Female Subjects

[woodtrapper]

My mom keeps asking me whay I do not carve female subjects.All I could say is women have smother lines and no facial hair.For me you have to be on the money to carve a female profile.I am afraid if I tried she might have a rugged look to her.So if anyone has some good pics. of female carvings I would like totake a look.

[Colin-Partridge]

I agree female subjects are much harder. You are right on the money you can cover up the male face with facial hair but women have smooth skin and I very seldom sand my carvings. Here are a couple I have attempted not great I really need to practice more.
Colin

[Irishman]

I personally find carving female features very hard. I recently picked up a book by Norbury to help me out so I will be trying my hand at it again later. Here is a pic of a carving I did some time ago...with some good advise from those on the board here. I finally gave up refining her lines when the crack started down her forehead. The other pic is another female that I cut out of a log to repair and turn into a mask. I just started to fix up her features. Once again there is a crack on the forehead - go figure! I'm not saying anything else, otherwise I'll get myself in trouble. The last pic is a female I carved in oak. I was more pleased with this one but still some work to get the lines softer.
Patrick

[Irishman]

Sorry here are the pics.
Patrick

[Callynne]

Hey Woodtrapper, maybe being a woman I don't find carving one hard at all. Okay, that theory doesn't make sense, I don't have a hard time carving chubby, hairy faced gentlemen either and I'm not either of those things. Hmmmm, maybe a bit chubby, after all the Holiday overeating, but I KNOW I don't have a beard!!

Click on the link below, I have women in my Angels, Fairies and Bark Carvings Albums. Oh, and one in my Newest Carvings Album, it's an Angel I haven't moved over to the Angels Album yet. Hope you find something that helps!

Colin, for not sanding (which really does soften the look) your ladies look fine!! I wouldn't want to try sanding the size work you do!!

Patrick's right, Woodtrapper, Norbury's books are a big help! And Patrick, you obviously are making progress, your ladies look like females for sure!! Good work!! Deborah

[Ashbys]

Callynne

It is easy to understand why you would not have the same trouble with a womans face as we as men do.

You have studied the womans face for years. Simply by adding makeup , lipstick ect you study the lines of your own face.

Men on the other hand really do not study a womans face. We look but we do not study. First because it is considered impolite to stare at a woman. So instead of studing the face we look at is as a whole. The entire face is looked at, and for carving this is not enough.

To carve a female face we have to really study the face, we have to retrain ourselves to look and understand the outlines the curves the recesses. On a man we can get by by making a beard , adding an age line , recessing the cheeks , making the nose larger, or smaller , but if we do this to a womans face we offset the balance. And instantally a face that would be lovely becomes aged and haggered. Although fitting , it loses the look we hoped to acheive.

Frist a womans face is petite. Smaller jaw lines, finer lips , smaller nose closer eyes. Cheeks more forward , jaw more recessed, Eyes not as deep. Age lines must be more determined , as one age line can gain years on a womans features.

A womans face is flat compaired with a mans often pie faced at the jaw line from side to side or the jaw will be forward to round the lower section of the face. The cheeks higher , the muscle structure not as chiseled and more flowing. Each of these little adjustments cause a need to relearn how we carve into the face. The Eyelines higher the brow not as heavy. And the hardest part is to flow the lip line into the cheek and the cheek into the jaw without distortation. The lack of a beard forces us to define the jaw line, and the chin. Extend it too much and we break the lines of the face.

To make a womans face you must really study the face, and that is a retraining of how we as men look at women.

Ash

[mark yundt]

Ash is right. Like I've said before,we look but do we ever really see.Form follows function.Once a form, a line,any shape is truly understood and "seen" the image becomes almost easy to draw or carve,,,doesn't matter if it's a man, woman,leaf etc..You need to separate your thoughts about something, and carve what you see. You in a sense have to become a human Xerox machine .The copier doesn't "think" or make judgements about what it is trying to copy,it just re-creates what it sees.It's a left brain,right brain with a bit of Zen thrown in kind of thing.Once we get our minds out of carving, our hands know what to do.And the resulting carvings are the better for it.And remember, a womans features aren't hard to do,,,,they're soft!

[Covet]

I have only ever carved female faces. My carvings are often referred to as *scary little heads* but they are what they are. I started carving in 2009 and made two carvings but then didn't carve anything after for almost two years. I'm in progress of finishing my third carving of a woman's face and I think it's my best one yet. When I carve I usually touch my face to feel the curves and then I try to mimic them. I have never attempted to carve a man's face but I think it would be difficult for me. My style is all about smooth curves that feel lovely when you rub your thumbs over the wood.

[William]

I also have Norburys books but my favorite way is still using the white marble sculptures by the masters and I prefer the works of Hiram Powers. "The Greek Slave" (1843) is his most famous sculpture and the web is loaded with high resolution photos from different angles.

The first pic is the greek slave by hiram powers and the second pic is my first female carving "Diana" done several years ago and it's also from the Hiram Powers collection.

I like using his works for the basic design and then go to life pictures for detail.

Bill
^v^

[Irishman]

I was looking at the date when I had first responded to this original post and its dated 2006. I hope to think my female faces have improved since I posted those pictures.

From viewing your recent carvings, I would describe them as stylized. From what I have read about stylized, it is the carvers interpretation and they are free to represent their carving as they see it....not how others see it.
I'm trying to get more realism into my style. I am still told that my females still have strong features and an ethnic influence - as you can see from my site.

Your carvings are very good. Thanks for giving us a look.

Patrick