Santa Ornament (carving eyes)

[Mark Gargac]

1 of 7, This ornament is carved from basswood, that measures 5+1/2" by 2+1/2" wide by 1 +1/2" in depth. The back is hollowed out to allow for some pierce relief carving and to lighten the ornament. pix. #2) Using a *Dockyard micro gouge 3mm I am cutting straight into the face at the line I marked for the inside corner of the eye. I take this first cut right up to the line marked for the centerline of the eye, taking the cut a little deeper as I get closer to the centerlline. What I am doing with these innitial cuts are creating cavities on each side of the centerline to round into which will develop the eyeball. Pix. #3) Cutting back down to meet the previous cut and remove the chip, you may want to make a couple of passes on the last two cuts to get good and deep and to help keep this area clean. Pix.#4) Same cut on the outside corner of the eye, work to the outside of your pencled in line and try to erase them with the tool as you carve to keep a cleaner carving, and to help to keep this area between these line at the end of the centerline wide.Pix. #5) Cutting back down to the cut for the removal of the chip.

[Thomp]

Mark,

you make it look so easy,
I been trying pete leclairs books, and got to the eyes and got confused, about which layer i was working on, and in an effort to keep from making a mess, i decided to lay off and study faces more, and have been noticing different sutteltys in lots of faces but draw a blank when it comes to how to replicate the sutteltys of what i have observed heck i cant even draw them....
this lesson helps me to see how to make the cuts towards the eyelid,

Ya got me in antisipation for the next portune of this lesson...
thanks for leading

[brent]

That looks like the way Helen Gibson teaches eyes. Makes the actual carving easier, after one of her classes.