The features and hair line are defined

Here the features of the face and the hair line are established and refined. I'm reminded here to draw and redraw a center line as I carve down into the wood. It's easy, as I carve, to lose perspective and come up with a lope-sided face. The part in the hair, the position of the nose, the balance of the eyes, all must be near right to make a pleasant face. Symmetry makes for beauty.

Begining an Indian Maiden

Rather than wait until I finished a piece, I'm going to post as it progresses, this will wind up backwards with the latest work appearing first at the top of the page. If I can figure out how to alter the sequence I will. George Catlin, went out West to chronicle the American Indians before they were lost. He had been painting Indians in the East before he followed in the foot steps of Lewis and Clark. One of the most attractive Indian maidens he paint was a Mandan girl named Mint. She was about fourteen when he painted her, she's older now. I fell in love with his painting of her from the first time I saw it. The most fascinating thing about her was a shock of white hair. The Mandan women had this genetic trait. She looks like a modern woman with that streak in her hair. This is a begining so I'm roughing out the general disposition of the head and trying to work out the length of her neck, the neckline of her dress. The upper portion of this sculpture will be realistic, but lower portion will be closer to the natural cedar log I started with.

Back to Work

It's been a while since I did some serious art work. Right after coming back from Costa Rica I got this horrendous head cold. Doing anything was not enjoyable so I didn't do very much except try to recover. It seemed as if everyone here in NC was nursing a cold.

The quickest way for me to get back to carving is to start by doing a Wood Spirit or two. These are in smallish logs and were drier than usual so they didn't hold details as well as I'd like. But, anyhow, let me introduce you to the latest additons to the group.