[Cottonwood]

It's always a challenge for me to carve a believable smile. Some smiles carved with the mouth only always end up looking a little scary if the eyes don't smile as well. Carving a smiling face that has a full beard presents an additionan challenge because the mouth is obscured and the smile has to be suggested by the eyes. For me that is successful sometimes but quite often the eyes alone don't quite cut it. Here are a couple of my latest Santa Ornaments. One I tried to accomplish the suggestion of a smile with the eyes alone without much success. The other, I had to resort to a big toothy grin....it may have been over-kill!

[tucker1931]

Millard, smile or no smile, those are remarkable carvings, both of them tell a story in themselves. I thought by the ammount of posts you had logged you were new to wood carving but obviously I was wrong. You sir, are a very talanted artist. Thanks for showing, I'm a struggling beginner myself and truly appreciate the great works shown by others.
Cliff

[Jim OH]

Hi Millard,
Those are some fine ornaments. Just a suggestion on smiles, try off setting the mouth a bit so it is not centered under the moushtashe. Make it a little crooked. Those look great and I couldn't carve them that well so take the suggestion for what its worth. Reference any Pete LeClair Santas if ya can find a picture of any he carved. BTW your carved eyes and beard looks fantastic !
Jim OH

[Kenny_S]

Very Nice Ornaments Millard

[hobo]

Nice carving and web site cottonwood.

[doris]

nice carvings...maybe you like try the wrinkles in the eyes corners...lift them a little, yours are all pointing down, and down usually gives more of a sad look. when smiling the cheeks push them up, thats one reason why you dont need to see the mouth smiling and yet you know the person smiles

edit
so interesting question how to carve a smile...so i made faces in front of a mirror to learn how to do really, was enjoying that... i noticed that besides the lift of the cheeks, the most important is the change on the eyebrows. in a very bright smile they rise pretty much (and the eyes get a little more round too)... and in a small smile at least in the middle over the nose the brow rises a little...maybe in your santas the eyebrows are so tense in the middle, almost like in a frown, that prevents them from looking smiling believable (though i really like how you treated the expressions)...its fun, and very instructive to make faces in front of a mirror

[gene messer]

Millard .. your Santas are always so wonderful to look at .. and those glasses .. what a touch !

Beautiful work .. weather their smiling or not ..

Gene

[Irishman]

Challenging question there Cottonwood. The mustache hides the mouth so your relying on the grin lines around beside the nose, cheeks and eyes. My faces are usually pretty neutral so I'm not one to give advise. Besides what has been said so far, I've seen carvers lift the upper/outer part of the mustache to give the appearance of a grin. The toothy character you carved definitely looks happy. Both are great carvings.
Patrick

[tnartist05]

Millard very nice ornaments. Tn~

[Just Carving]

Hi Millard

Your carvings are great--but as you say the smile is lacking. I had the same problem when doing portrait sketching--I just couldn't get it right. So, I went to the mirror--and I smiled till it hurt. I don't have perfect teeth, so I am a little self-conscious about my smile--hence I didn't draw smiles very well. We tend to carve our own face without even thinking about it. SO, go to the mirror--close the door if you need to, but smile like an idiot. I MEAN---SMILE until it hurts--almost as if someone is taking your picture, and told you to smile for the eighth time, and you made a real sarcastic smile and said, "OKAY??? H-appy now!?!?!" LOL.

The point of doing this isn't so much the visible result of the smile, but what happens as you smile. Watch your face as you smile--do it in slow motion if you need to--your eyes, your mouth, your chin, even your nose--if you're really smiling, your lower eyelids rise up a little, your nostrils flare up and out, and your nose gets wider, the chin gets a little narrower as your smile pulls the cheeks up, your cheeks rise up like "apple cheeks", and you'll see the musculature of your face actually making a smile. As Doris says, the smile lines under your eyes curl up. Make a scowl or a face of disgust, and the "frown" lines under your eyes curl down. Watch one of your Grandchildren when they do the "pout" look or the frown, and you'll see what happens with the face. Watch when the grandchild smiles--big difference!! That's the difference you're looking to get in the Smiling Santa!

Now, I've looked at your carvings on your website, and most lack a smile. So, take a block of wood, and duplicate the face from one that you do a lot of--maybe the Santa. Only don't take so much wood from around the smile areas of the face. Now, concentrate on what you saw in the mirror--maybe even have someone take some pictures of your "smile", or sketch some quick sketches and make notes of what you saw in the mirror. Now slowly remove the extra wood until you see what you saw in the mirror. With some practice, you'll have the jolliest Santas ever.

One more thing--the eyeglasses. They're neat but they also obscure the smile areas of the face--the eyes, the cheeks, the nose. So, for the Smiling Santas, you might either leave them off all together, or make them so they don't cover up the face so much.

I would still do the Santas like you're doing them now. They have a characteristic that others don't have. I look at them, and I see Santa on the morning after Christmas--tired. So, that could be one of your niches.

Most of what I told you is what I learned from drawing. Now if I could practice what I'm preaching when I carve, that would be great. But I'm too busy doing other stuff--pins, hiking sticks, etc. Maybe after Christmas, I'll start carving these elves and Santas that everybody seems to love.

Bob L