Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

[Blake Lunsford]

I started this Indian Mask with Wolf Cape today out of 5" tall piece of basswood. The pattern is from Jeff Phares' book Carving the Human Face. I thought I would pick up this book to help me with the eyes and nose on my Woodspirits. I have enjoyed working on this project probably more than any others I have started. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in carving realistic faces. Please let me know what you think!! Thanks for looking!

Blake

[GaryMc]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Great Start Blake, Keep it up!
I have several of his books also, excellent material.
GaryMc

[Claude]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Looking great so far, Blake - I have that same book, but so far haven't had the courage to try it. His descriptions of the anatomy of the face were very helpful in my other carvings, though.

Claude

[Kenny_S]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Looks like several of us has his books, I too, Have not carved anything from his books.

Great start Blake, Like what you have done so far. Waiting to see the finish carving.

[Mark Gargac]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Blake,So far the blocking out stage of your carving looks like your heading in the right direction. From what I see in the pics. is that your playing it safe,which can be good and bad at this preliminary stage of roughing out. What I mean by that is you might not be using a big enough gouge in the roughing out stage. This appears evident at the shallow planes you have established on the secondary profile of the face. I am guessing that you are using a #3 sweep maybe a 7 or 10 mm gouge, I dont want to try to tell you how to carve your mask expermenting is sometimes the best teacher but from my experience with carving them and the size of that carving I would use a #5 /16 mm in establishing the planes. When I begin to knock a carving down and start tighting things up to the final size, which may take several passes,then I will use the smaller gouges to bring detail to the piece. It's easy to tell some one to take off more wood if its not your carving but sometimes you just have to go for it! The proportion looks really good at this point . I would love to see this when you are finished . Take your time , step back from it and take a good look at it,often, at different angles, different light , take it outside and look, spray some water on it and look, put it in front of a mirror and look at it,carve a little more and do it all over again. Study your work and any reference material you have on the subject your carving often.

[Colin-Partridge]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Blake that is a great start really impressive. I also have all of his books and was lucky enough to have taken one of Jeffs courses when he came up to Canada. He is a great carver and he does it with such great ease. Look forward to seeing your progress as you go.
Colin

[Mark N. Akers]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Blake:
Great start on the face,and if you don,t have Jeff's other books plan on getting them,they are very informative.

[squbrigg]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Good beginning, Blake, looking forward to the stages of progress!!

Bob

[Nancy-G]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Swell stuff, Blake....
IMHO it is the best looking thing you've started ( and you know how I feel about Santa - lol ).

[Irishman]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Looking forward to seeing the finished product. I find it interesting to see how all the carvers rough out their work. Having been tought by another carver, my roughing out would be slightly different. I must get this book everyone is referring too.
Patrick

[Dylan]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Blake, you've got a great start there. Here the pictures coming. I like to see different people carving the same thing. It's amazing the different looks a carving can have and still be the same.
I wouldn't worry about which sweeps or how big. I've got the book and I carved it full size with nothing bigger then a #7 14mm.
Can't with to see it finished.

Dylan

[GILLY]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Looks great!

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Blake.......Looks like you're off to a good start. I have that same book and refer to it often even though I only do caricatures. Can never get enough reference material. Look forward to seeing it completed.

[Bartster]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

blake,


great start on the mask, you have done a good job at blocking it out..jeff has several other books on just the parts of the face that what i have seen of them is good reference material.


bart

[Blake Lunsford]

Re: Indian Mask with Wolf Cape

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm pretty pleased on how it has turned out so far. I think I will probably try it again on a bigger piece of wood the next time.

Thanks Mark for going into so much detail! I agree that sometimes I am afraid to take too much off because I know that I can't put it back. I probably need some formal training on this topic to help me get away from that fear. I will be sure to post some more pictures as I progress with the piece.

Thanks again! I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment!

Blake