[Irish]

Ash!!! I need to keep my strength up so that I can create as informative a WIP for your great people as I can. (See me with the back of my hand against my forehead, staggering to the cookie jar from exhaustion ... Sigh!)

Now there is one of my stupid, overly long epic tales here about those animal crackers. See I'm out of CHOCOLATE ... AHHH! Being a Chocoholic I don't buy chocolate for myself. However, on occassion Fox Chapel Publishing will give me an emergency e-mail or phone call, usually around 4:30 p.m. on Friday. They are in a crisis and must have something done by Monday morning, a pattern, a quick carve, a filler. And it is always something that is going to take all my weekend. And, yea, I always say yes.

(I warned you it was one of my long stories.)

So, Monday morning comes and I e-mail them the design or overnight the package to them, having helped however I can to get them out of their fix.

Now, why would I spend my whole weekend pulling out my hair to get something done real fast for them ... I will tell you .... about Wednesday afternoon in the mail will arrive a Box of Chocolate and a thank you note from Shannon .... Uh - Ah - Oh!

Unfrotunatily there have been no FC crisises of late and I have eaten my entire supply ... AHHH!

Animal crackers are a poor substitute but ...

Susan

[Ashbys]

Dang Susan we will have to give them a crisis!

Of course I can just ask my wife , she works in a small chocolate store , where they make thier own chocolates. Nothing really that good except , the chocolate covered cashews , strawberries , raisins , carmels , the nut cluster , the cashew turtles ... ect ect ..... but I can see about getting you a care package , we don't want you running out of steam !

Ash

[Tidewalker]

send me your address and am sure we can find some chocolates. there is a chocolate factory not far from this house. Ganongs. not sure if they are known world wide?

[Irish]

Big Grin!!! Thank you guys, you are both so very kind to offer. But, I do beleive that I can suffer through on animal crackers...

Grin!!!!!!!! Susan

(My blessed Michael saw me post that CHOCOLATE comment and when he came home from doing the afternoon mailing there were two BIG bags of DARK CHOCOLATE inside ... He's a good man!)

[Irish]

Since this started with a question about carving noses I wanted to take time to explore the face planes and levels before I begin carving the nose on my Oak Man.

The original question was that the carver's wasn't pleased with the nose he had carved so let's look at a couple of cane tooper spirits for the 3-d look.

Image 1: This is a carving for the Greenman book, the Twisted Beard Spirit. He's done on a 2" x 2" x 12" basswood block and has a fairly large face with definite facial planes. The red line shows where the original wood block surface was for reference.

Image 2: You can see the facial angles of this wood spirit.

a. Notice that the brow ridge is lightly curved ... the outer edge of your eye brows are lower on your face than the inner edge near the eye.

b. The nose is not a triangle, it's a diamond shape! The bottom section of the diamond is about 1/3 the size of the uper diamond area. Both parts of the diamond share the nostrils. The highest point of the nose is at the intersection of the two diamond halves. The mouth falls down from the nose. I don't have a mouth carved here but if you feel along your face at the laugh line, where the upper lip muscles join the cheek areas you can feel that downward curve where my mushtache is marked in red.

c. In fact, everything on the face falls down from the point that the nose joins to the brow ridge. As you age those down lines become more dramatic with crows feet around the eyes and deep ridges under the eyes and falling down the cheek.

d. In the side view you can see two defined backward z angles. One on the front of the face from the forehead to the brow, the brow to the nose joint and down the nose. The second is from the corner of the eye, the deepest point of the face, forward down the cheek to the highest point in the cheek there it goes back into the face to the lowest point of the cheek, then forward again along the bottom edge of the nostril.

Image 3: Here are the levels of the face.

a. In the left image from the top down is the brow ridge, center line through the eyes, the highest point of the cheeks, the tip of the nose and the line that would be the upper lip.

b. Notice in that image where the nose joins the brow ridge ... it's ABOVE the top of the eye!!!!!! One of the easiest carving mistakes that you can make on a wood spirit face is to get the eyes level with the top of the nose. That can make the nose look 'stuck on' to the piece or added or just not belonging. The error is not the nose it's the placement of the eyes too high to the nose-brow joint.

c. The right hand image shows the side face. The highest point is the nose tip, notice how low that tip is too the rest of the face. The highest point of the brow, the nostrils and the lips are all in the same line or plane. The cheek's high point and the back of the nostril fall on the same line and finally, there's the eye as the deepest point of the face.

d. Follow the second line for the lips, eyes and brow ridge, notice that the forehead falls back away from that line starting at the brow ridge. Often the hair line in the front of the face is as far back into the face as the eyes. A start or even falling forward forehead distorts the look of the nose. If you don't have an angled back nose joining and angled back forehead, your nose area will look funny.

Susan

[Irish]

Here are two spirit carvings that do not use the normal facial planes and levels ...

Image 4: the a-p-p-l-e man, here notice that the eyes are extremely high on the face. They are almost above the nose-brow joint. Notice how that makes the nose sort of float, unattached to the carving. The reason is that the eyes are perched on top of the nose
instead of beside the nose. For this design the eyes were raised mostly to connect the face to the leaves that make up his brow ridge just as the mouth was lowered to make room for a leaf mustache.

Image 5: This one shows an eye that has been placed too low to the joint of the nose and brow. Notice that the eye is almost half way down the nose length. The forehead and nose slants are good but the lower eye lid needs to be pushed way back into the face. Right now it is higher than the upper lid.

Susan

[Irish]

Hopefully, grin, you might have already caught my point in those two postings. Often we think we have problems with an area in our carving. But really it's another area that is distorting the look of the area that has our attention.

For the nose, if the eyes are too high or too low, the nose looks all wrong! And if the nose-brow ridge leads into a straight forehead area, again the nose takes the blame.

It really is hard to mess up a nose, especially on a wood spirit. So if you feel that the nose is the problem ... check your eye placement first, forehead second and how the planes of the face flow.

Did you know that there are two parts of the human body that continues to grow your enitre life ? The ears and the nose, that's why old men have hugh nose tips and old women have huge ear lobes!

OK ... I'm sorry but I won't be carving tomorrow. My kids are doing a play in Baltimore and Momma got drafted to do the last minute backdrop paintings .... AHHH!

Susan

See ya in a day or two.

[Linda L]

Susan I have a feeling I'm not alone when I say I spent the day checking my computer for new entries!

I feel like I have been given a wonderful gift, and it's not even my birthday!

Thank you so much, both for the time it took and for the tutorial itself. Sometimes the time is the hardest, and I for one appreciate all the time you spent writing the text and taking photos.

Can't wait to apply these techniques!

Linda

[MelNM]

Susan I'll send you a box of chocalates or a bag of M&Ms too. For all the help you've given me I owe you big time. How bout a monthly subscription of M&Ms from everyone.
Mel

[squbrigg]

She deserves no less than Laura Secord chocolates!!! For her outstanding service to this carving community, she deserves a medal! Thank you Susan!

From another "chocolaholic", with a sweet tooth as big as an elephants tusk!

Bob