Wood Carving of my grandaughter Tessa

Front face or 3/4 view relieves are the most difficult ones to get right, that's why heads on coins are almost always on full side view. So knowing it and how difficult it is I think you've done a great job! Congratulations!
 
Toni....Thank you for the complement!...I really appreciate it!... From the things I have seen you carve, You are definitely a lot more accomplished carver that I am....Is there anything that you would have done differently? or any other advice?...I would be most appreciative!
 
Toni....Thank you for the complement!...I really appreciate it!... From the things I have seen you carve, You are definitely a lot more accomplished carver that I am....Is there anything that you would have done differently? or any other advice?...I would be most appreciative!
Well... It is difficult to give advice to a fellow carver, as I mentioned if you want to make more portraits of people I would make them side view, a side view gives more information about the facial treats of the person and on top of it they are easier to carve. Three quarter views are great but the most difficult part is carving the nose in the right angle related to the face. I've seen many carvings where the nose is not aligned in the same axe as the face and they look awful.
Another thing I would do is to remove the wood surrounding the face rather than leaving it, it helps to raise up the carving visually, but this is a matter of personal taste, so please take it as such.
 
Thank you Toni....I appreciate the info...It all makes perfect sense....Now that I have done all three....The profile view is definitely easier to carve.

Your right about the carving not popping out...I even have it undercut most of the way around except at the bottom...If I could find, in my area, poplar wood planks that are more then one inch thick, I would definitely take out more of the background in-order to make that carving pop!...I'm working with only one eighth of remaining wood...Thanks again for your insight!
 
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Thank you Toni....I appreciate the info...It all makes perfect sense....Now that I have done all three....The profile view is definitely easier to carve.

Your right about the carving not popping out...I even have it undercut most of the way around except at the bottom...If I could find, in my area, poplar wood planks that are more then one inch thick, I would definitely take out more of the background in-order to make that carving pop!...I'm working with only one eighth of remaining wood...Thanks again for your insight!
Hi Steve, maybe I didn't explain myself well, when I mentioned removing the surrounding wood, I meant removing it all up to the edge of the wood or to where the carved frame starts, not just making a wide deep groove around the relief. If your planks are 1 inch thick you could carve 3/4 of it and leave 1/4 for the background.
Low relief carving is tricky but easier once you get the knack of it. AGain, have a llok at coins, the reliefs on them are really thin but very detailed. THey model them about 50 times bigger but the relationship proportions and thicness are the same.

Drawings are two dimensional and some of them look really three dimensional, so woodthickness is not relevant, the main problem I find when carving low reliefs is that they are in between drawing and high relief carving which misleads me a lot.
 
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