Carving Faces in Wood: Beginner's Guide to Creating Lifelike Eyes, Noses, Mouths, and Hair

Master the fundamentals of carving faces in wood!

• How to carve the human face, broken down into simple steps to get you carving in no time
• Comprehensive information on tools, wood types, basic skills, sharpening, safety, and troubleshooting
• Step-by-step instructions and full color photos with an easy-to-understand layout
• 3 projects with gorgeously illustrated patterns: Father Time, The Green Lady, and Wizened Wood Spirit
• Technique exercises to help you practice faces male and female, young and old, eyes, noses, hair, mouths, and expressions
• Tips and tricks to help you avoid rookie mistakes and cut straight to the fun part of woodcarving
• QR codes linking to videos for woodcarving techniques, carving knife selection, and an overview of woods ideal for carving
• Inspirational gallery of beautiful woodcarvings made by the author
• Author Alec LaCasse is a lifelong woodcarver who works full-time as a commission carver and teaches carving to beginner and advanced carvers through his online school, Fundamentals of Woodcarving

Want to learn how to carve a face in wood, but find the process intimidating? Carver and author Alec LaCasse's Carving Faces in Wood is a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to fashion lifelike carvings out of wood, even if you're starting from scratch!
Carving faces can be one of the hardest things to do in woodworking but is an essential skill for everything from realistic carvings to caricatures. Woodcarving expert and instructor Alec LaCasse, who has amassed over 500,000 followers on his popular YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels, specializes in carving faces. Inside this book, he shares his years of experience as a recognized authority on the subject, taking you on the entire journey, from how to safely handle chisels to shaping all aspects of a face, including laugh lines, eyes, and finely textured hair.
Featuring high-quality photos that break down each step to wood carving faces, this A-to-Z guide synthesizes a lifetime of the author's hard-earned tips, shortening the learning curve so you can start carving a face in wood in no time! You'll learn about different woods—which work best for carving faces, their advantages, their disadvantages, and their unique quirks. You'll be amazed at how each layer of detail seems to draw life out of the wood you're carving. Most importantly, you'll learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of learning woodcarving, so you don't waste a minute in your quest for mastery.
With a beautiful layout, this fully illustrated book presents wood carving faces at every stage—from selecting your tools and outlining a basic shape to smoothing out the texture of a face's fine hair. Learn how to master different face types, simplify the complex forms of the human countenance using the rules of proportion, put everything together with the correct cutting sequence, and build your woodcarving skills as you practice.
There's nothing like culling hand-carved magic from a beautiful piece of wood. But, for many, producing carved wood faces is daunting. No longer. With Carving Faces in Wood, you'll have everything you need to carve out elegant, beautiful, natural-looking faces, and will soon be finishing the detail of every nose, ear, and beard like a lifelong expert—even if you're just starting out!
"With clear instructions, beautiful projects, and a ton of useful tips, Alec makes the art of carving faces both accessible and fun. This book is like a master class with your favorite teacher."
—Woodcarving Illustrated magazine