RE-DO

wood carver Paul Hanis working on a dog pet portrait sculpture face details — After finishing up these facial details I quit for the day. The following morning I re-did all of them….

It can be hard to honestly say that it simply isn't right, especially after I've already spent time on finishing details. True resemblance demands the scrutiny though and when I returned to this one after a night's sleep I knew for sure this malemute had the snout of a bear and the eyes of a boxer (the human kind, AFTER a fight). It could easily pass as a generic dog, but didn't look enough like THE dog I was making. Fortunately there was still room in the piece to find the final form I wanted, I just had to get over taking so many steps (and hours) back in time.

The snout was too short- so I pushed the eyes back about 3/4". The eyelids were too puffy- so I mellowed those out and made the eyebrows bunchier and closer to the nose bridge. The nose end was too round and the upper lips were too far forward- trim away. Not enough smile- so I extended the cheeks back and opened the lower jaw a bit more. Once the changes started happening I could tell I'd made the right choices and it was super fun to watch the dog I was looking for show up! The process is always so rewarding.

top view of dog wood carving pet portrait sculpture with face details in progress — An illustration of the amount of elongation I achieved with the snout.

dog pet portrait wood carving with eye details in progress — The left eye shows the new shape I was going for vs. the original on the right.

dog sculpture wood carving pet portrait eye face details — Re-doing the right eye to match the left. I’ll admit this photo kind of gives me the creeps…..

pet dog wood carving portrait with finished eyes and face details — Ta-DAAA! Much better. :)

Wood Sculpture, Pet PortraitsPaul HanisFebruary 1, 2021process, sculpture, wood, carvingComment