Dave Stetson On-Line Classes

[Claude]

I took part in Dave Stetson's on-line class in July. This class was showing us how to carve three female caricature heads. This was my effort - they don't look as good as Dave's, but I'm learning... He showed us a lot about the anatomy of the female head, and spent a fair amount of time showing how he carves hair. The class was taught using Zoom. His cameras were his laptop and his iPhone - it all worked out well. Dave painted the hair using washes, as well as the faces. I chose to just leave the hair unpainted. Each carving was covered in BLO, then painted. Following each session, he put recording of the session in a private area so the students could view the session again. This worked well for me, as I could concentrate on what he was doing during the class, then afterward, I could take my laptop out to my workbench and follow along - playing it for a few seconds or so, then pausing while I attempted to do what he just did. The class I took was $125US and was held on Mondays and Fridays from 6pm-8pm EDT. It was worth every penny!

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Critiques are welcome. My own critique indicates the left carving has too long a nose, the middle one has too wide a nose, and the right one has too small a dental curve, which makes her lips protrude just a bit too much...

Dave will have another class around September on carving a Santa. He'll make the announcement on his FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/dave.stetson. This is the Santa - about 12 inches tall. Students will need to buy a roughout - Dave will provide all the info in the announcement. The roughout has two hats, so it can be carved with Santa wearing a hat, holding the hat in his hand, or however the student wants to modify the roughout. This class will likely be on Saturday and/or Sunday, time unknown at the moment. Dave lives in Arizona, so he is on PDT.

Screen Shot 2020-07-24 at 5.24.17 PM (2).png Claude

[Nebraska]

Always wonder about size as my expectations are higher on larger pieces. My impression is these are a couple inches tall.

First off nice job, they are all well done. Mouth issues aside I think the right one is the best of the lot.

Claude,
Now as always I don’t know what you were going for so these are generally observations. Don’t hate me but here we go.

I agree with your own observations.

When looking at the profile photo the eyes on the first two are not set back or angled back properly I think the far right one is correct. The most common mistake we make with faces is carving them too flat.

The bangs on the center one are too straight and the transition to the forehead too square. Also her right ear is noticeably lower than the left.

The far right girl’s jaw lines don’t appear to match. But love that hair!

[Squid-61]

I suppose if one considers an idealized human face there are errors in all three. If one considers reality they are perfect representations of actual faces. Great job, I'm still at the caricature face stage of carving and will likely stay there.

[uvawyo]

Claude, All three of the faces look very feminine. Good job. I like the one on the right best

[Claude]

Ed: thank you for the critique! I hadn't noticed the ear height difference. These were carved from a block 2.5 x 2.5 x 4 inches, grain running vertically. Now that you point it out, I agree that the left face is too flat. That has always been a problem for me and I'll keep working on it.

Bob and Herb: thank you for the comments!

Claude

[Nebraska]

Claude,

This may sound weird but sometimes I use the camera on my iPad to look at my carving I see things when it’s two dimensional that my eye doesn’t see when it’s in three.

Something else that helped me see how angled back face are was looking at the busts on display at the old capital building in Baton Rouge.

[joepaulbutler]

Sure when you point out things, you can imagine & agree, but at this point, the critiquee, doesn't feel qualified to be the critiquer. A lady's face is more difficult to carve than a man's, but all in all, I think they are fine carvings

[woodburner807]

Nice carvings, Claude, and curious if you put acrylics over the BLO? Since I do caricatures and flat plane carvings...can't give any detailed meaningful feedback.

[Nomad]

Well done Claude. I love his videos. Can you record these sessions so you can revisit them?

[squbrigg]

Great job Claude, glad you are still learning, we should never stop. That Santa class should be good.

Bob

[Claude]

Nice carvings, Claude, and curious if you put acrylics over the BLO? Since I do caricatures and flat plane carvings...can't give any detailed meaningful feedback.

Date give his about 5 minutes with the BLO on it, wiped off the excess with paper towel and immediately began painting with acrylics. I let mine dry overnight first (had to fix dinner), then painted with acrylic washes the next day.

Claude

[Claude]

Well done Claude. I love his videos. Can you record these sessions so you can revisit them?

Dave records the sessions, then puts them up on a private site and sends the students the password so they can re-view the session more times.

Claude

[woodburner807]

Date give his about 5 minutes with the BLO on it, wiped off the excess with paper towel and immediately began painting with acrylics. I let mine dry overnight first (had to fix dinner), then painted with acrylic washes the next day.

Claude

Thanks, Claude, and letting it dry overnight makes more sense to me.

[joepaulbutler]

I have a hard time seeing mixing oil & water-based applications to the same surface, to me, there should be some reaction like pouring oil in water, a separation. hit me between the eyes and smarten me up∙∙∙∙please

[Claude]

I have a hard time seeing mixing oil & water-based applications to the same surface, to me, there should be some reaction like pouring oil in water, a separation. hit me between the eyes and smarten me up∙∙∙∙please

Once the excess BLO is wiped off, you can immediately start painting with acrylics. One advantage is that if you make a mistake or your hand twitches and gets paint where you don't want it, it can easily be scrubbed off as it doesn't soak into the wood. I took a class from Wayne Shinlever many years ago and he used the same method. If you have some BLO, take a piece of scrap basswood, make a few knife/gouge cuts on it, slather BLO on it, wipe off the excess, and try painting with some thin washes in a couple of places. Then try some full scrength acrylic paint in a place or two and try to scrub both off.

Claude