[Tom H]

Am I a slow learner, or what? As a newer whittler/carver, I have been concentrating on carving Santa heads as a way to learn to carve faces. My progress over the past 17 months has been steady, but it seems that my "head and hands" don't remember what to do from one carving to the next. Maybe after I try to carve the same face 4 to 6 times it begins to look similiar to the original - but maybe not. Is this a common experience for newer carvers? Any tips? Or am I just a "short bus rider"? Thanks Tom H

[Just Carving]

If you've only been carving Santas or at least carvings with faces, you might need a break.

Try carving something without a face--ornaments, letter carving, etc. but no eyes, noses, ears, hair, beards, moustaches, or mouths. Don't pay any attention to the Santas--ignore them. The idea is to clear your mind of carving Santas so you'll have a fresh approach at a later time.

Then when you go back to carving Santas, you might have a different approach, and see things differently, too. And probably learn that you really have been making progress--just looking at them too much and too long!

(But if you get Santa withdrawal, compare the first Santa you carved, and the last Santa you carved by looking at them side by side in a mirror. Sometimes it helps to look at them with "someone else's eyes".)

P.S. If and when I carve the same thing, I usually don't follow a set way or routine of carving. In other words, whatever happpens, happens. For me, that's the interesting part of carving. Like it's been said--"Life like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!" Carving's the same way--otherwise, it'd be boring as hay!

[AlArchie]

Tom, faces are probably one of the most difficult things to carve, probably because there are so many variations in facial features. I've found that I CAN carve faces, but really have a hard time with them, so I don't do many.

When carving any subject, I've found that there is a huge difference in "seeing" what you want to carve, and "visualizing" that same subject. If I can't get a solid 3D image in my mind, and actually visualize that in the wood as I carve, it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

Work on twisting that image around in you mind until you can actually visualize it from all angles, not just the four or at most 6 sides that flat plane concepts come from. When you can do that, you will be able to find the small transitions that exist as the face (or other subject) rotates in space. It might help to take a full bust in your hand and turn it over and around and watch these transitional areas as they move through your field of view. Eventually you will be able to work through this process mentally, although it always helps to have an actual model to look at.

Does that make sense to anyone else but me? Or am I just going off the deep end?

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Might help to complete a santa(s)...head to toe...?

[Mitchell]

It's very difficult to carve the same face over and over. Even for the experienced carver. I just got through carving 8 santa busts from the same rough out. No two are really even close to each other.

That being said, the answer to your question is pretty simple and not what you may want to hear. PRACTICE.

Sometimes our subconscious mind takes over and even though you try to match what you see, your mind makes your hands to something different.

As far a practice - I don't mean doing the same thing over and over. You need to practice on different cuts and different tools. Learn what your capabilities are with each.

Another "trial" is to carve the face upside down - don't look at it as a normal face, but from a totally different perspective. You can use another as a pattern, but have it upside down also.

Then you can try carving on odd shaped pieces of wood. Make extra large (or small) noses/eyes/any facial feature. Basically you need to make "mistakes" and learn how to fix them.

As you do these things, you begin to learn WHY different faces "look" different and are then able to begin duplicating those differences in carving.

[Ashbys]

I have only one question. With the Santa's you have carved how many have been the same Santa?

This might sound odd, but unless your carving the same piece why would you expect it to be the same?

The carving of the same piece over and over will teach you alot. But the wood is not the same , and unless you do every cut excatly the same it will not be the same. I think we see tendencies to produce the same part , but rarely do we do the excat same thing. Even in mass manufacturing you will see minor differences from one part to the next. Even maching computer controlled it will not be the same .

Now that said, Mitchell gave good advice. I will give you a bit more. If you want to make the same face , do the same cut.
When you make your face the same way each and every time you will find your faces will be a lot closer. So think about every aspect of your cut and repeat it. If it isn't the same then the cut was not the same.

Ash

[Anthony Filetti]

...these are all some great tips, what you should be mainly concerned about here is, is the carving anatomically the way you want it to appear. If you understand the different "planes" you are dealing with both on the head and hands you will end up with great results.

Dave Stetson I believe put out a book carving from Head-to-Toe which has a brief but readable anatomy lesson in the front which shows the major muscle groups, for a more in depth look at the facial planes see if you can snag a copy of Marv Kaisersatt's book, its a great reference for faces but can be hard to find..

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Sounds to me like you're not having any fun. Carving the same character over and over gets tiresome pretty quick. That's why I've never really hand any interest in carving Santa's. Old Santa can only do so much....make toys, deliver toys and for some reason he always seems to be dressed in red, wearing black boots and a hat with a fluffy ball on it. Now give me a bunch of horse wranglers and they'll be doing all sorts of things and they will all look different. Some will have chaps, some will not. Some will have guns, some will not. Some will have facial hair, again, some will not. A horse shows up occasionally and maybe even a cow. They even might be having a plate of beans or drinking coffee, a beer or a shot of Red Eye. They do hundreds of different things while wearing just about anything you could think to put on them. Now coming up with all that stuff and figuring out what to put on a kowboy is what makes a project fun because you're always doing something different.

Faces are sometimes challenging but they're only a small part of the overall character. When I'm really into a project I start the figure with no real idea of what the face will look like. Once the chips start falling that character just seems to show up all by himself. Sometimes he might just be a generic sort of fella. However, every so often he turns out to be a real classic. You just have to keep at it.

One thing I would strongly suggest is to stop carving other peoples designs or roughouts as soon as you can. Make your figures truly YOURS, not a copy of what someone else did and then a thousand others redid.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

look in the mirror, and carve 10 of what you see...smiling, frowning, laughing etc.....

[Nancy-ID]

Originally Posted by Tom H

Am I a slow learner, or what? As a newer whittler/carver, I have been concentrating on carving Santa heads as a way to learn to carve faces. My progress over the past 17 months has been steady, but it seems that my "head and hands" don't remember what to do from one carving to the next. Maybe after I try to carve the same face 4 to 6 times it begins to look similiar to the original - but maybe not. Is this a common experience for newer carvers? Any tips? Or am I just a "short bus rider"? Thanks Tom H

I have the same problem, couldn't teach or write an article because nothing is ever done "step by step" with me. It is frustraing sometimes but over all I think it can be a good thing for your creativity.