial carving check out the books by Jeff Phares over at Fox Chapel, these books helped me a lot and he does an amazing job of explaining every step. They are not for caricature carving really but I feel they would help you here is a link to one of the books they have a take a look inside now and ya can see what is int he books .
Carving Eyes: <span class="subtitle">Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating Realistic Features</span>
He has 4 books that I know of and you'll have to just look around to find all of them, I think I ordered mine from Barnes and Knoble Fox Chapel didn't have them in stock or something.
Carl

[big dave]

i have a couple of them and use them often they are good to help you with style balance,and proportion.

[doris]

i never had a study stick, but i think i can nevertheless answer a little... the sticks are probably done on the corner, since the face fits within an angle of 90 degree...you can see this by the following experiment : go to a corner of your room, and stand there with the nose facing exactely towards the corner,...hold your face upright and move as far into the corner as you can. you will notice, that the outside of your cheekbones just touch the walls... so, this means, when you start carving the face on a corner, you know the face goes inside nicely, and it helps to make faces rounder...you know, we all have problems that our carved faces are too flat. when you start on a corner, you have to carve deeper, since first there is not enough width for the face...so, automatcially, the face carved from corner gets more depth, without the carver really noticeing it ;-)

same is for eyes : eyes need be carved as "part of a ball", but often they are carved plain flat. and then look not convincing...when you carve them on a corner, you have , again, automatically to carve deeper to get the required width for eye, and voila, it looks much rounder,...

as to your last question.. i personally doubt at help of study sticks...since they study features separately. its one thing to carve an eye on a study stick, just the eye...but when the eye needs be carved in the face, and sit at correct location, that is a quite diffenrent task...for example, think of the nose, which is "always in the way" and prevents you to make cuts which you could do on a separate eye on a study stick... ...so, i personally would rather try carve whole faces, than practizing single features like nose, mouth or eye... just my opinion , though...

[MackTheKnife]

I have several study sticks, but the ones I use the most are the ones with full faces (primarily woodspirits) rather than individual features. They have helped me quite a bit, but the most helpful thing you can do make your own study stick by copying the purchased one. Jack Price's book, Carving Compact Characters, has the instructions for carving your own face study stick in 12 steps. I can tell you from experience that by the time you get through that 12th step, you've got a really good idea of how to carve a face. The only thing he doesn't cover is the eyes, unfortunately, but I think that's only because he didn't carve eyes. He just painted them.

Bob

[K. Ellenburg]

Thanks for the feed back.
Kevin

[Merle Rice]

Kevin, I have 5 Study Sticks and they helped me a lot. They are a great reference tool. Doris explaned about the nose very well by using the corner for the Nose. After you do a few you will understand the reasoning behind it. My opinion on Study Sticks is 2 Thumbs Up. Merle

[Donna_T]

Kevin,
I think study sticks are a great way to improve your carving techniques.

I didn't carve very much the first year that I started out, but when I started doing more "people" I got 2-3 study sticks--one for eyes, one for faces, and one for hair. (I think all three were Harold Enlow's.) Now, some 18 years later, I may not carve a "people" carving for over a year and when I decide to do one, I pull out the face study stick and refresh my memory of details. Same with doing a different kind of hair: curly, braids, etc.

I have a couple of animal study guides, too. They were a great help when I was learning how to carve animals--getting the nose and eyes just right for the species.

Ultimately, you will need to learn how to do a face on a flat piece of wood. A face isn't flat so you'll have to contour that flat piece of wood to resemble a real face. If you draw a line down the middle of the head, each side will slope away from the middle. It typically slopes about the same degree as what you find on the corner of a square piece of wood. That's why it's easy to start doing faces on a corner...then transfer the process to a flat piece of wood.

So, if study sticks help you improve your carving technique, use them.

Donna T

[K. Ellenburg]

Thanks Donna, Where would you guys recommend buying them? I have noticed a few that have different faces on them but what I'm looking for is one that starts out with step by step such has Harold has in one of his books, that starts with the first cut all the way through to the finished eye and also one for noses and mouths not just a stick with variations of one facial feature or the other. Although these would be helpful also. I know some people say make your own, but if I could do this then I wouldn't have much use for a study stick. I want to see the steps to finish the process and I think I would do better if I could actually hold it in my hands as opposed to looking at pics.
Kevin

[doris]

well, i not mean to be contradictory, but i think study sticks are the wrong approach, actually from how you formulated your goal, i think it is wrong to use them ... i would even state they are wrong for every person who wants carve their own ideas ... what do they do for you ? they teach you at most a "recipy" of cuts to produce a similar carving than shown on the study stick. ok, maybe if you want only that, this is fine....but you said, you want improve carving your faces, your characters dont turn out like you want them. ... now, how can a study stick help answer your questions ? i think it cannot, except the characters you want carve are exactely what you have on your study stick. is this what you want ? or, is it rather you want carve your own ? i had understood your questions this way...
carving a character, or simply put a face, is not that much about the details, like nose, eyes, mouth, and maybe ears. sure you need them, but even if you can carve them marvelous, if the structure on where you cut them is wrong, your faces will not look like you envision them...carving a face, it is much more about getting the big skull shapes right, and right meaning here the same as you see in your character you see in your mind (or on your drawing, or fotograph or whatever did tell you what you want carve...)... the studysticks i looked at in internet do not teach that. .... they teach recipies...
my advise would be, start again carving a character you want, then if you get feeling it goes not like you want it become, post the carving as is from various views, and post your reference material, so that we can see what you want achieve. then, we can help you to "see" how you need go on, to make the face you want, we can help you understand why your carving is not going the way you want it... learning to carve is NOT practising, learning to carve is learning to see, learning to understand the big shapes you see in a face, or whatever you want carve...in genreal, you need learn to see which easy parts make a head, and then carve these. i am sure you can carve a ball, or a wedge, or a pyramid. this is all you need to learn to carve... the same holds for the features, like nose and mouth etc, you need learn to see what the basic shapes are they are built of... my guess is, that you struggle with that, if you can see these basic shapes, you can carve them... well, see, that is all you need from the technical side. the other side of learning carving is learning to see what you need carve... you can always touch your own face to explore how things are shaped, you do not need a studystick for that