Relief Carve the Captain

With only a few basic carving tools, common pine, and a few hours, you can make this handsome portrait

Too many beginning woodcarvers attempt to carve a relief work from a sketch or pattern without understanding the details involved. For the fisherman project, I use with many of my students, there are features that everyone is familiar with: facial anatomy complete with age lines, wrinkles, and beard, vinyl rain slicker and hat and a turtleneck sweater.

If you need to familiarize yourself with these details, I suggest you take some time to study the finished piece. Once you are comfortable with the look of the fisherman, the carving will be a good learning tool for further relief work.

If you're carving this portrait, here's the eye template for Step 6. Note the dotted line on the template shows where to fold the template so it wraps around the carved eye mound. The left edge of the template touches the bridge of the nose.