"Behind Blue Eyes" #4: Eye brows and base

It took a bit, but I think I finally have the eye brows like I want them. I carefully drew them out and measured and researched them and did a bunch of thinks before I started cutting wood. I used a really small v gouge and carefully cut them in, making sure the hairs pointed properly. And I didn’t like it….didn’t look right, was too dark. So I tried my bristle sander and several other things to fix it up. I finally took knife in hand and cut them off and started over. I had to reshape the brows and sockets and one eye lid and get them evened out before trying again. This time, I used a small ball stylus (used for embossing metal) and did the eye brows with that. With a little force, it leaves a shape like a tiny u gouge and gives just the amount of shadow I was wanting. I like it now!

I cut the cherry block down for the base and shaped the bottom area of the carving to see how it looks. Nothing is glued down at this point, in case I want to change something. I’ll look at it some more and sand it a little better before thinking about finishes. The cherry will really look good when I hit with some oil. Thanks for looking!

-- Mike P., Arkansas, http://mpounders1.blogspot.com