[Irishman]

I'm impressed how diligent you are staying with the style of carving outlined by Jeff's book. Not sure what the other carvers are seeing about the eyes but you have plenty of wood on that nose (the bridge) so you can balance out the eyes if necessary. Your cheek bones are right on and his features give him a look of wisdom...like an elder in the tribe. I see you left the head dress until last. I recall the time I had with that part of the carving - see attached. Mine is sitting too high on his head and I can probably go on with the other things I would change next time. I used Dilan's carving as a reference while doing mine...not sure where he is these days...probably carving. You have a real piece of art there. Keep those pics coming.
Patrick

[Blake Lunsford]

Very nice Tony! I really like the way it turned out! Great looking realistic carving!

Blake

[Mark N. Akers]

Tony:
Great face on the Indian,looks like you followed the tutorial very well.

[slivers&dust]

Thanks for the nice comments and much appreciated observations.

In Jeff’s book on eyes he recommends off-centering the iris for a more natural look so I tried that and diiiiidn’t quite get his left one turned inward eeeeeeenough. Need to work on that.

A few of you noted that I am following the book very closely. Part of that is I set out to do just that since I was essentially trying to learn his method of carving a face. What better way then to copy a published process, kind of like a carving class I figure.

The other part is coming from bird carving with a few caricatures in between I simply haven’t developed a style yet. Hopefully my next project will reflect some of that.

Though the basic face shape is close to the book I did try to put in some of my own style into finishing the details by using reference photos. Like on the cheeks, eyes and skin surface. I also used Mark G’s sanding tips for the skin but still need to go over it with 600 grit.

Another area I will be working on is originality and developing a style. Most everything I have carved is from a book or someone else’s pattern. It is prbably time to break away from that and take the plunge into designing

Again I DO appreciate the observations that’s why I post here so DO keep’em coming

Thanks

[feb]

Tony, great job I think the eyes look nice. I like Jeff to, but was afraid to try it. It should be beautiful when finished.FEB

[Mark Gargac]

Tony, I've been following your progress on this carving, your doing an excellent job with this piece. I like the way you carved the eyes in, and the space you got between the eyes really helps give them a realistic appearence. I dont know if you have any plans to, but I'd think twice about taking any wood off the sides at the bridge of the nose, right up there between the eyes, the spacing is perfect where they lie,(eyes), at the present.

[santagibbs]

What a great carving.. I see nothing wrong with this one.. very impressive, good rugged features . I wouldn't change a thing. very nice.. Charlotte

[DADDIO]

wow now thats a good looking carving great job one day one day i'm gonna do me some cool stuff like that

[Ron Davidson]

Great job on the face Tony. I think you did an outstanding job on the eyes. Thanks for sharing.
Ron

[slivers&dust]

Thanks again to everyone, your comments really keep me encouraged and motivated.

I think I’ll be leaving the face alone at this point. There may be some little tweaks as we go but I’m happy with it.

I’m posting a couple of the reference pic’s that I LOOSLEY used for the eyes, cheeks and wrinkles after the face was shaped as Jeff outlined in the book. Sorry about the image quality, cheap scanner.
The fella in the color shot has some very defined features that helped with a lot of the facial detail. It came off a sales promotion from the Discovery Channel on the home video series “How the west was lost” I got about 8-10 years ago.

I was studying this picture again this morning and noticed his eyes are two different sizes and the iris appears to be off center too…that makes me feel better

Also check out his neckerchief…that will come in handy when I get to detail that area. The way his hair lays along his face too. It’s a great picture I just wish it was larger.

The B&W profile photo I found on line.