Carving Hands

[Lynn O. Doughty]

A number of carvers have asked me to demonstrate on my Blog how I carve hands. So, for the first example I thought we'd do a relaxed hand that can hold just about anything. I'll do some other examples later of an open hand plus a couple others. If you have particular hand pose you'd like let me know. There are a ton of photos.

[Iowa Carver]

Thank you for that Lynn!

Corey

[Thomp]

Originally Posted by Lynn O. Doughty

A number of carvers have asked me to demonstrate on my Blog how I carve hands. So, for the first example I thought we'd do a relaxed hand that can hold just about anything. I'll do some other examples later of an open hand plus a couple others. If you have particular hand pose you'd like let me know. There are a ton of photos.

Lynn,

hands posed turned at wrist like holding a fishing pole or pick axe or rake give me fits
i try to keep the thumb on top but usually it winds up looking like a bunch of bananas on a stick.

[Cottonwood]

Thanks, Lynn! Hands have always been a challenge for me.

[chipper67]

Wow! Thanks Lynn, this is just what I've been looking for. This will help me greatly in learning how to carve hands. Looking forward to your next hand tutorial.

Chipper67

[Wyobulldog]

Thanks Lynn,
Frankly hands scare the crap out of me, do you always carve them seprate then attach?

[carvnman40]

Thanks for sharing, Lynn. Great demonstration.
Mike

[Blake Lunsford]

Real nice Lynn! I appreciate the work you put into making your carvings as realistic as possible. I noticed that you do not put the wrinkles on the knuckles or the fingernails on. Do you ever carve these on your hands?

Blake

[Lynn O. Doughty]

In my opinion, when a figure is reduced in size to what most of us carve the addition of all those smaller details would become so overpowering that the true effect of what we're trying to capture with the figure would be lost. One of the most important things when doing a carving is knowing when to stop. It's sort of like stacking blocks....they'll only go as high as they're meant to then they'll collaspe on themselves. It's our choice on whether to add those final blocks but sometimes that last one will destroy the whole project.

[Blake Lunsford]

Makes a lot of sense! I hope you don't think I was trying to criticize....just wondering your thought process on deciding to leave them out instead of add them. I know the Bishops do excellent hands on caricatures and add those details, so just wondering! Thanks for the response!

Blake