My figure carving/tooling aint

[freak]

Ok i gotta do a deer. My figure carving/tooling ainttttt,,,, well i've just never done it, so it ain't my bag. My biggest concerns are the face features and hair. This is my second attempt , there's just no way i'll post the first one. LOL. I'm still tring to get the cat to take it out back and barre it . I did this one in about an hour so it was a little of a rush but i was mostly trying to get a fell for how to get the face features and how to get the hair.

As you can see i need all the advise i can get. I guess it's form all the skulls i've done but, doesn't it look pissed/mean ?? LOL !

I get the felling that when this one is done i'll be doing a few more with deer. SO i really need to make this better.

Mucho thanks in advance !!!!

[Kevin King]

I got nuthin on advice, but, i do agree, he looks a little pissed.

[HorsehairBraider]

Nice deer - I am guessing here that you don't want him to look like he needs an anger management course?

I would soften the lines around the eyes a little, in particular, the ones on the top part of the eyes. Put them very slightly further away, so he look more like he is opening his eyes as wide as he can. If the corner of the eye (the ones closest to his nose) are a little more downward, that might help too. Then, on the corners of the mouth - very slightly turn them up, so he looks more "smiley". Not really turn them so much as have them aim slightly higher. Draw it first and see if that helps, if not, just ignore me!

I think your base is excellent. You have the drawing of the deer very nice and his horns are even facing correctly. Ever notice those yellow diamond highway signs of the deer jumping? The horns are on backwards, bugs the crap out of me. But yours is correct and looks good.

[LAPat]

I am just learning to carve, but I'm a dog trainer and horsewoman and an artist so I can comment maybe a llttle about animal expression from that perspective?

What makes for soft eyes are relaxed muscles around them, and that means not such deep modeling around the orbs. When you think of a muscleman, and that expression "cut," that's what I see around this deer's eyes. It's as if he is a lean machine and needs a little body fat. The nostrils are quite flared, I don't know what the original drawing looked like, but that's part of what makes the deer look ready for battle. Honestly, I think it's probably just that you have done too good a job of making the edges of every part of the animal well defined, and so the deer is kind of "high contrast" which translates as "hard ass" if that makes sense. If an image has forground, midground and background, your deer is missing the middle. Hope that makes sense. I have no idea how you'd make it happen, but I have a feeling you will. Thanks for sharing. A beginner like me appreciates it a lot.

Best

LA Pat

[Mike]

Did you create the drawing yourself or work from a pattern? If a pattern, try a different one or compare your work to the pattern. If they do not match, try to determine why they don't. If it's your own drawing, same thing. Does the carving look like your drawing? Sometimes itty bitty details will get you. If you cannot make this a happy dear, you may look for a different pattern. There are some in Stohlman's books.

A couple of observations, deer eyes are on the side of the head not the front so they won't be staring at you like that. If you looked straight down at the head, they would angle so that the deer see mainly to the sides. Secondly, the chin, I do not believe that you will have an abrupt sag like that. The area from the muzzle goes smooth from chin to chest.

Again, I would start with the pattern. I think that's where you will find your answer. You may have carved it exactly as it was originally penned.

If you look here (http://www.pmrleather.com/leather/skidboot.htm) you will see what I went through to carve a dog looking straight at me. You will also notice that not all of the carvings are equally accurate.

Just some suggestions. I too have been frustrated when trying to get animals 'just right'.

[whinewine]

I got nuthin on advice, but, i do agree, he looks a little pissed.

The deer is also sneering at us, daring us to do something about it!

[freak]

Thank you all very much . That's just what i needed and i'll give it another go tomorrow.

[Opagon]

After experiencing a Buck in full on Rut and wondering why I placed myself in a tree in the first place, I got a look damn near to what you have carved. The only thing missing is some steam rolling out of the nostrils. Maybe come back to this carving after making a softer and kinder Buck and let the angry theme take it over. I am sure I am not the only hunter to have seen a look like this on a buck in rut.

Heather

[ClayB]

Freak,

For just starting to figure carve, you chose a really difficult subject. Not the deer, but the deer facing you straight on. I think that's about the hardest thing to carve. Your deer might look slightly pissed, but you can definately tell it's a deer. That's better than a lot I have seen. I agree with Mike, it could be your pattern. The first straight on carving I tried to do was a golden retriever dog's face. I have several scraps of it where it looks like Stephen King's Cujo when the rabies were really kicking in. Finally I posted all my sad attempts to a Yahoo group that existed a few years ago and Peter Main took pity on me and redrew the pattern. With the pattern correct, carving it was a whole lot easier.

As for how you carved yours, I also agree that you need to tone down the beveling. A lot of the details in the face should be cut really light, or not at all. Then work them in with a modeling tool. Another thing I started using a lot is pear shaders instead of bevelers to keep from getting sharp lines.

I hope you will post pictures of the next one you carve.

[freak]

well here's attempt numaro 3.. and a scanned the picture i'm going off of. I don't know how but it sure did scan 10 better then the print out i scanned.

I can't really get a good pic right now, it's raining outside. But,,, i think you can see it well enough.

i think i'll do a bull next .. LOL !!

[HorsehairBraider]

Oh wow - that's a huge improvement! I think it would take me more than 3 trys to get that much better... Very nice!

[Go2Tex]

Oh definitely! Get an easier subject to work from. I don't think Al Stohlman could do that photo justice in leather. The picture itself has a strange expression, I think.

But what do I know? I don't even DO figure carving. But, I have done art and I know ya gotta pick your subject carefully. Pick something too hard and you'll get discouraged.

[freak]

hahahahhaha .. it's to late now, it's gottin the green light. Luck for me he has not seen the work that is on this site. LOL !!

[HorsehairBraider]

Ooooh nice! That turned out great!

[Mike]

Freak,

Are ya gonna color it??? If so, I wanna see it.

Mike

[Don101]

Freak my hats of to ya thats such an improvement, and its looking realy good, Don

[skip]

the last two pictures looked great and actually I liked the first one as well. good job nicely done. it really helps to have the person accept what you giv3e them it is a big boos to the moral of the whole project. keep up the good work.

[yaklady]

Hey, Freak! What your deer needs is some false teeth and glasses like your dog! Seriously, you are improving a lot. Just remember, hair should not be straight. I know you are not familiar with the concept of hair, as you have none, but a deer never brushes his hair. Make it short and choppy, going different directions. F918 might help you with the direction.

Keep up the good work!

Kathy

[TwinOaks]

Hi,

I'm new to leather, but I like figure carving too. On some of the scraps I've made, I've found that using a modelling tool in place of the knife works well. It gives you what you want ( a feature) without the definition you get when you cut the leather. Around the eyes and nose, in my limited experience, I've found I can use the spoon and the undercut tool to achieve the look. That way I get a softer look to it.