Learn how to carve the wood spirit face, step by step, DIY free project online book by Lora Irish for cane carving, walking sticks and wizard wands. Discover how easy it is to wood carve the wood spirit eyes.
The ninth chapter in Lora Irish’s Great Book of Free Carving Projects and Patterns Series
“Wood Spirit Carving” – Wood Carving Eyes
Steps 13 – 16
Step 13
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| On wood carving the wood spirit the eyes are not the ‘window into the soul’! They are just another facial feature to carve and nothing more than that.Before you begin these next steps, please throw away all that ‘stuff’ about how hard the eyes are to carve and that if you ruin the eyes you ruin the entire carving. It’s nonsense!!!! |  |
| Have you ever cut apart a golf ball or baseball that have an outer covering and an inner hard ball?If so, then you have an idea of how the eyelids and eye are shaped.The outer covering of the golf ball becomes the eyelids, the inner core is the eye ball. |  |
| If you were to cut a lemon edge shape in the outer covering to reveal the inside ball, you have the sphere inside a sphere shape of the human eye.The iris or opening of the eye ball is a hole, below the lens, that allows light to go inside the eye and to reach the back of the eye ball – the retina area.For our wood spirit I am using that ‘hole’ concept to cut the pupil.There are several excellent methods to carving eyes, the one I share is the one that gives me the most control over the slant, and position of the eyes in the Wood Spirit face. |  |
Step 14
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| With a small or large round gouge, cut a curve into the upper wedge of the eye area.The curve will retain the depth of the original wedge with the highest point of the curve at the top and the lowest point at the straight line in the eye area. |  |
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| Pencil a simple leaf shape to the eye area with the points of the leaf lying on the straight cut line.Note that the center line of the leaf shape is below the bridge of the nose. |  |
| Use a v-gouge or work a two-stroke stop cut with your bench knife along this penciled shape.This sets the basic inside ball of the eye. |  |
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Step 15
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| Using the v-gouge cut a v-trough just below – 1/16″ – the angled ridge of the shelf below the inner eye curve you just cut. |  |
| Notice in the photo that I have marked with a pencil the shelf ridge.The purple arrow, in the photo above, shows where the v of the v-gouge will run when I cut this line on the second eye. |  |
| This v-trough creates the lower edge of the lower eyelid. The v-trough, cut in the steps for the photos above, created the inside edge of the lower eyelid.The lower eyelid is a longer cut line than the upper eye lid.Note in the photo that the curve in this area is slightly wider than the upper curve and that the corners of the lower eye lid are high, or above the original straight line cut. |  |
Step 16
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| I have introduced two new gouges to my working tools. These are called u-gouges, or veining tools, and are simply very small, very tight round gouges.I will be using them to create a minor curve along the inside edge of each eyelid. |  |
| This step is not necessary to carving a great wood spirit.If you do not yet have a veining tool, simple ignore this step. When we use the small curved riffler you can curve this area. |  |
| The inside edge of the eyelid slants in towards the eyeball.This makes the outer ridge of the inside edge higher, and therefore the eyelid has a minor shadow. |  |
| Cut along the inside edges of both the upper and lower eyelid with a veining tool to create that little shadow line. |  |
The Complete
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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 |
