Eyes, Hair, And SANDING! YEAH!

Hey Hey! She's almost done! At least she's looking pretty good at the moment. I shouldn't say that because I see all of the flaws, but it has been almost a week since I dragged that log out of the woods, so I'm getting antsy to be finished. So tonight I started right in on the eyes and carved them out. Even thought I used the same sweep chisel for both eyes, one ALWAYS ends up slightly larger than the other. ( one of the flaws I was talking about.) However, Cheryl made the compliment "that at least she doesn't look cross-eyed this time." Thanks hon! Then I moved to the hair. This is always the fun part. I have found that it works best for me to start at the tips and work my way up to the top of the head. I used a small veiner for this one, but I have used v tools and various gouges to give a curled look to previous ones. I had to break out the dremel for the top of the head because of the rotted part. It shouldn't matter much since it is going to be outside anyway and the bad part will not be seen. Then came the sanding. Long laborious sanding. Every crack and crevasse. With three different grits The time just flew by before I knew it it was almost 6 hours later! But I did manage to make a big splash. I still might toy with it a bit more tomorrow, but I think I'll at least get started on the painting. Cheryl suggested that I put clothes on this one too since I plan on putting it out in the front yard and her mother is quite offended by nudity. Until then...Enjoy!

Ah! the Details

After sharpening up my chisels, I got back to work and started working on the fine details. You know, the kind of stuff where you spend 4-6 hours working on one little part to make it look just right. But then it doesn't look like you have accomplished much at all. Well, I do believe her face is coming along much better now. I'm quite happy that it is looking better from the side now. I also spent some time on her hands and arms. Thinning them out so they don't look so "man-ish". I would still like to make her hand smaller, but I think that at this moment, this size will have to do. I still have not figured out what I'm going to do with the eyes. I have been thinking strongly that they should be closed, but I'm not set on it. We'll post more tomorrow. Oh! Because I have not posted an Anime in a while. Cheryl and I watched Full Metal Panic the second raid all last night! Right now we are about 1/3 of the way through the first season. Here is the Openning. Enjoy!

Losing weight is hard...especially if you're made of wood.

For the last couple of days I've been shaping the figure to look a little less "voluptuous" so to say. Cheryl said that her hips were rather un-proportioned to the rest of her. I agreed. but shaving off an inch or two hear and there in uniform is rather tedious and time consuming. Here are the pics, but I'm afraid even I can't tell the difference much. However, her legs are looking a little more shapely, and her torso/abs are taking more form. I'll probably have to work on her collar bone once again to get it in line with the rest of her chest and chin. So basically, I'm reducing all the rest of her. Hopefully some dramatic changed ( good ones) will be happen and I can show them in the next post. Right now, I dropped one of my main chisels on the concrete floor and I need to get it resharpened.

Finally A Nose I'm Proud of!

Today I focused mostly on the face and hair. I was quite pleased with the way the nose turned out this time. Instead of making the nose in one stroke, I broke it up into a couple of stages and it seemed to turn out pretty good. For the first time ever, I was able to get a feminine nose on the first go 'round. The problem is that when I finally got the nose to look good from the front, I stood her up and turned her to the side and the same problem I had before came to light: Her face was flat! I tried to round it off a bit more around her cheeks a bit. Then I worked on her hair. The rotted heartwood that I had been trying to avoid, somehow managed to make an appearance, but I'm not too upset since it will be in a low visibility place with not much detail to get worried about. Tomorrow is out big show in Holland, so I probably will be wiped out afterwards and won't do much carving. Until then. Enjoy!

When it comes to hands...I'm all thumbs!

So today is day 4 of the tree carving and each day gets me a little closer to the end. Today I worked mostly on the arms. I was relieved to find out that the center heartwood is not as rotted as the previous two log sculptures. In fact, it's down right carvable! So I decided to break out the chain saw to help me a bit with the upper part in removing a large chunk of waste wood. Then I started in on the arms. I wanted her to have one arm up while the other one holding her elbow. As if she is stretching. Then I got to the hands.... At first they were progressing smoothly, then I asked my wife to show me a fist with her dainty little mitts and ARRGGG! I was giving my sculpture MAN HANDS! ( it makes sense after all, I was using mine as the reference) Well, I messed with them to the point where they stopped looking like hands altogether, But I think I might have salvaged it a bit. It was all about the thumb being too big for the hand. Well, tomorrow, I plan on starting with the face. We are in the detail part of the carving now, so It will probably take a long time to do seemingly very little. I'll try to post the pics at decent intervals. Enjoy!

Tree carving Day 3.

Well it has been a long day for me. We got up early to get into a show this weekend and visit a shop that carries our stuff. All in all it was a successful trip. Then I came home and really got to work on the tree. Today I focused on proportions mostly and tried to continue the roughing process. I worked on the neck and collarbone as well as the hips and waist. It takes a long time to get things to where you are satisfied. I'm actually quite proud of how the hips and waist are coming along. She is suppose to have a slight twist in her torso so that her hips and slightly off center from her waist. Then her neck is going to be turned and her chin raised. I'm still curious if i can pull it off. The collar bone and neck have been taking much of my time but I think they are coming along as well. She started out with the collar bone very well defined, almost freakishly at first, but I was able to soften and lessen it to a point where it does not look so hulkish. I'm not sure what I will work on tomorrow, but I may start on the arms raised over her head. This could be a problem as I get closer to the rotted heartwood. Have a great night!