A different approach to eyes

[Tom Ellis]

Great tutorial Patrick, Very helpful series of pictures to show your progress. I will have to give it a try.

Tom

[fpace]

Great tutorial Patrick!

[TexasSteve]

This is great. I know it is an old post, but I am a new carver. I really struggle with eyes, although from some tips on here I am improving. This, I believe, is just what I needed to help me make more realistic looking eyes. Thank you very much for putting this together.

Steve

[bobgrant]

I like your method

[Lazy Carver]

Patrick you didn't carve those eyes!!!..... You got those from an eye donor! LOL!!!....Thanks a million for this excellent tutorial. Like i've said in a post before, you really learn alot from staged illustrative carving.

[Harry C]

Very Helpful! How might you adapt it if you were carving a female eye?

[Irishman]

I'm pleased that this posting is still active and helping out some folks. I do not use this technique for small carvings but it is helpful for larger carvings, especially with logs. The room for error goes up a bit when going large as the carver has to be attentive to keeping the eyes aligned and uniform.

Harry, you asked about carving female eyes. I'm still working on that but I'm getting closer. There are some subtle differences. I attached one photo from my site. Its probably 6 years old or more. There are more female pics on my site (as well as the WCI gallery but lets see if I can cover a few learnings I have learned - see below:
- do not go as deep in the socket with female eyes as you do not want the brow to be too prominent.
- on the inside of the eyes close to the nose, there is short cut that goes down around 45%. Males have it too but it is more noticeable in female eyes. You basically stick the tip of the knife in and remove a small sliver.
- the brow of the eye is higher and narrower with females, and that is done by using a gouge and start with a curved motion starting at the eye lid crease. Move the gouge in an arc and keep removing small amounts of wood until you have brought the brow to a higher level.
- allow a "puffy" look on the outside of the eye as you arc the brow. It becomes a rounded surface as you move the gouge to the outside of the eye and up. Difficult to explain.
- I usually exaggerate the eye lid with females and give it a longer lid to the outside to accentuate the feminine look.
- Be aware of the cheek bone as well as the other areas near the eye...they are all interconnected.
Hope that helps.

Patrick