Relief Carving

steve kelly

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I'm not sure that I really want to do a landscape so I decided to do a Relief Carving of my grand daughter...This is my third Relief Carving...I kind of messed up in that I made her fingers to big but I'm learning...so here it is: P1120023.jpg
 
Really nice!

I've just begun to dabble with carving, myself - some manual, and some with power tools (Foredom) - but haven's completed anything worth taking a picture of yet.
 
That's fantastic Steve,

I really love your face work - they're so life like and yet you manage to do it without an excess of detail - just all the right parts in the right places.

I can see what you mean about the fingers, but they're pretty close - I'd still be happy with it :D They might appear a wee bit thinner if they were rounded over more but I'm not sure if that would mess the perspective up in other ways, so more throwing it out there as a maybe.

The shadows in the undercut really help sell this one as well, you made really good use of those.
 
Hi Steve.

Front face relief carving is very, very difficult, as well as 3/4 view of a face, and you managed it very well, I doubt I could do it myself. Portrait carving is something I want to try someday.

You complain about the size of the fingers, but I think that the problem is that they are flat. Instead of having them in the same plane you could have made the 2nd and 3rd phalanges slanted towards the face or background, that would have given more depth sensation to them as they would "curve" towards the interior as in real life. I think that you perceive them bigger because they are on the same plane and almost flat. Obviously you are constrained by the wood thickness but l believe you could still fix it.

Although it is not the best example if you look at the hands of the fisherman of my avatar you'll see what I mean.

A question if I may: The eyes are painted? they look quite realistic to me although I can't tell from the pic.
 
Thanks Ryan!

Perspective in art, when it comes to the human body, is most difficult from the position I see things.....To get the perspective right...I know that the closer things are to you the bigger and the farther away the smaller [i.e., vanishing point] but getting that right is not always easy and with wood carving if you make a mistake, it becomes firewood...that's a tough lesson.
 
Hi Toni....Your right about the the fingers....I see what you mean, yours does look more realistic...yours has that three dimensional look to it.

Yes the eyes are painted....Thank you for the advice!
 
Thanks Ryan!

.... easy and with wood carving if you make a mistake, it becomes firewood...that's a tough lesson.


I have to disagree with that Steve, a master carver I know always says the same, " the art of the good barber is to get sideburns from where there is no hair", substitute barber for carver and hair by wood and you'll know what he means.

Actually, it is difficult but usually if you haven't undercut the shapes or removed wood from behind them one can shift the volumes and nobody will notice. The last option is obviouly glue a piece and carve it again, in order not to show glue lines the piece must follow the contour on the shape so that the glue line will be hidden on the undercut.

So never throw away something that you think you messed up until you are completely sure you can't fix it. Sometimes when I carve I get stuck and I have to leave the piece covered with a piece of cloth for a few days or even weeks so I don't see it when I am in the shop. Then after a while, I remove the cloth and I can see clearly where my mistakes are and how to continue.

You are right, perspective and foreshortening is difficult; in fact foreshortening is very difficult! in drawings and even more in relief carving, or at least it is to me, specially when human faces are concerned, and you seem to have a special gift for them.

Drawing a clenched fist with the index finger pointing right at you and make it look right is very difficult, so imagine carving it in low relief. The same happens with noses on faces.
hand 3.jpghand.jpghand2.jpg
 
Toni...I have to admit I have fixed mistakes before but only on a small scale... But I've never done that while making a doll....especially if I am making a doll for someone that I know will be a keepsake for them.

One good thing about making a doll is there are a lot of pieces involved and if you mess up one of the pieces, you don't have to trash the whole thing...that's a good thing, of course, you probably already know that with the string puppets.

I find that most people think that the hardest part to carve on a doll would be the head but for me it's always been the hands.

If I could go back in time I would take all the art instruction I could........Even so.... I'm very happy with my life, I'm in love my wife, I love my extended family, I love God, and I love and enjoy wood carving.... even when I don't get it right, I'm always willing to learn something new.....Thanks Toni!
 
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