New wood spirits

[GaryMc]

Hello all, I have not been very active on the board in some time. I have been super busy at work for the last six months and havent gotten to carve nearly as much as I would like. I have been visiting the boardwevery day, but not posting. I have 5 wood spirits that I have done in the past few months, all in cottonwood bark. Most were done or started in my carving group held on Saturday mornings. I am posting one of each here and more views and larger sizes in the Gallery. I would like to here any comments or critiques you might have>
Thanks!
GaryMc

[Lightningbolt]

Seems to me that your carving is getting better and better! Those are pretty much 100% of what I think a woodspirit should look like. That background color really shows them off good too.

Know what you mean about being too busy to post much! Great work.

[feb]

Very nice work, i like them all and they are all somewhat differant. feb

[Dylan]

Beautiful work Gary. I really like the flow that you put in the hair. The second one, the one with the pupils, looks the most alive. Although the fourth one has some good movement to him. I'd say that you did a great job on all of them.

I know what your talking about when you say you've been busy. I haven't been able to post much ether but like you I check in on the board everyday.

Dylan

[chuckt]

Wow! These are EXCELLENT. I am curious to know what the size range is of these. I am working (very slowly) on some myself in pretty small sizes and I've been looking at quite a few here and all across the web. Your's are some of the best I've seen actually. I really like the variety in them and the detail.

Really well done. I hope I can get mine to look that nice eventually.

Cheers!
ChuckT

[windsong]

Gary
Very nice woodspirit.I just wish i could carve them half as good as you and i would be satisfied.Do you use a knife to carve the bark with or a power carver?
Vic.

[Joy]

Excellent work. Such expressive faces.

[Kenny_S]

Fantastic spirits Gary

[knothole]

Great job on the spirits Gary!!! All of them have a nice flow and the detail is very good, love the eyes. Thanks for sharing them I really enjoy wood spirits...Bruce

[GaryMc]

Hello all, thanks for the comments! I have been carving these while teaching my group how I carve faces, so I don't get too much done at the carving session. I am going to start 3 big peices for competetion next. The sizes vary from 19"x5"x3-1/4" to the smallest at 11'x4''x2''.
Wind song: The 3rd and 5th Spirit were carved using my carving knife for most of it but the details. the rest were carved using my gouges. I am teaching my group how I carve faces using a knife for blocking out the features and finishing up with carving tools. Although I have the power tools (Dremels and a fordom) I don't use them much at all, I like hand tools better.

Chuckt: I have been carving faces for about 2 years now and I still have a lot of room for improvement. I too started out small (Carving in branches about 1-1/2 in Dia.) I still do some smaller peices but I am going bigger.