Face-on Corner first attempts

[tomrsey]

I have been trying to learn how to carve a face on a corner of a block. This has been a bit frustrating. So far I have three sort of successful examples. I realize that the eye painting job on the santa went wrong, I will repaint it. These faces have been a struggle and these represent the blocks that escaped the fire pit.

Comments and helpful hints welcome.

[tucker1931]

Tom, you have done very well on your 3 faces for your first time out. Keep pickin away my friend, yer well on your way.
Cliff

[Nick77]

Those really good.

Nick

[Tom-H]

They look OK to me!

Tom H

[Blinky Bill]

Well Tom,
if you found these to be a struggle, I'd say you should keep right on struggling. They look mighty fine 1st. examples to me.
Regards
John

[Bill Anderson]

Just to get my two cent's in, they are looking pretty good for the first few you've done. that said I heard someone on here say after a 1000 or so faces they start looking really good... every things in the right place, you just have to practice,practice,practice!

[Ron T]

Hi Tom,

Those are very nice. I wouldn't have thought they were your first.

[Ed Redwine]

Tom: You've certainly done well for your first attempts. The more you practice, the easier it will become. I might suggest a couple of things. The distance across the nose is the same as the distance across the eye, corner to corner. You might want to add a bit more space between the eyes. A rule some go by is the nose wings line up with the inside corners of the eye. Of course with caricatures, all this is moot and you can do about anything. Just keep going, you're doing fine.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

The problem with carving a face on the corner of a square block of wood is that sometimes they end up looking like a face carved on a corner of a square piece of wood. Actually, if you looked at the head from the top you would see that from the point of the nose to the widest point of the ears the shape would more resenble a triangle with a curved back. While this certainly isn't the only way to carve a head this is the way I go about it. If you want to see this process you might check out this link as it shows the complete process of how I go about carving a head. Picasa Web Albums - OUT WEST BLOG - Frowning Cowb... you have any questions about this method just drop me a note.

[tomrsey]

Tucker, Nick, Tom H., John, Bill and Ron T. thanks for the boosting comments and for taking the time to comment.
Ed - Good observation about the distance between the eyes. I will watch that more closely. Thanks for the observation and suggestions.

Lynn - I will go to the link later tonight. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I agree about the triangle look when viewed from above. Not the best, but something I wanted to learn how to do. Everything is new at this point, and I look forward to seeing the link you provided.