chriscraft Report post Posted June 26, 2013 My tooling/carving has been improving with every hour spent swinging the maul. I can't seam to find anything on carving small faces. This seat I'm working on is a pin-up style Girl and the face is only 3/4" so it's difficult to get good detail. What's every one else doing? I'm self taught so I'm sure I'll figure it out soon. Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyberthrasher Report post Posted June 26, 2013 Let's get some detail of the face man!!! Basically what you're going to need to do for those tiny things is drop the knife and beveler and pretty much do straight modeling tools. Because of the size, you don't need the depth of the knife cut since depth is relative to width. From what I can see it looks KILLER though Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wishful Report post Posted June 27, 2013 There are several stohlman books and smaller figure carving tools for that kind of detail work. Leathercraft library has a few. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DHauser Report post Posted June 27, 2013 Xacto number 11 blade. Keep one sharp and another dulled with emery paper. You'd be amazed at what you can do... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harley Corns Report post Posted June 28, 2013 Xacto number 11 blade. Keep one sharp and another dulled with emery paper. You'd be amazed at what you can do... DH, I'd like to hear more of how you utilize a dulled Xacto blade. I'm always trying to come up with new and/or improvised tools.... Much appreciated. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harag Report post Posted June 28, 2013 wow, i dont see a problem with it... can we have a close up picture? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chriscraft Report post Posted June 29, 2013 wow, i dont see a problem with it... can we have a close up picture? This is the closest pic I took as a study, this seat has already been shipped. Also this is my first attempt at tooling a person. Well, everything will be a first as I've only been tooling since Feb of this year. Now that I see it again, should have done more to the pin-up girl but I didn't want to spend too much time on it. The hands don't seam to match, one looks larger than the other. My eyebrows got a little bushy as my tools were not small enough. The entire face is 3/4" tall. Face should have looked more sexy than it ended up but it all in the eye of the beer holder. Over all, I feel good about this one going out as it's my first and a good base to start with. I'll improve as I make more of these pin-up style ladies with your criticism. After all, that's how I learn. Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chriscraft Report post Posted June 29, 2013 Xacto number 11 blade. Keep one sharp and another dulled with emery paper. You'd be amazed at what you can do... wow, I knew I was holding on to these for a reason. I have plenty of spent No. 11 blades. Back when I was 14 y/o I used to re-sharpen them as I didn't have much money. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dentat2 Report post Posted August 27, 2013 @ chriscraft ive only been tooling leather for a short time myself but ive been a tattoo artist for about 15 years. tattooing and tooling have quite a few similarities ive found. when your doing small faces like that i have figured out that less is more. being that small i would have used an xacto for the features and a small shader. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chriscraft Report post Posted August 27, 2013 (edited) @ chriscraft ive only been tooling leather for a short time myself but ive been a tattoo artist for about 15 years. tattooing and tooling have quite a few similarities ive found. when your doing small faces like that i have figured out that less is more. being that small i would have used an xacto for the features and a small shader. The more I play with tooling, the more I start to figure out how to shade and use gradients. Once I get better at controlling the use of these fine tools I'll know where to apply them in my work. I agree with less is more. When I first started drawing, everything I made was in a form of a line drawing . Mostly did cartoon cars and comic book style figures. I always wanted to draw faces but was afraid for some reason they would not turn out so I never tried. My fist go at it was when I was 15 years old. All I knew was my line drawing style and man did I have a hard time with faces during this time. My school art teacher was impressed with my work but corrected me by stating that faces have no lines. Even though I was shading correctly, I was still using hard lines around he eyes, nose, mouth and entire outline. Being self taught, it was a tough transition to stop outlining. That's when I picked up the airbrush and began painting some amazing portraits on t-shirts and didn't stop for many years. I later went back to my hard outline drawings as most tattoo designs start out that way. I really liked the clean crisp combination between hard lines and soft shading I used to accomplish with the airbrush. I've long put the airbrushing away since 2004. Now that I'm doing leatherwork, I'm just tooling it the only way that I know. I'll post some pictures of my latest work soon. You'll see the hard bevels and the smooth shader being used the only way that comes natural to me. It's hard to describe but I don't add detail when shading. I usually pick focal points where the average eye tends to focus on and that's where I spend time and add detail. However, in my line drawings, this is accomplished by thickness of lines. I'd also like to see some of your work. Edited August 27, 2013 by chriscraft Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chriscraft Report post Posted August 27, 2013 Most of this riders face is covered by gear so it's not a good face practice piece. It's also small at about 3/4 inch tall. You can see my outlines and shading beginning to take form. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WyomingSlick Report post Posted August 28, 2013 I agree that some time studying Al Stohlman's books would be beneficial towards improving your faces, but the fact is that you are already doing better than most. One thing to really consider is to modify some modeling tools to fit the smaller detail work you are doing. Since the better tools are made of stainless, this is easy to do with some fine jewelers files, crocus cloth, etc. On another note, while you are studying Al's books, spends some time on what he has to say and show on matting. Where the arm on your lady is in front of her leg could be improved using the matting technique to provide a smoother, more natural look. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dentat2 Report post Posted August 29, 2013 heres a couple tattoo'd faces that ive done. the biggest difference ive found is that with tooling its really hard to get a long gradient while shading. it goes from light to really dark, really fast. ive done alot of airbrushing also, its one of my favorite things to do, but being in the st. louis area theres not alot of business for an airbrush artist. so ill stick with tattooing Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
