Female vs Male Wood Spirits

[Claude]

Susan:
Thanks for the great explanation and illustrations!

Claude

[twoclones]

Apparently we are more likely to carve men rather than women simply because they are easier. I carved this face in 15 minutes with a chainsaw then spent the next 45 minutes trying to make it look more feminine! Guess I'll have to re-read more closely...

[blksmith]

Very nice and very interesting! You answered questions I haven't even had a chance to ask yet!

Jim

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by twoclones

Apparently we are more likely to carve men rather than women simply because they are easier. I carved this face in 15 minutes with a chainsaw then spent the next 45 minutes trying to make it look more feminine! Guess I'll have to re-read more closely...

When carving a male face, mistakes add interest. When carving a female face, mistakes make it into a male face. The basic rules of anatomy need to considered, yes they do differ from male to female, but they still need to be followed.

In the first picture I have photoshoped the picture so that it looks better to my eye. I did this by moving the lower half of the face up, and by adding more curve to the jaw line.

Photo 2, Now you can see that the nose is the same length as the forehead and the chin/mouth area. This is a basic rule of anatomy. But it's really more like "guide lines" If you choose to bend or brake this "guide line", then you need to do it knowingly. As in before you even start carving, otherwise you'll have a harder getting the look you want.

Photo 3, Lets look back at the original now. The first thing that I see is that this girl has a really, really long nose. This nose belongs on a much larger face. The line of the jaw is very straight. Which is not as big a problem as the steep upward angle of the line as it travels to the right. It gives an awkward feeling to the carving, that I can't quite put into words.

Photo 4, Time to look at them side by side. It should be easy to see the difference that a "normal" sized nose and a little more curve in the jaw line makes.

Butch, I hope that you don't mind me drawing on your picture, and ripping your carving to pieces. It is a very good example of what happens when your unknowingly diverge from the "guidelines", by simply applying one of the basic rules of anatomy we "fixed" this carving. Moral of my story, your wasting your time worrying about high cheek bones, full lips, etc. etc. if you don't remember the basic rules of anatomy. Once you know the basics, then it makes it a lot easier to understand all that stuff that Susan was talking about.

Susan, I'm glad that you started this thread. This is the kind of thread that was so helpful to me back when I first joined the forum. There should be drawing on pictures people!

Dylan

[twoclones]

Don't mind the photo shopping at all.
In concentrating on the depth of my face carvings, some other things have suffered. I'm still having a terrible time with the mouth. Best one I every carved was in the Jeff Phares class. Need to find Jeffro for a refresher...

I think I got the 1/3 rule right in this face It 'may' be a female...

[Irish]

Garry - excellent addition to the talk!

TwoClones - Love the carving even with the long nose! You're second carving is dynamite!

Dylan - Just excellent and your Photo Shopping well showed the needed alterations.

My one thought here is in response to TwoClones statement of us doing more male woodspirits because they are easier. They are!

Most male woodspirits have mustaches, beards and wild flying hair. That reduces the amount of face that needs to be carefully and anatomically worked to an area just above the eye brow ridge to the bottom edge of the nose.

For the male woodspirit carver you have no need to deal with how the mouth is set on a forward thrusting wedge below the nose because it is covered with hair. You have no need to find the jaw line or even define the chin shape and size because it's covered with hair. I have yet to see a male woodspirit that has a neck ... and shoulders, never ... It seems that all male woodspirits stop at the beard as a floating, unattached head like the thing in the tank in Doctor Who ... Does anyone here carve ears on their male spirits?

So when you go to work a female face you are suddenlly confronted with all those features above that you got to hide behind a full, wild, wooly beard.

Susan

[Grayhorn]

Susan, thank you so much for doing this thread. It's one we all struggle with and don't really know why. This has given me much insight and opened my way to improve. Thanks again.

[upcarver]

The two androgynous faces have a marked resemblance to my wife when I spend to much time carving and not enough on "honey due".

[upcarver]

Susan, that was a great job of explaining the female face. One of the best! I know you spent a lot of time on it and I am very appreciative. The face has always been a challange for me, even after 10 years of carving and 6 or 8 roundups.

[Caril Chasens]

The androgynous faces are often interesting.
Twoclones - the one you posted on 10-04-2010 is good.