Relief Carving

steve kelly

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These are the first two relief carvings I've ever done...they are two 10" X 12" plaques ...Since I didn't know what I was doing I just kept it simple...Any advice would be welcomed. I would like to do a landscape but I'm not sure I know how to tackle that? :huh: P1110949.jpg P1110954.jpg
 
Steve - I will but you in the category of Norman Rockwell. Getting "expression" on the subjects face it a special talent.

I cannot help you. I can certainly learn from you.

What amazing work. I love the Girl Relief - spectacular.
 
Thanks Leo...I had to study this for a while before I took any wood out...It was a lot harder then I thought....When you have to shorten the dept up somehow it becomes harder for me....I give a lot of praise to the relief carvers...In my mind's eye that's not an easy medium especially when you have a lot of things going on in the picture...Maybe it's easier then I think, maybe it's just that I don't get it?....I hope there is a simpler way to do this that I'm not seeing....I think that this is where not having a background in art probably hurts me.
 
Well Steve you should sure do more, that's my take because those are cool :D :thumb:

What you've done there would fall into the high relief category I think. I've only done a few relief works that weren't nearly as nice and more in the low relief category.
 
From the looks of those, you don't need a lot of advice. :thumb: They are great. And family keepsakes to boot.
But, you choose one of the most difficult methods there is to create those. An inset relief is a bugger. DAMHIK. Relieving the image from a flat board is much more easier. What you did prevents getting tools under the edges, very hard way to go. My advice, FWIW, is stick with quality basswood and remove what is not the relieved figures you want. First two? I know experienced carvers who can't do as well. As far as landscape is concerned, just pick yer scene, pencil it onto the wood and go for it. I have the most difficulty with clouds. Suggest practicing those on scrap wood.
 
Thanks Ryan....I may need to practice some before I try a landscape....I'm not sure how to do the leaves on a tree?
 
I say with what you've done so far.. just go for it!

My approach is to sketch what I want to carve 15 or 20 times and have a bunch of pictures of things like it printed out and sitting next to me for reference. I'm not saying my carvings are good :D but that all helps them be better than they would be otherwise.

Also worth looking at a lot of examples like:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rel...e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&biw=1215&bih=615#imgrc=_

http://www.artparks.co.uk/artpark_sculpture.php?sculpture=6836&sculptor=valentin_stoyanov

Laura does have a ton of good info on her site as well, an almost overwhelming amount of information.
 
Thanks Frank....Well...the reason I didn't remove more wood is that Maple is such tuff stuff and I didn't want to put the time in to do it...But I found out real quick what you mean about close quarters....I had to use a dremel and I still had a hard time getting under it...I took a chance and cut that baseball bat, in the boy plaque, completely away from the wood but I had some repairs to do after I got that done....If I'm going to do anymore relief work....your right I'll have to use Basswood and do it on a flat surface...There simply to much wood to remove with maple.....Thanks for the advice...I do appreciate any help I can get!...I love carving with wood!....When I was a kid I carved all my toy guns....They may not have looked pretty but I didn't care...I had fun with them! ...I still have one left from my kid days...It was the best and last one I ever did so I kept it...My boys even played with it...I never knew then that it would take me forty years before I would do the thing that I loved to do again....Here's a picture of it: P1110960.jpg
 
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Ryan...I do feel a little overwhelmed [i.e., Eyes in the headlights sort of feeling] when I look at those relief carvings.....Do you have any pictures of your relief carvings?...I'd love to see them!...I'm going to start with a small easy landscape and then go from there...Is that 15-20 times just to settle in your head what you want to do?...or just for reference only?....Thanks for the advice Ryan!
 
Great looking piece Steve. I took a class several years ago on carving. We used a plunge router to remove a lot of the waste using a 1/8" or 1/4" down spiral bit. The spiral bit will give you a lot of control of the movement of the router and let you get really close to your boundary lines. For one of the carvings we had about 3 levels of carving, a tree in the fore ground, some text on the back ground, and some hills I believe in the back ground. Cutting away the waste can save a lot of wear/tear on your carving tools.

I should have that one around still, I'll snap a shot later today if I come across it, had some leaves on the tree. I recall drawing individual leaves, tear drop shaped, then using a v carve tool to out line the lines and a fish tail tool to round them off a little.
 
Thanks Darren....I've never used a plunge router before but I'm interested in that and the three levels of dept that your talking about...If you have a picture of that I would love to see it!....Thanks for the info!
 
Pic didn't open.
"carving" means different things to different people. Many carvers decry anything but hand tools.
For me, when I needed to make undercuts I used old screwdrivers heated with a propane torch then pounded to a desired right angle and/or shape then plunged into water to harden. I didn't worry about drawing or tempering. Then they were sharpened and used. Cheap and gave satisfaction of using a tool I (mostly) made myself.
 
Ah, I always figured that there's quite a few folks better than me but they all started somewhere and the longest journey starts with a single step (I've also been known to toss out a lot of failed attempts. I've never done a landscape so will be interested in how that goes, should be fun anyway.

Do you have any pictures of your relief carvings?...I'd love to see them!...I'm going to start with a small easy landscape and then go from there...Is that 15-20 times just to settle in your head what you want to do?...or just for reference only?....

Both actually, it seems like the more you understand the thing you're carving the easier it is.. I'm actually not sure if any of what I've done actually counts as "relief" or not, but some of the problems are similar.

This one is probably the closest I've done "lately" (again in geological timeframes :rolleyes:) that's technically a relief carving. Its also the first time I tried doing leaves.. There are a lot of problems with it, but it was an interesting learning experience. I wasn't able to get the detail I wanted on the hop cones and leaves because the walnut kept tearing out (the sapwood especially was a little soft) so kind of just got it as good as it got and figured it was done.
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?32587-This-years-brew-spoon-hop-vine-with-leaves

These are all mostly knot work, I like knots for some inexplicable reason. I find in this case that taking an hour to tie the knot over and over a bunch and trace the strands so the form sits in my mind is really helpful. I haven't done a lot of "flat" relief work, but try to basically do the same thing to get whatever it is fixed in my head. I'm sure that folks with a stronger art background don't have as hard of a time at this.. but here we are so working with what I have.

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?35190-miniature-ebony-knots-and-crochet-hook

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?32729-A-knotted-button

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?30239-Another-spoon

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?29705-Spoon-with-a-twist-and-some-knots
 
Ryan...You did a great job on that spoon....I like the way you have the vine and leaves wrapping around the spoon...I think that would be a great piece as a wall hanger.....one on each side of a fireplace!......Those knots look pretty complicated especially from one piece of wood...I bet those took a long time to carve...you did a fantastic job carving and figuring out how to do diagram and delineate how to carve that out...Not sure if I could do something like that.....Thanks Ryan for sharing...that gives some ideal of how to make the leaves.
 
Thanks Steve :D

Those knots look pretty complicated especially from one piece of wood...I bet those took a long time to carve...you did a fantastic job carving and figuring out how to do diagram and delineate how to carve that out...Not sure if I could do something like that...

They're not that bad, you just have to grok the knot first (although they are a bit slow). If they're multi-strand I'll tie them out of multiple colored pieces of rope first so I can track each strand around the knot. I'll draw the knot in place on the wood (sometimes getting it evenly laid out takes a couple of tries) and then start cutting small stop cuts as "marker" points where the strands go under each other (this is where it usually goes wrong if I loose track, which is why I do small stop cuts, they can be cut out and re-done if wrong). From there its basically just cutting out the edges of the strands and working them deeper in passes (sort of like tying a knot loosely and then working it tighter) until it "looks about right". The really nice thing about knots is even if I get them a bit off most folks don't know how the knot was supposed to be tied anyway so it works out mostly :rofl:
 
Frank...I like that ideal...I also like to make my own tools....I might try that the next time in a practice carving and see how it works in close quarters...Thanks for sharing!
 
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