Dragon volume 8 face coming along

looking good!

I think it looks great. so excited for the finish pics

you have to remember this is NOT a human face so the human proportions do not apply so ridgidly

if I were carving it the only thing I would do is thin up the lower lip a little

Thanks all. I keep going back and shaving miniscule amounts here and there trying to make it look human and I am about to the point of no return. I can not move anything at this point without throwing something else off so I have pretty much decided that my fairy does not have to look exactly like us because I have no choice. I realize now that I should have carved the face first instead of letting it stress me out since I started. That way I could have made some adjustments to it if I needed.

The fins on the dragon are not going to look anything like in the picture also because they are very pointy and sticking out in many different directions. Stone is very different from other art forms because there is no way that shading can be added unless you hold it exactly the right way to get the light to make the natural shading. When you look at the carving straight on you can not see the subtle changes in the depth. I managed to add the high cheek bones in the face but the only way you can tell that they are there is by feeling them or getting the angle of the light just perfect.

The thing that I think is way wrong is the lower eye lid. It should have been straighter but I did not see it until I held the carving up to the sunlight. I think that I would have done a better job on the face if I would have carved it out in the sunlight or made it a monkey face. lol All in all I am pretty happy that I got it to look like a face since this is my first large profile face carving. And probably my last. lol I probably have eight to ten hours working on the face and a hundred hours stressing about it because this time I am showing it to the world as I make a little progress.

To be honest Helen's comment pissed me off a little at first BUT THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR ON HERE SO I CAN LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES. So I apologize for that because I was wrong.

Thank you all for taking the time to make suggestion and comments. 65 and still learning. Life is good.
Jim

I think somebody else's pic did it.

snuffy

I took off the Liv Tyler pix, so it shouldn't stretch the frame. When you link an overlarge photo, it stretches the entire post... but this forum for some reason EXPANDS photos so they look bigger than they are anyway.. I realized it's because it turns all DPI into 72 DPI, so instead of greater detail, we see greater size.

If she wasn't already flawless in body proportions, I wouldn't have said anything. I know you worked so hard at this, and I thought that you wanted another perspective of the problem areas so you could caliper it to the picture. I attached the Liv Tyler profile so you could compare too.

I was not insulting your work! I thought you wanted it to be more like the photo you based it off of, and pointing out how it differed. In reality, there's nothing wrong with your face. It has a heiroglyphic look to it. It's typically a millimeter difference in some cases between beauty and ugly, with beauty typically determined by the distances between features and their sizes. Some women have no chin and buggy eyes in real life, from having an extreme underbite and additionally protruding lower teeth for example.

Jim, I know you want this to be perfect, and it ALREADY IS. I am not criticizing you, I just like you enough to show you another way of looking at it. Like most people, saying 'It's GREAT!" is the easiest route to take. Suggestions USUALLY piss people off, so I rarely stick my foot in it unless I like the person enough to want to help. I am definitely learning my lesson about constructive suggestions. Sometimes I'm slow, but I do learn:).

Facial proportions are far more complex than body proportions, which is why I have extreme difficulty with it too. I'm going to plug ahead to explain what I meant anyway, so at least there was an educational benefit for pissing you off.

Art does not have to fit a standard. I was only pointing out the standard so you can decide. The original photo you worked from has classic facial proportions. So here are the 'standards' of human facial beauty, and 'classic' proportions. Some more easily duplicatable illustrated proportions:
www.entcenter.net/id217.htm

The math behind beauty: digitaljournal.com/article/204713

discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/blinded-by-science

The more informal explanation: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34482178/ns/health-skin_and_beauty/t/ideal-beauty-matter-millimeters-study-says/#.T67Ej-tYutc

And this is just fun... here are the composite faces of women from all over the world... just gorgeous:
mashable.com/2011/02/10/average-faces/

And finally... 'The Beauty Machine', human beauty (proportions) translated into math formulas by a machine to help plastic surgeons (which also helps artists studying human facial 'norms'): www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7899

Whether it's of value to the statue or not, each of the above articles is fascinating insight into the psychology of beauty and human faces.

hahahahaha That is hilarious Kris. Thank you for your input.

I have learned a lot from doing this carving and the input that I have received. The first site that Helen posted gave me some real insight into some of the positioning of the different parts of the face.

Helen, you are spending way more time explaining yourself than i was pissed off. It was just a flash and then I was pissed off at myself for having that reaction. I thought I explained that but I guess not good enough. I have learned a lot from what you said and posted. I apologized before but now I am apologizing again for that gut reaction. But because of what I said you strove harder to teach me the error of my ways. lol So there WAS good that came from it. If I need to learn something in the future all I have to do is say that you pissed me off and you will teach me all I need to know.

I think that I may just let her sit for a while (a few hours at least) and get some other things done that I have been neglecting. I wanted to have 50 rings done by the end of winter and I am only short 25 or 30. And I have not finished a cab in a couple of months.

Thank you all again
Jim

Coming along well, Jim, I think the carving is awesome and coming together!! What's wrong with her having smooth hair? Just kidding with you, Jim, she looks great!!