Carlous Rex

Graham Thompson attempts a royal portrait and suggests you try something similar

It was going to be the head of a giraffe or maybe some other animal or person, but then someone mentioned that, following a review by the Royal Household, the King would continue as Patron of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. Whatever the subject it would have to be easily recognisable to fulfil the role, but my mind was made up – gulp!

Each July at the Great Yorkshire Show I take up a demonstrating position in a gazebo which is attached to the Woodcrafts marquee. Said gazebo is easily seen from one of the main visitor routes and has proved to be a great attraction, not just to my efforts but to the marquee itself and the other crafters (marquetry, stickmaking, turning) and, of course, my carving club, Wooldale Woodcarvers, colleagues.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a majority of visitors identify the subject, but this would be different. It’s not just a male human, it’s probably one of the most famous male humans on the planet. At least I can be sure there will be plenty of recent photos available.

I should say at this point that if you are finding this a bit daunting, why not reduce the project to a ‘simple’ mask of your subject so all you have to concentrate on is the face. Then later, if you want to and have sufficient depth of material, you can add the ears and back of head. Basically that’s what I am suggesting anyway, so press on regardless.

What’s the point?

My aim here is to maybe encourage you, the reader, to absorb the full article then, suitably inspired, have a go at 3D portrait carving in wood. My thoughts and tips are based on 25 years of experience – learning and sometimes re-learning methods which I have found to produce a satisfactory outcome. You can agree or disagree with my ramblings but we can all look to keep progressing with our carvings. The following is simply some of the ways I operate. It works for me up to a point and I intend to always critique my work with a view to continual improvement. So this is not an exact ‘do this’, then ‘do that’ list of instructions. It’s more of a general guide with hints and tips along the way.

Questions, questions

There are many, many photos available online. Interestingly, a majority of the official shots are of the King’s right (preferred?) side.

• Material – What’s in stock? A suitable piece of walnut stands out – an easy decision.
• Scale – I was leaning towards near lifesize. I say ‘near’ because, unsurprisingly, I could find no reference to His Majesty’s vital statistics other than his height (5ft 10in). It’s a calculated guess based on collar size, which I estimate to be c15in.
• Head only or bust? The latter I think, so I can give him his trademark collar and tie.
• Age, i.e. time of life. Generally, the mature face has more character, so I’ll try for a mid-to-late 60s look, or as he was c10 years ago.
• Attitude – slight turn to one side, face angled very slightly downwards. Right shoulder is slightly lower than the left. As far as I can glean these are all typical, albeit subtle, characteristics.
• Expression – half-smile appears to fit the bill – it’s him but not clichéd.
• Sources – in-person interview? No chance, so it’s down to photos – thousands of them.

About the walnut

I have been lucky to receive some ancient walnut from a location near the Yorkshire Coast which is known to have an avenue of trees lining the route of a Roman road. Apparently the Romans introduced the walnut to the UK. Based on typical lifecycles for the walnut species (up to 200 years) my tree is about 10 generations from the original. Fantastic heritage and what a backstory – this gets better and better, but what a daunting responsibility for me.

Image sources

Online plus regular informal – less posed – shots of His Majesty from the weekend newspapers. Very useful. *including Royal Mint artwork for coins, notes and stamps – in near- perfect profile too.

Planning

Use your observation skills and make notes on your subject’s features, e.g:

• Overall head shape – hair thickestabove ears and at the back
• Eyes hooded by eyebrows and asymmetric
• Eyes in line with bridge of nose
• Add notes as you progress and keep referring to your list

Getting started

If you are new to portraiture you may like to start with a clay or plasticine block and removing/replacing the material until you have the desired overall shape but no fine details. For me, the golden rule of golden rules is to get the face set just right before even thinking about anything further back than the start of the ears (tragus). Actually, I highly recommend that you set the face then leave it for a while before you return to the piece and check again that you have the right depth between the nose, the cheekbone and the outer corner of the eyes, which should also be checked with the – often bushy – eyebrows. Also, carefully consider the up/down and tilt angle of the head and mark with chalk lines. To look ‘real’ the head should be slightly off-square. Take a look in the mirror or look closely at those around you. Most people are not perfectly symmetrical or compliant with right angles and certainly not straight lines.

So, assuming you have decided on the scale, size and position in the wood, you can start by marking the forwardmost point of the face. It’s usually the point of the nose but it may be the eyebrows, depending on the face angle and how you want to position the head in the block. What we are after here is a likeness to the subject and this will depend entirely on getting the proportions correct. To do that we need measurable feature relationships. In my case the Royal Mint artwork proved invaluable for profile measurements, so I could say with some certainty that the eye centres are located slightly above halfway between the top of the head (excluding hair) and the lowest point of the chin. There are many other measurements that will help get the best appearance, such as:

• Full width of head – ear to ear edges
• Full height of head – chin to top of hair
• Cheekbone to cheekbone edges
• Brow edge to brow edge – where it turns away from the face
• Width of mouth – depends on the expression
• Eye opening (amount of visible eyeball) dimensions
• Eye opening centres and gap between Mouth width
• Mouth centre relationship to nose tip and chin
• Jawbone width

NB: Exact measurements can only be used if you have reliable photos with no distortion and you can scale your results to the wood. If you can’t, you will have to convert using a percentage. So, for example, say the eyes are 55% of the way up the from the chin and the overall height is 160mm, the eye opening centreline will be at 160/100×55=88mm. Millimetre accuracy is not important at this stage but it’s worth marking the approximate positions. Fine adjustments can be added later to accommodate asymmetry and relationship to the eyebrows. Add chalk marks to show centreline and levels for eye, mouth, nose and ears.

It’s time to get carving

Remove material from both sides of the nose to reveal a blunt wedge shape running back to the cheekbones and brow line. Use callipers to roughly position the ‘closed’ eye positions. Mark the mouth line and carve the nose to the top lip (filtrum) ridge. Do the same with lower lip to chin. You are looking for a basic sleeping face shape – ready and waiting for details to be added. Adding width markers for brow and cheek bones will make the appearance even better. Check with your callipers that the face is roughly correct and correctly proportioned and angled of course.

Top tips

• The nose is half in and half on the face. With some faces, when viewed from the side, the nose is part obscured by the cheek.
• The eyes are usually much deeper set than you think and made more so if the subject has bushy eyebrows – see images of Charles Darwin.
• The subject’s expression can have a severe effect on the position and shape of mouth/cheeks and the eyebrows, so choose the expression that best represents the subject and stick with it.
• Make any adjustments to the basic face then add refinements such as nose width and ridge line. Avoid undercutting at this stage.
• Always best to remove less rather than more. Over-carving some areas such as the nose end can’t be corrected without moving the whole face back.
• Time for another callipers check. Does it look right? Get an independent view from a carving friend. Usually I find that most people are only too happy to pass an opinion as to the likeness.

Moving on

Check the ear positions against your original chalk marks. Almost always I find that they need to move back some way. Check again with a nose end to tragus (the bit you press to close your ears) measurement. Carve some depth to the rear and lower ear rim, noting how the depth varies from zero where hair covers the ear top to substantial behind the lobe. Also note how the ear tapers from top to bottom and rear to front. The ear follows the tapering skull from cranium to neck. Add inner detail to the ears and keep checking orientation while leaving some spare material at the back. Carve the jaw line from ear lobe to chin and as much of the neck as feels right for your available material.

Tip: I tend to avoid straight ‘cut’ head portraits – they look too much like a severed head. Gruesome but true. Try tapering the neck or copy my collar and tie approach.

Nearly there

Shape the rest of the head, marking the hairline accurately and carve final details to the face.

Undercutting? Go for it!