[slivers&dust]

Feb,
I know what you mean about being afraid to tackle this carving. I have always admired this style of carving. In fact I’ve had the book for about 8-10 years and until I found this forum I was very intimidated.
I think after I visited Mark G’s web site and was so impressed that I got inspired to get over the “what if I screw it up factor” did I decide to give it a try. I failed (IMO) on the first attempt. But it’s just wood and a hobby.

The book does outline the steps very well although a few more side shots would have been helpful and they do skip some. (I guess the book would have been too big)

I think a big key is, every step effects the next and if you move on to soon the results will show it in a flat or disproportioned face or carving. That is what happened to me on the Mt. Man mask. I had only printed off a couple of the pictures from Marks tutorial as a guide and went for it…wrong! But I learned from it. They outline the steps for a reason and they do come together in the end…and that is cool when it happens.

I can’t remember where I read this but it helps me when I get flustered. “Carve within your ability, don’t expect to be perfect on the first attempt” or something to that effect. I’ve also heard it said to learn from each piece. When I get into an area like the eyes I try to learn from each CUT. Jeff and Mark outline three cuts when starting an eye. I couldn’t figure out WHY they put them where they did until I started detailing the eye. My cuts were way off, in the area, but off enough to need some reshaping of the brow and eye. But I figured it out by observing live people and reference pictures. I actually caught myself looking at people and seeing the gouge marks around they eye and brow on them…lol
GEESH…I just spent all that time writing that and then I remembered I may have seen your carvings, so I checked and dude, go for it and see what comes out of it. Your carvings are great!

[RoadKingMN]

Tony,
You did a great job on this carving. If you are looking for any photos for inspiration you might want to try the Library Of Congress website. They have a great collection of photographs on almost any subject you might be interested in carving. I find it fascinating to look at the photos of how life used to be.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

[slivers&dust]

I haven’t had a lot of spare time to work on this since the last update. The LOML has had me painting and trimming my soon to be fourteen year old daughters bedroom…anyway since the last post I have, for the third time…maybe fourth…re-carved or pushed back the hair wraps again and I’ve completed about 90% of the headdress to this point.

I chose to not shrivel or carve the nose to look dehydrated like it would on a real skin. I figured it just wouldn’t look right…IMO. I also started texturing the hair on the left side and will continue on hopefully tonight.

When I’m in the basement carving, about every fifteen minutes or so, one of our two mini Dachshunds makes a visit to the basement to check on me…sooooo, I took each opportunity to try and study their nose…LOL
They weren’t to keen on me holding their snout and pulling their lips back…grin…but dang if they aren’t the right size for a study aid on this part of the project.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture today, guess I was a little shaky this morning I’ll try and get better ones tonight and include some close-ups.
I also included a shot of the basement work area.