A couple new carvings

[KevinW]

I posted a picture of a wood spirit carving I did back a few months ago. I was brand new to learning how to carve and I still consider myself brand new to it even though I've been practicing just about every day.
I've had some complete utter failures and then I've had a few that turned out what I would call decent.
I'm posting a couple of pictures here, actually four pictures, one a little closeup and one a bit further away of each, of two of my latest and I'd like some feedback if I could.
They are shiny because I finished them off with some Linseed oil.
One thing I'd like to learn also, can someone guide me to somewhere that I can learn more about the facial features and how to work on those and I'd also like to carve one with a smiley, happy face.
Thanks everyone.

[chuckbolton]

your pieces show lots of thought and detail. i wish my second and third ones had looked that good. there are lots of books out there that will help with faces-- check out WCI and their book list-- or check in used book stores, amazon.com -- abebooks.com -- find a local group of carvers -- i do better when i can see the process completely, better than following a group of pictures in a book--

good luck- have fun -- and i think you are well started

[SlowMover]

Congratulations, those are some good looking carvings. I too am relativly new to carving, and have ordered several books on carving caracatures that have been helpful. There are a lot of instructional videos on the internet and youtube, see the catagory of tutorials on this message board for some great links. Also, it helps me to just study pictures of different people, and to pay attention to faces on my big screen TV to study things like feature placement and proportion.

Keep at it and you will definatly see improvement in your carving.

[hwallen48]

Originally Posted by KevinW

I posted a picture of a wood spirit carving I did back a few months ago. I was brand new to learning how to carve and I still consider myself brand new to it even though I've been practicing just about every day.
I've had some complete utter failures and then I've had a few that turned out what I would call decent.
I'm posting a couple of pictures here, actually four pictures, one a little closeup and one a bit further away of each, of two of my latest and I'd like some feedback if I could.
They are shiny because I finished them off with some Linseed oil.
One thing I'd like to learn also, can someone guide me to somewhere that I can learn more about the facial features and how to work on those and I'd also like to carve one with a smiley, happy face.
Thanks everyone.

Kevin
Great job , you are on your way !

[Woody1961]

Nicely done.

[Dicky]

These aren't bad Kevin. I am about the same stage as you. I found the WCI tutorials very helpful and the more you do the easier it gets and as Slowmo says study real faces and try to pick out common features.

[LisaS]

This step-by-step shows how to carve Santa with smiling eyes, you might like that.
Also - if you look on the web for facial expressions, either for drawing or for animation, you will find some information on what the important points are to convey happy or sad or angry.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Great job Kevin !

Dave