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Just a progress report to show that I haven't been goofing off entirely the past month or so.
Last year, after I cut some yew, and saw the wonderful bright orange brown of its heartwood, I decided that it would be good to use it to do a face carving based on a famous red haired drummer, Ginger Baker. It was not to be a wood spirit, but a "stick man."
While the wood was curing, I began searching the net for images. There were quite a few of Mr. Baker over the years of his long career. Tho' most famous to the public for his brief work in the Cream during the late 60s, I couldn't find many good quality pictures from the time. Also, there were few shots in profile. In the end, I had about 200 images, but many were so small as to be barely useful.
I began making drawings from some of them, trying to capture salient features.
I waited about 18 mo.s to start work. The yew had not checked at all. It seems to be permeated with a sort of waxy substance, instead of water. It is a tough wood, but as I was to learn, the grain was very easy to tear. The waxy ness makes it hard to mark. Ordinary pencils slide across the surface, and some marker inks wipe away it touched.
I think I'm about 2/3 done at this point. I've considered stopping several times after various blunders. I don't think my original goal of an elongated portrait is reachable. And there are enough tear outs that the carving is deficient. Lost about 1/3 of the nose w. a single bad cut.
At first, I did not have a way to bring the digital files into my wood working space. My old printer has failed. It would have been much better if I had at least some print outs on hand while cutting. Instead, I would scribble a few lines from the computer screen, and go to where I was carving. Awkward, and I made many errors.
A few months ago I bought a small iPod touch. Took me awhile to learn how to use it. I now have about 60 good quality images on it. Tho' the screen is quite small, it is adequate to check details. I suppose a digital picture frame would have been cheaper, and provided a bigger picture, but the iPod does let me sort thru the pics quickly, and zoom in and out.
As far as the carving goes, my main problem was not having tools small enough, and not keeping those as sharp as needed. To my surprise, the Dockyard brand micro gouges proved most useful. They were not hard enough to use on sugar maple and oak, but when sharpened before each carving session, work well on the yew.
I also bought a small set of jewlers screwdrivers, one of which is just .5 mm wide. I sharpened those into chisels, and they work pretty well, but dull easily.
My eyesight is no longer adequate by itself, and so I do almost all the carving while using a magnifying visor. I don't know what the exact magnification is, but it is somewhat better than twice my reading glasses. Beside causing neck strain from working at such close range, I usually cannot see both sides of the face at once, and so features that should be symetric are messed up.
So, a montage of the work in progress.
![Forehead Nose Chin Hairstyle Eyebrow]()
Last year, after I cut some yew, and saw the wonderful bright orange brown of its heartwood, I decided that it would be good to use it to do a face carving based on a famous red haired drummer, Ginger Baker. It was not to be a wood spirit, but a "stick man."
While the wood was curing, I began searching the net for images. There were quite a few of Mr. Baker over the years of his long career. Tho' most famous to the public for his brief work in the Cream during the late 60s, I couldn't find many good quality pictures from the time. Also, there were few shots in profile. In the end, I had about 200 images, but many were so small as to be barely useful.
I began making drawings from some of them, trying to capture salient features.
I waited about 18 mo.s to start work. The yew had not checked at all. It seems to be permeated with a sort of waxy substance, instead of water. It is a tough wood, but as I was to learn, the grain was very easy to tear. The waxy ness makes it hard to mark. Ordinary pencils slide across the surface, and some marker inks wipe away it touched.
I think I'm about 2/3 done at this point. I've considered stopping several times after various blunders. I don't think my original goal of an elongated portrait is reachable. And there are enough tear outs that the carving is deficient. Lost about 1/3 of the nose w. a single bad cut.
At first, I did not have a way to bring the digital files into my wood working space. My old printer has failed. It would have been much better if I had at least some print outs on hand while cutting. Instead, I would scribble a few lines from the computer screen, and go to where I was carving. Awkward, and I made many errors.
A few months ago I bought a small iPod touch. Took me awhile to learn how to use it. I now have about 60 good quality images on it. Tho' the screen is quite small, it is adequate to check details. I suppose a digital picture frame would have been cheaper, and provided a bigger picture, but the iPod does let me sort thru the pics quickly, and zoom in and out.
As far as the carving goes, my main problem was not having tools small enough, and not keeping those as sharp as needed. To my surprise, the Dockyard brand micro gouges proved most useful. They were not hard enough to use on sugar maple and oak, but when sharpened before each carving session, work well on the yew.
I also bought a small set of jewlers screwdrivers, one of which is just .5 mm wide. I sharpened those into chisels, and they work pretty well, but dull easily.
My eyesight is no longer adequate by itself, and so I do almost all the carving while using a magnifying visor. I don't know what the exact magnification is, but it is somewhat better than twice my reading glasses. Beside causing neck strain from working at such close range, I usually cannot see both sides of the face at once, and so features that should be symetric are messed up.
So, a montage of the work in progress.
Go deeper and clean it up. Some of my hardest decisions and most rewarding (I say, mostly 
