Customer Reviews

Carving Classic Female Faces in Wood: A How-To Reference for Carvers and Sculptors

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My husband is a woodcarver and is pretty darn good at it, with one exception --the human face. He carved a clown, an indian and a man's head, a Roman and Don Quixote and he was not satisified with any of those faces. Then he got his hands on this book. When he finished the bust of the female, I was startled to see just how good a carving it was. Now I'm afraid that he's decided that his problem was that he had not carved women's heads. He's looking around for a camera and a model to photograph from a multitude of angles, just like Norbury showed him how to do in this book. I'm just not too sure how far I want him to go with this new found talent....

This is the best book I've seen about carving the female bust. Norbury works from photographs and goes into great detail about using photos to make the pattern for the bust of choice.

His directions are excellent, especially for determining the removal of unwanted stock. This could almost be considered a textbook.

Ian Norbury has provided the key essentials of three dimensional bandsaw guide (front, rear, and both sides) and 78 progressive picture of the carving on the women on the cover as it is developed. What really helps is the series of 14 photographs of the model's face - focusing on the same dimensions, then looking up and down the face, and giving pictures of the lips, nose, eyes, and ears. I was pleased that Norbury used standard gouges, rotary tools, and files that we all have in our shop. I expect that this text will come down in my shop, and accompany me as I attempt to duplicate Norbury's techniques.

Very well done. Highly recommended. I've been carving and painting for over 40 years and am pleased that I added this book to my library.