Jack Coats used to say, "The wooden head is the traditional dummy" and at least in this country over the last century it is predominantly true. Think of Theo and Charles Mack, Frank Marshall, George Pinxy, Ken Spencer, Foy Brown, Jack Coats, Conrad Hartz, Ray Guyll, Tim Selberg, and you see some quality artistry in carving. Ray Guyll and Tim Selberg have gone on to adding molding and casting in resins to their pallette of artistic expression, but carving was where their fame began.
Look also at the comparative prices of molded figures and the hand carved wooden figures and you'll often (not always) see a substantial difference in cost with the wooden figures costing more. I used to classify myself as a "wood snob" because I preferred wooden figures even though most I built for myself were molded. There's something about the prestige of having a wooden figure that somehow has not diminished even though there are many quality molded figures out there of makers both past and present
This is not to say that molded figures are inferior! It is just that there are many books on the subject of making a molded figure as well as web pages, etc. There has been some discussion on the Ventfigures email list about carving and since I was trying to verbally say what had been my experience in carving, I decided that it would be easier try and show some photos.
Nothing can replace a good pattern. At the left is a pattern I drew as a teenager. You'll see it all over this site as I modified it for showing mechanics, etc. Make the pattern full size of what you intend to carve. Trust the pattern. I believe this pattern was drawn for a 42" figure... not really sure since I don't have the pattern in front of me to measure. The important thing is to have the profile of the figure you are going to carve drawn full size and know what thickness the boards are you are going to use.
I also like to draw a frontal pattern, but I don't have a scanner and didn't scan the frontal view of this pattern originally. A frontal pattern will let you see how wide the boards need to be.
At left shows the same pattern, but with the boards drawn over the pattern. These lines are not to scale because the pattern was previously scanned, but usually using 1 and 1/2" thick boards my patterns will require about 4 boards and another small block for the nose. Notice how the front of one of the long blocks is the front of the neck. Depending on your pattern, the back of the neck may not correspond to the face of the back board. Say if you had a neck 2 and 1/2" thick, you would have to cut out the board on the back of the neck as well as rounding the bottom because those 2 boards would be 3" thick together. I glue the boards together with white wood glue with a piece of newspaper between the baords about an inch or so wide between each board I may need to separate for hollowing out the head... that is a little white glue on both sides of the newspaper. No glue is bonding wood to wood except like the nose to the face at this point! That way, after carving the head, I can separate the boards by placing a chisel between them hand giving it a small tap with the mallet. It makes hollowing out the head a breeze.
