Man of many Errors

[Merle Rice]

Finally finished the Man of many Errors. He started out 8"x5"x3". Ended up 7"x 4"x2.5". I couldn't get his eyes right, so kept going deeper hoping to find a better pair. I found these, then had to make the face match the Eyes. As I was looking for his eyes his nose kept getting bigger. Hey Kathy I think I got his nose pretty close. LOL. First I had to shave his upper lip, not enough wood for a Mustache. What a Good learning experience. Oh if you didn't recognisee it , he is the start of recognisee Woodspirit, sorry Mark, better next time . Ha Ha. I belive I learned more on this Guy than any of my other projects. Truthful comments appreciated, Lies accepted, LOL. Merle

[GaryMc]

Hey Merle, whatever you did he shore turned out looking good!
GaryMc

[Anthony Filetti]

Got to agree, he's a looking good Merle!!

[MDWine]

As a good friend, and good carver, told me... never tell someone what you started out to do, only show'm what you wound up with!

I like it a lot, it was worth the wood and your 'education'! As long as we keep learnin'!!

Excellent fellow!

[Banjo]

Wow, Merle, I would never have known by looking at him that you had problems with him. What a nice carving! I love the way you did his mouth and cheeks. He looks so happy! Excellent!

[Bartster]

merle,

have to agree he looks great, like the way you just went with it instead of throwing it out turned out great.

bart

[BobT]

What a happy face. Anybody would be proud to call that carving their own. Great job.
Bob

[Irishman]

Your carving has a great look. Makes you smile just looking at him.
Patrick

[Eddy-Smiles]

Looks fine to me! Great personality!

[Mitchell]

Merle - this is a good looking piece. I'll give as honest an assessment as I can....this is only my opinion - which means it is not necessarily right!

I love the expression of the piece (overall). The hair on the top of the head is very well done as with the wrinkles in the forehead. The eyes seem ok to me too. You seemed to have recovered well from what ever problems that you had originally. The nose and mouth are also very well done.

I like the beard flow and you broke up the overall effect by not having flat planes, but some curvatures in the beard.

Area for improvement: The cheeks seem to sit on top of the beard a bit - the hair grows on the skin and should appear that way. It's easy to make round cheeks when they stick out over the beard. This is a common problem (hair below cheeks) and I do it also - many carvers do this. I'm trying to do it less often and thought I'd make mention of it.

My eye keeps being drawn to his hair line that over laps the beard....seems too straight. You may be able to cut a break in it. Make it appear as one lock comes out over another - carve a notch like you did at the bottom of the beard.

Lastly, the eyebrows seem too uniform to me. Maybe you could use a shorter line or two in each to make them seem more natural...I use a small gouge to first make the brow and then use a v-tool or knife to make hair details.

All this does not mean that it's a bad carving - at all - I really think it's a very good carving. It's just some very little things that you could change for a different affect. I would not change this one, but use those techniques on the next one(s) that you do.