Chubby Cheeks

[Rezbar]

I can see that most of the typical Santas have chubby cheeks. I am trying to carve the cheeks of my Santas in that way, but with bad results. The problem is that if I want to have the nose stick out, I have to "flatten" the cheeks. Likewise if I want to have the moustache stick out. Is there any tutorial or is there anybody who can give me some good tips about "chubby-cheeks carving"?
Thank you for your assistance. Dino

[Bob K.]

Dino, I will try to offer some help here based on the way I do a Santa face. The first thing you need to do is shave back the face on both sides from where the nose is going to be back towards where the ears should be. If you look at a face it is not flat but sort of V shaped...it tapers back from the tip of the nose back to the ears. Once the face is tapered you want to set in the nose which sticks out the farthest on every face. Then set the eyes which need to be set back deep into the face...don't be afraid to go too deep, most carvers don't. Then set the mustache which should actually not stick out. Carve it so that it is set back under the nose. If both the eyes and mustache are set in deep enough the cheeks should start to look a little chubby. Of course all of this assumes you are carving a caricature in 3 dimensions. Relief carving is something different all together. I hope this is some help...just keep working at it and eventually you will get the results you are looking for.

[Rezbar]

In an all-round Santa figure or just head, I normally use a square piece of wood and I carve the nose on the edge, so that the nose sticks out and the face has a V-shape without shaving away wood.
Anybody can add some tips about carving chubby cheeks in a Santa ornament, where the depth of the wood is not like an all-round figure?

[Tom-H]

One thing that might help is to remove a small chip/wedge of wood from the area where the wings of the nose meet the mustasche. Do this on each side of the nose. This should give some roundness to the cheeks as they meet the bottom of the nose. Next remove a chip/wedge of wood from the area where the ends of the mustasche meet the cheeks (towards the sides of the face). The removal of these chips/wedge should give the cheeks a roundness.

Tom H

[Scott Hagerty]

Sometimes I have to cut the end of the nose off to force myself to push the face back more. That pops out the cheeks and makes them fuller. I fight the same problem, a lot of my Santa's have narrower faces and less full cheeks.

[mpounders]

Here is a link to a tutorial I did on ornaments "Carving a Santa Ornament" #1: Starting out - by mpounders @ LumberJocks.com ~ woodworking community

but it sounds like your ornaments are more on flatter pieces of wood, more like relief carving? You might look at the plate I did Mike Pounders Wood Carving .It's based on a design from one of the WCI holiday issues a year or so back. You make sort of the same cuts, with deeper cuts in corners by nose and on the sides of cheeks to give the illusion of greater depth (by making shadows). And painting darker shadows give the hat and face more of a 3 dimensional effect.

[blusteel7]

Mpounders' tutorial is great. Another to see is Gary McDaniel's demo on Youtube or at the 3 Crosses wood carving web site.

[Rezbar]

Thank you, Mike. Great and helpful tutorial. And I like the way of shadowing the edges of the cheeks in your Santa plate. Dino

[cgm]

Hey Mike great job on the tutorial
I joined the lumber jocks also
Carl