Carvers helping carvers,

Thomp · #1 10-06-2007, 11:58 AM

About a year ago i bought
Pete LeClair's book Carving Caricature Heads & Faces,

personally Being overtaken by His faces and toothy grins i seen on the web, i proceeded to carve 3 heads of the same pattern at the same time in the first step by step project in the book... i scanned & printed the outline pattern provided in the book and used my scrollsaw and made the cutouts..
thinking at the time that the repeating of carving 3 heads would give me the positive reinforcement of repetition, and experience it should be an easy task if i followed the instructions provided., HA!

i did pretty well until i got to the eyes first carving one block to the steps outlined in the open page then switching to another block until i had all 3 at the same step that required to turn the page for the next step.
I was satisfied with this method and was doing great until i got to the eyes!,

Although Pete LeClair's method of teaching is great. It has no measure, he don't tell you what size of block to carve or what measured size of tool, just the profile numbers of the gouges or v tools.. not having a great selection of different tools gouges and v tools at the time i expressed concern to the group about which tools to use, the consensus of the carvers that had taken Pete's classes was that Pete intentionally don't give specific measurements for the reason he don't want you to get locked in on size as it don't matter if your carving a large carving or a small carving his patterns and charters are based on the size of the block of wood you have on hand or the size you want to carve. just shrink or blow up the pattern to fit your need...

Never the less at the point of carving the eyes in the charters i lost place or missed a step, or just took a good case of can't carveitus, but I re-tracked to find my error, couldn't find it and after messing up the eyes on my own i disgustedly put the heads in a cigar box after taking pictures of them and posting them on a web album for the wci to see my mistakes..

nearly a year later i was reading as Jim OH (Jim O'Herra) posted his santa ornaments in the holiday link post #1,

After looking at them for a week I contacted Jim OH for permission to carve a likeness of his santa ornaments or use the images for pattern and i would like to have his permission to use his pictures to try my hand at the face... after i laid out the penciled in image on a basswood apple turning i got from rick@littleshavers.com to carve his pumpkins last year,
The basswood apple santa project started , as i kept Jim OH posted to my progress with photos he directed me and corrections were made as he encouraged me through the basswood apple santa project. with encouragement stating i had the skills apparently but just looked like i had lost confidence, (signs of a good teacher)

Somewhere about this time, he mentioned the shape and style of the santa ornaments was of the Pete LeClair method mixed with some of his own.
so i sent him a link to my 3 goulash looking heads i messed up, Jim OH told me to select the worst one and snail mail it to him and he would fix it,
because i hadn't really messed up the block of wood the head was still in there... i sent it off to jim, and continued on with the basswood apple santa,
under Jim's tutelage and jim sent the head back when he was done, along with a cd-rom of step-by-step pictures how to fixes on the head that I had sent him.

I'd like to share the pictures with Jim OH's permission so if anybody is stuck in the place i was.. maybe they can benefit as well,
the steps are not described yet but that will come later,

the results of jim's work was a total re-carve due to the way i had carved the head and thinned out the ears, he had to reduce the head size by 1/8th" in cir. or so, but like i told him i didn't mind, they were put away not to be messed with and would have never been finished by me more than likely, (I just wish i would had forethought to have him sign it.)

Again Thanks for your efforts and paientence Jim.
Thomp

link to album and pictures

Jim OH · #2 10-06-2007, 12:31 PM

Hey Thomp,
Nice post, but don't give me too much credit. You have the talent, I think maybe ya just needed a little push ;O). Am looking forward to seeing future results.
Take care,
Jim OH

Thomp · #3 10-06-2007, 12:53 PM

Thanks again for the PUSH! if thats what ya want to call it, its been a big help for me... to achieve the full face look on the apple santa... im indebted.

Now, Don't expect to see instant results today...

cuz im up to my butt in alligators, & hunting for the plug to drain the swamp here in central louisiana..

blame it on Tom H. he sent me my early Christmas present, So im still jumping around like a tickled kid.

Back issues of chip chats and several 20 pounds of several years & other books,

Well, Momma stubbed her toe on um' and said its nice to have them but she cant walk around em no more,

Quote:

"its bookshelf time dude"

." ya hear me paw!"

Note: anybody is welcome to post comments on my picasa site.. post um if ya got um folks.

tucker1931 · #4 10-06-2007, 06:39 PM

HEY THOMP. Yer makin me crazy. after all yer explanations on how to rough cut and manage a band saw without cuttin any more thumbs half off, I managed a rough out of one of Pete's heads today. Mine's wearin a hat and I managed to get that far and now ya tell me the trouble you had with the eyes. Dang, I ain't any where near that and now ya done scared me. What's a fella to do. I really enjoyed your post and I have book marked the step by step, between you, Jim and Pete, I'm gonna do a caricature if'n it's the last thing I do.
Thanks again,
Cliff

gene messer · #5 10-06-2007, 08:14 PM

Thomp .. Thats a good looking face you got there ..

Thats what carving is all about .. helping one another ... Thanks Jim for being the great carver you are and for you Thomas for just being one of the best learners around ..

Man you pick up things fast ..

gene

Thomp · #6 10-06-2007, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tucker1931

HEY THOMP. Yer makin me crazy. after all yer explanations on how to rough cut and manage a band saw without cuttin any more thumbs half off, I managed a rough out of one of Pete's heads today. Mine's wearin a hat and I managed to get that far and now ya tell me the trouble you had with the eyes. Dang, I ain't any where near that and now ya done scared me. What's a fella to do. I really enjoyed your post and I have book marked the step by step, between you, Jim and Pete, I'm gonna do a caricature if'n it's the last thing I do.
Thanks again,
Cliff

HA HA HA!

Dang Cliff, you didn't ask how to carve eyes !, or i surely wouldn't have answered from experience..

you asked" how to apply a pattern to a block and get it through a saw without maiming yourself,,", HA!
i did know that part so i spoke up.....

if for nothing else I learned one thing from old Clint Eastwood dirty harry Flicks, 'A mans got to know his limitations' ,.
Then holler fer help!

Glad i might have helped some in your first safe cut out..

Gene,
I wouldn't have that face without Jim OH's Help

jhogan · #7 10-06-2007, 10:11 PM

YUP!!! That's how mine look. I'm on my second trip through Pete's book and I haven't gotten the eyes right yet. I have four heads on my bench now and I'm working on two of them. Thought I'd keep at it unitl one came out right. Even though about putting sunglasses on all my heads.... but decided to try and learn the right way instead.

John

Kenny_S · #8 10-06-2007, 10:39 PM

Practice, Practice, Practice. I am still practiceing eyes and noses.

Blake Lunsford · #9 10-06-2007, 11:17 PM

That's the same problems that I am having Kenny! I keep refering back to Jeff Phares book on carving the human head. I've still got a long way to go!

Blake

Thomp · #10 10-07-2007, 01:17 AM

Its easy to set here and look at the carving in my hand and say something about the eyes,
but on the picasa site there is 41 or 42 pictures,. use the slideshow until you get to the point where the eyes start developing and then pause the slide show , (the controls will pop up to pause it on the lower part of the screen) take as much time to study jim's pictures

Petes tutorial kinda jumped from no eues to eyelids then whammo there was eues in the next picture, or i was totaly lost and confused... becuse the eyes on my 3 heads turned out looking like the walls of a copper mine pit. with 4 levels.

if you need some real close ups of the eyes on jimOH's head,
there is 16 more on the picasa site linked below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/thomp51L...fTheFailedHead

G'nite
thomas