Native American Indian

Irishman · #11 01-28-2007, 09:29 PM

My plan to set this carving aside didn't work so I went right to it after my last post here.
I was going to post a pic of my progression on the overhaul but I'll wait until I'm finished. I pretty much took everyone's advise and removed a lot more wood. The feather will be partly coming off the carving when its finished. I took the neck back a lot (almost two inches) which resulted in having to take the shirt back as well. I had no idea how shallow I made this area until I started taking wood away. I took the brows way down and reshaped the head somewhat, plus angled the hair near the top and deepened the part. I even took down the cheek bones and raised them a bit. Although the lower lip and chin were shaved, they still look a little pronounced. I hope to finish him in another day or two. He's going to look a little leaner I hope...with a lot more depth.
Patrick

slivers&dust · #12 01-28-2007, 09:59 PM

Hey Patrick here is a link to the Smithsonian, I ment to send it earlier but got tied up.

Hope the link works

http://smithsonianimages.si.edu/siph...&searchIndex=1

slivers&dust · #13 01-28-2007, 10:01 PM

It didn't work like I wanted so click on HOME then the Gertrude Kasebier collection. When that window opens click on BROWSE ALL

mark yundt · #14 01-29-2007, 01:28 AM

I just googled "american indian portraits" and got a ton of info,here is one that seemed pretty good www.webhome.idirect.com/~mikeha/namericans/namericans.html
not sure if it helps,,I don't do these myself,,,but it sure seemed interesting.

Irishman · #15 01-29-2007, 07:08 AM

Mark and Tony - those are both excellent sites. I appreciate you passing them along.
Tony, the site that Mark provided has some great black and white shots. It also has a number of photos with NA Indians wearing ceremonial beads and such.
Patrick

doris · #16 01-29-2007, 07:45 AM

i admire your courage to do severe recuttings on carving which has a finished look already, and i think it is a very nice carving already ... i am not familiar with american indian, so i cant suggest improvements there. however, from the carvings i have seen from you, and this is with this indian too, they all seem have to high heads, but then maybe this is indian feature. in genreal, the width of head is about 5/7, and the height of eyes is in the horizontal middle line. also, your mouths are unusually wide, in relaxed position as you have carved, the corners of mouth fall directly under the pupil... these remarks are just meant to be helpful for learning, i see you cant change these things on this carving anymore... what i really love on your carving is how you carved the eyes, with all that detail.
i am looking forward to your redoing, i am sure you will be able to improve this aready great carving way more.
oh, i just look again to this chin, maybe its too pronounced not since it sticks too far out, but because it is not curved back strong enough, like by cutting the sides of the chin back a little, and make thus more like an u-shape

Lynn O. Doughty · #17 01-29-2007, 08:20 AM

Mark.....Boy! That's really a nice cite for faces. Put it in my bookmarks.

Patrick....Speaking for myself, I would not get too hung up on trying to exactly copy the facial features of a certain race until I had a solid handle on the basic structure of a head. Living in Oklahoma there are Native Americans all over the place and half you couldn't tell from us caucasians, even the fullbloods.

When I'm carving a head, and doing a caricature head is no different than doing a realistic one, I reach a certain point in blocking it out where just a few chips will open the book on the character of the piece. Of all the time I spend on a piece it's that moment that I most look forward to as it is the exact moment when the figure starts to breath on it's own. There are no details evident yet, no eyes, just a few shadows to indicate where things will eventually go. As I mentioned before, it's at this point that eyes, nose, mouth, ears start lining up to take their place on this blank slate.

I love it!

Mark N. Akers · #18 01-29-2007, 02:07 PM

Patrick:
Great job on the indian,keep up the great work,I really enjoy your woodspirits.

Irishman · #19 01-29-2007, 05:23 PM

Yes the mouth is cut wide in proportion to the rest of the facial features. I typically use the pupils as my guide but I purposely exaggerated the mouth to accentuate the features.
I will be forming the chin into the neck to form more of a u shape. I think I understood you when you indicated that all of my carvings appear to have a high head...do you mean forehead? It hasn't been raised with me before so I'll have to go back and review my work. This carving will have some work done on the forehead and hair so hopefully it will not appear that way. Thanks for your feedback.
Patrick

Quote:

Originally Posted by doris

i admire your courage to do severe recuttings on carving which has a finished look already, and i think it is a very nice carving already ... i am not familiar with american indian, so i cant suggest improvements there. however, from the carvings i have seen from you, and this is with this indian too, they all seem have to high heads, but then maybe this is indian feature. in genreal, the width of head is about 5/7, and the height of eyes is in the horizontal middle line. also, your mouths are unusually wide, in relaxed position as you have carved, the corners of mouth fall directly under the pupil... these remarks are just meant to be helpful for learning, i see you cant change these things on this carving anymore... what i really love on your carving is how you carved the eyes, with all that detail.
i am looking forward to your redoing, i am sure you will be able to improve this aready great carving way more.
oh, i just look again to this chin, maybe its too pronounced not since it sticks too far out, but because it is not curved back strong enough, like by cutting the sides of the chin back a little, and make thus more like an u-shape

Irishman · #20 01-29-2007, 05:33 PM

I still got some work ahead of me but have a look at what has been changed since I heard from everyone. I think I made adjustments from everyone's feedback. With the fresh wood showing up from under the stain, its pretty evident where I did the revisions. I have to relief the shirt some more, and flatten out the hair on top some more and maybe the sides as well. The chin will be decreased and rounded where it meets the neck. I removed a lot of wood so far, especially around the neck. Still have to figure out what to do with the hair as it goes straight down right now...with one side hidden under the feather which is coming off the carving as I keep making more cuts. The carving is laying on my work bench as I am too lazy to take it off...its a heavy piece to move around. I'll be doing more work on it tonight.
Patrick