Wood Spirit Carving, 16 Trimming the Beard

Let’s finish up this practice work for the Wood Spirit by shaping, trimming, and detailing the beard area.  This free wood carving project is presented for you fun by Lora Irish, author of LSIrish.com, our free blog with over 500 pages of free ideas, projects, and patterns for your wood carving, pyrography, wood burning, and crafting hobbies.

The sixteenth chapter in Lora Irish’s Great Book of Free Carving Projects and Patterns
“Wood Spirit Carving” – Shaping and Trimming the Beard
Steps 38 – 39

Step 38 Deepening the Eye Lid Overhang
With any carving I tend to work more than one area at a time. While I had the wood spirit upside down to cut the vertical forehead wrinkles, I decided to deepen the crease line of the upper eye lid.This is done using the stop cut and the undercut with a bench knife.Note the black shadow that the undercut has created in the crease of the upper eye lid.The deeper this undercut is worked, the darker the shadow will be, and the older your wood spirit will appear.
Step 39 Shaping the Mustache
Wood spirits come with bushy, out of control, wild mustaches and beards. The bigger and wilder the better!Start by marking the guidelines for your mustache, small lip beard, and large beard areas with a pencil.Make a stop cut along the lower guideline for the mustache.Lay the bench knife at a low angle to the wood and cut into the v-point where the two sides of the mustache meet.This will free a small triangle of wood from the center of the mustache.
Free the outer edges of the mustache using a bench knife and stop cut.Slice into the stop cut with the bench knife to lower the wood around the sides and points of the mustache.
Use your bench knife to taper the small lip beard into the bottom edge of the mustache at the center of the face.Use the v-gouge to clean up the rough edges of the entire mustache and beard stop cut areas.
With your bench knife, straight chisel, or bull nose chisel round over the all sides of the mustache.To create the impression of hair clumps in the beard and mustache, use your v-gouge to cut v-trough lines in these areas.Work the v-cuts in the direction that the hair would grow.
Copyright, Lora S. Irish, 1997 – 2015 Copyright, Art Designs Studio.com, 1997 – 2015 All International Rights Reserved Use of any information, images, or text in digital or printed format or in any magazine, book, or booklet is strictly prohibited without the written, hardcopy permission of the author, Lora Irish. June 01, 2015	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