Critique this please.

[twoclones]

Oak can be easy

hi twoclones, i dont do chainsaw carvings,,,

...a good carving already, on a difficult to carve wood (i cant carve oak, i tried) ... keep going :-)

I think that on a carving of this size, it really makes sense to use a chainsaw to remove unwanted wood. For anyone making larger carvings, learning to use a chainsaw might be a good idea since it can be used for cuts which a bandsaw could never make.

Oak is pretty easy to carve when wet. This particular piece is offald from a chainsaw carving of a beaver. The tree was 'stumped' a couple of months ago but this piece was removed only about 2 weeks ago. In a few months it will be more like carving stone.

I hope you'll find a freshly cut piece of oak and give that a try because it's a beautiful wood.

No photo of the beaver yet but this eagle is of a different oak tree on the same property. Slightly over 2 meters tall.

http://woodhacker.com/eagle-1.html

Butch

[twoclones]

Good info

This is the kind of feedback I was hoping for...
I knew the nose was too long. My excuse is that I usually carve this face on walking sticks and long looks good on a long stick. Shifting gears isnt' always easy.

As for the eyes, I've added a profile image here. Should I and can I push that eye back deeper and improve the carving?

[Scott Hagerty]

Re: Critique this please.

You asked!

Nose-too flat and long. The proper proportion for the nose is 2 eyewidths long. I have the same problem at times.

Eyes-look like they might fall off of his head. To me they need to be pushed back into the eye socket and they need more bags below the eye.

I'll try to post more later. (suggestions, that is)

Scott

[doris]

Re: Critique this please.

hi twoclones, i dont do chainsaw carvings, but i can give some general insight on carving faces, as you asked for...
first, i like the shape of head, the cheekbones, the mouth and moustache, and i like the way you solved the hair problem. nicely creative, i like the bold strong look ...
i think two things need improvement on the next carving. the first is proportion, that means for example the eyes are located too high, the mouth is located too low. in a generic face the eyes are about on the horizontal centerline through the head, if you put them about there, your head will immediately look right, nomatter if other things are correct or not. that is, since we all perceive the eyes as the most important part of the head. therefore correct placement of them, makes us feel good when viewing the carving... of course, you always can play with the placement, put them higher or lower for a desired effect. its not a strict rule, but one that makes viewer perceive a head as nice and believable...
the other i want mention, and since you asked for, is the eyes themselves. i like the way you cut them, but i would try to make them more round in depth. we cant see the sideview, but i guess the eyes look rather flat from side. you need to think of eyes as being spheres (which they are) sitting mostly inside head, and covered by the skin of the eyelids. so what you see from the eye is a strongly curved part of the sphere, and you want put that in your carving to make believable eyes. how to get this ? the way to do is to cut the area where you have carved the corners of the eyes much deeper, so that you get that strongly curved hill where the eyes should go, and then carve on this hill the eyes as you have done. you will see, you did essentially right, only you started on too flat area... whoops got lengthy post, but i hope i did say something what might help you...a good carving already, on a difficult to carve wood (i cant carve oak, i tried) ... keep going :-)

[twoclones]

I'm working on this piece of oak to learn more about carving faces and in particular eyes. Rather than the regular 'atta boy' responses, I'd like to hear some genuinely constructive criticism.

What you cannot see is that the profile is not what it should be even though I once went back and cut it much deeper.

Note that before cutting eyes and nose, this was done primarily with a chainsaw. It's 24" x 12" x 5"

What can I do to improve what I've got here?