A Woodcarver's Workbook: Carving Animals With Mary Duke Guldan

Rating:
Summary: A Woodcarver's Workbook, #1 in my book.
Review: I found "A Woodcarer's Workbook" to be an excellant source of inspiration to my carving. The patterns set forth in this issue are well laid out and easily explained. Although the author assume's that the reader has some experience with woodcarving, I found the emphasis the author puts on the most critical parts of carving (eyes, ears, feet, etc.)to justify the lack of concentration on the body. Thumbs up to Mary for a wonderful book, I'll defininately be buying the follow-up to this book.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite woodcarving book
Review: You'll get you're money's worth if you buy any carving book by Mary Duke Guldan. Unlike many other carving books this lady gives you wonderfully artistic and accurate patterns showing top, side, back and front views. In addition she gives you detailed drawings showing feet and facial characteristics of animals. Plus, this author shows you how to piece together 1" thick planks of wood to make a good size carving. (This is a great help to people who can not find, or afford huge blocks of good wood, like basswood.) I also appreciate the author's suggestions of how to vary the poses of animals, and other ways of using her patterns, like for mantelpieces. This book may be a little over the head of brand new wood carvers, but if you're beyond the very beginning stage and interested in carving something besides birds, this is the book for you!