Carving Faces in Wood is a detailed, well written, accessible tutorial guide to carving faces by Alec Lacasse. Released 18th Sept 2024 by Fox Chapel, it's 120 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a stunning collection and the author is a gifted woodworker and his voice throughout the book is encouraging and supportive. He asserts that it's a book which should be accessible to beginners, but readers really should have at least a basic grasp of (and access to) woodworking tools and techniques before starting, in order to achieve the best results.

The book is arranged logically, including an inspiration gallery of the author's own work, a primer covering tools and supplies (and safety), reference & design, general features (mouths noses & eyes), distinct features (age, male vs female), hair, and combining the previous tutorials to produce a finished refined project (including photography, lighting, and video), and three start-to-finish project tutorials.

The patterns are given without scale templates, line drawings are detailed and given from several views to help carvers visualize the dimensions and plan carving. The author/publisher have also placed QR codes throughout the book which link to online videos and additional materials.

It's well illustrated in color throughout, and "action" shots are well posed, without hands or tools obscuring the view.

Four and a half stars. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, for home woodworkers, for makers' groups and studios, and for gift giving. It's not precisely a beginner tutorial guide, but intermediate to advanced woodworkers will find a lot of good information, and beginners will too, but probably will need additional help. The author's website *is* beginner friendly and full of good information for all levels of expertise.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is a really helpful book with clear instructions for carving faces, which can be quite challenging! The instructions and tips & tricks have made me more empowered to tackle this step of carving!

Excellent step by step guide to carving faces. I especially appreciated the projects at the back of the book and the constant reiteration that wood has a mind of its own and things will go awry.
The pictures are clear and the explanations concise and easy to follow.

This is the first wood carving book that I have read and of course the first one about carving faces in wood.
Carving Faces in Wood has everything especially a newbie would ask for in a book about carving faces; tools, tips, techniques, materials, photos - step by step guides.
However, for me besides this niche quality of the book, I have been inspired about how I can improve my drawing, art, sculpting and storytelling (expressions) skills.

The author is very good at carving faces in wood. I am just astounded at his skill. What’s more, he is not hesitant to share the techniques with his readers. In fact, he has been teaching how to carve facial features since he was 16 and now has an online class. I like that this book is full of step-by-step instructions accompanied by lots of pictures and diagrams.

I don’t see myself chiselling out anything in wood anytime soon but I can see that this is for sure the book to go to if you want to start on the craft or at least improve on it.

5 stars.

This is a really great resource for a new carver like myself. It had so much information that made the process clear and easy to understand. I am definitely going to buy myself a copy of this book to refer back to when I am learning these new techniques. A huge 5 stars, I loved this book.

This is a really good book if you want to learn how to carve wood.
You can tell that the author has a lot of talent and experience and the explanations were very detailed and easy to follow.
This helped me start my wood carving journey.

I’ve recently become very interested in woodwork and this is an amazing guide on how to carve faces. The amount of talent shown in this book is incredible and everything is explained in amazing detail. Thank you!

This is awesome. Great for anyone that’s trying to improve their carving skills. It’s filled with tips and more information that you’ll need.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Fox Chapel Publishing, for letting me read and review this book by Alec Lacasse, ‘Carving Faces in Wood’.

Being a woodcarver who tries to create faces (eyes, noses, and mouths) in my characters, I really appreciated the tips and techniques in this book, provided by the author. To be able to create the detail that he describes is a goal of mine.

I also appreciated the three projects that he offers with some step-by-step instructions. These illustrations were very useful for a hand-carver and for larger carvings that include lifelike faces.