Thursday, September 29, 2011

More progress

Still working away on this, but I try to go slowly at times to make sure I see things that need to be changed. I sometimes rush through things and don’t always pick up on mistakes until after they are finished and sitting on a shelf. Some people recommend looking at your work in a mirror to help pick up on problem areas, but I often see things in photos of my work that I don’t always see when holding it in my hand. So I am trying to correct a few details. Someone may have mentioned it a previous post, or you may have noticed, that the young lady has no eyebrows! I have lightly drawn them in and want to make sure I have them properly placed and symmetrical. I am still researching eye brows…. who knew that you can buy little templates to assist you in evenly shaping your brows! I may make one to make sure these match, but I’ll try measuring first. I am not sure if it is my camera angle or what, but in some photos, the nose looks really wide and in others, not so much. So I have tried reducing the wings of the nostrils a bit. What do you think?



If you look at the right side of the face in previous blog entries, you may have noticed that her hair appears to be growing directly out from her face, a highly unusual phenomenon. So I have moved the hair back to make the forehead more even on that side and to expose a bit of the ear on that side. This looks a bit more natural for the hair growth. I still need to work some more on the hair under the ear on that side to make sure it looks like it is coming from where it really
grows.




 











 


And here is the other side with a few changes. It still looks much the same despite all the changes on the other side. Overall, it seems more balanced now, but hopefully with the same feel as before.







I started looking through my wood to try and figure out something for a base. I tried this tall piece of cherry, thinking that the longer shape might add a sense of a tall slender figure. Too tall maybe? (according to my wife) What do you guys think? Thanks for looking!

2 comments:

  1. Great work so far, Mike.

    You have abilities that I can only aspire to. You are able to put real emotion into the faces of your carvings.

    Such a very sweet and lovely face. She reminds me a great deal of the girl that plays the Daughter on the "Castle" TV show.

    As for the height of the stand, I don't know. You often see busts such as this on 4' tall stands in galleries and museums. I think that the shape of the stand is probably more important than its height.

    But that is just me...

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  2. Thanks man! But I have to give a lot of credit to a good teacher, Adina Huckins. Some instructions and critiques at a couple of seminars have really made a big difference in these ladies. I'm still not sure I have it completely figured out, but this is better than my last one.

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