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C a r v i n c; i he Humań Figur f.

Fic; 12.7 Muscles at the back of the body

Fig 12.8 Top view of caroing in progres*. NotÄ™ the hoUow between the shoulder blades, the slope fbrward to the arms and the cenne linÄ™ of neck and head.

collarbonc (the clavicle) do push the shoulder forward of the ribcage.

Hf.ad and Neck

Heads and necks cause many problems. The total hcight of an adult is abouc seven and a half times the height of the head. The head tends co be as long from the tip of the nose to the back of the skuli as it is tali. Its width outside the ears is about three-quarters of its height. It is csscntial to remember chat the face is only the front part of the head and rhat most of the head is skuli. Seen from above, the skuli is oval wirh a comparatirely narrow forehead, the widest part being above and behind the ears (Figs 12.9, 12.10, 12.11). The highest point (the crown) may be here, too. Unless you havc a very contrived hairscyle the shapc of your skuli will shapc the hair. The ears. too, push the hair out.

I recommend drawing a centrc linÄ™ up the back of the head from the base of the neck, ovcr the top and down through the forehead, nose and chin. The hair may perhaps change in bulk from one side to the ocher, but symmetry is maintained if it is short even when the head is turned or tilred, so it should be fairly easy to carve the oval of the top view of the head.

Carving the Face

A useful preliminary exercise is co model the skuli in clay (Fig 12.12) and then, with the aid of an anatomy book, to build up the muscles (Fig 12.13). When doing the face notice that the tcmples are usually narrower than the cheekbones (Fig 12.14). These are the widest point of che face on most pcople, although some have a great width across the back of the jawbones. To get the basie face, carve slopes up from the tip of the nose to the hairlinc and down from the tip of the nose co the chin. The

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