Wood Spirit Carving, 7 Sloping the Sides of the Face

In this section of our free, online Wood Spirit Carving Project by Lora Irish, we will learn how to correctly slope the sides of the human face in your basswood practice block.  Learn the techniques for carving your own walking stick or cane wood spirit.

The seventh chapter in Lora Irish’s Great Book of Free Carving Projects and Patterns Series
“Wood Spirit Carving” – Sloping the Sides of the Face
Steps 11 – 12

Step 11
Sloping the Sides of the Face

Looking at the face straight-on, the sides of the face appear to end just beyond the outer corners of the eyes.At that eye corner the face angles back towards the hair.how to carve a wood spirit
Place your hands against your face with your fingers touching along the ridge of the nose, and your fingers and palms held straight.Your fingers will touch the nose, cheeks, brow ridge, and even the eyes, but your hands do not touch the sides of the face once the face moves beyond the outer eye corner.As we work these next steps I will be dropping the sides of the face away from the outer corner of the eyes.how to carve the wood spirit face
Use a pencil to mark, in general, where the edge of the face flows into the hair line on the side of the face.free wood carving patterns
I have also marked a curved line at the bottom of the cheek where the side-burn hair will begin, and a third line along the curve of the cheek that will become the outer edge of the beard.free wood carving patterns
Using a two-cut stroke with your bench knife, cut a shallow line along the side hair line to distinguish where the face stops and the hair begins.free wood carving patterns
Repeat the above step for the bottom line of the cheek and for the outer edge of the beard.free Lora Irish carving book
Note – these are just guidelines and because they are shallow, you can easily change their position in the coming steps.free Lora Irish carving book

Step 12
Quick Check of Our Progress

I am going to take a few moments to shave away the remaining marking pen lines so that we have a clean face that is easier to see.The photo below shows an overlay of the our original step that marked the guidelines and where our wood spirit carving is. You can see how those guidelines have determined the position of each of the flat planes.carving a wood spirit project
Lora Irish Wood Carving PatternsLora Irish free wood carving patterns
At this point in the carving we have established the basic features of the face – the eyes, eye brow ridge, nose, nose bridge, cheeks, and sides of the face.

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Wood Spirit Carving,
Free Project by Lora Irish
1 Introduction and Supply List
2 Walking Stick Preparation
3 Exploring the Human Face
4 Planes of the Human Face
5 Carve The Human Face
6 Shaping the Facial Features
7 Sloping the Sides of the Face
8 Rough Cutting the Features
9 Carving the Eyes
10 Detailing the Eyes
11 Shaping the Features
12 Defining the Cheek and Nose
13 Working the Facial Hair
14 Refining the Face Shape
15 Carving the Wrinkles
16 Trimming the Beard
17 Review of the Techniques