A nice interlude between shinning up and down ladders carving tree stumps, I worked on this from the confines of my shed (sorry, “studio”) in the dry and (slightly) warm, with The Archers to keep me company.
I started off with a nice disc of seasoned sycamore.
Once the bark was off I got to work on the nose; I tend not to plan the Green Men too much, just letting them evolve and develop their own characters. Because the nose is the most prominent part of the face, once that is set in everything else almost falls into place.
Once I’d established the position of the nose and most of the depth required I could begin shaping it properly.
From the nose, the eyes can be positioned and the brow softened.
For the mouth I had to allow for the oak leaves which would be spilling out and round the cheeks.
With the lips done I could concentrate on shaping the oak leaves, giving them some life and movement.
Next was the leaves on the forehead, fanning round the temple towards the leaves coming up from the mouth.
The finishing touches were the veins on the leaves, the pupils, and a couple of oak leaves to fill the gaps where they were needed.
The Danish Oil really brought out the strong grain in the sycamore.
