prickly beauty - wip

[doris]

after a discussion on reliefcarving (thanks again for that, mark :-) ) i got curious to try doing it differently as i had did in the few reliefs i did before. so, i am now doing first carve the outline, instead of jumping into roughing out the shapes immediately and refining them, and thus sharpen the outline up more and more as i go. so in particular i not drew the design on wood as i did now... this is how far i am, the device on the side i made to measure depth. i put a toothpick in a hole, and let it look out 7mm, then i put the device on my relief with the toothpick at the place i want measure, and if the device not lies flat, i know i still have not reached the depth. ...

these flowers on cactus are my favourite flowers, not roses,,, i carve them on a wood which is 1cm (less than 1/2 inch) thick... the wood is unknown to me, so if some of you recognise it i would love to learn what wood it is. i choosed it since i like it. it is pretty hard, but carves well, and dulls the tools rather quickly (compared to linden anyway) ...

[mark yundt]

Re: prickly beauty - wip

Ha,,,there you go! I'll enjoy watching this Doris. A half inch should be fun and challenging. You'll be surprised at what you can do in this depth. As a reference the face on my Prodigal Son is just a bit over this half inch depth. And I don't know if you remember the roses I did recently ,,,they too were about this depth ( I still have pics if you're interested).
Just remember it's the relationship of one surface to another,,,not how deep you can make it. I was just talking to Ashby this A.M about this very same concept. For shallow reliefs you need to keep the perspective found in the lines of the drawing,,,that is what will give you the illusion of depth. Very much like a simple drawing of something which appears to go into the page,,where it actually is simply done on the surface.A shallow relief as I said is not much more than a drawing on a board done with a chisel...in perspective. Here the challenge will be in the stamens in the center of the flower,,and in the leaves surrounding it. Don't carve so much what you know about the flower,,but carve simply what you see. There is a difference! Also ,,maybe trying to imagine that a full flower is slowly being pressed under a plate of glass,,it gradually gets flatter and flatter until it's down to the thickness that you are after. While it's getting pressed,,the position of everything doesn't change,,,just the relationship of one surface to another changes. This is what you'll end up carving.Relatively little,,to make something appear as if it was....

[Irishman]

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It didn't take you long to move into another piece Doris...and another style. This should be another nice carving when complete as you do very good flower reliefs.
Patrick

[arapsang]

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It's difficult to identify woods over the internet, but it looks like jelutong from here.

Peter Connor

[Alice in Wonderland]

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Oh Doris and Mark ,you are to clever for me and to ambitious, I love reading about your technics and have no idea what you are talking about lol,I look at it and it looks so easy, I guess one has to do relief, one of those days I shall try it.
my reliefs are usual 4 " thick "-))) ,my husband keeps telling me 1.2" most but.....
Alice

[Ashbys]

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Doris , looking good .

Mark , one thing in this case, that can be achieved only because of the subject matter and what it is. Since the stamen is in the center , you can cheat, depth because it is also the highest section of the block. You have depth that can be taken in because your cutting into the center of the carving. So you can get a bit more by rolling into the center Allowing the petals to establish the depth for the stamen. It is all perspective.

If the phone had died I might have been still talking LOL .

I also suggest Doris you look at Thor's carvings , she does this type of relief , and really produces great results.

Ash

[mark yundt]

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Yes Gary,,,if your phone hadn't died surely I,,,or YOU,, would most likely still be talking,,,,LOL...sure was fun,,,I always look forward to our gab fests! Heck,,,in my head I'm still talking,,,

[doris]

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hi mark, glad you here :-) yes 1cm is challenging, thanks for many advise, i do look forward to carve more today :-)..ah, yes i do remember your roses, i actually downloaded the pics you showed...i do this with everything i like, or which inspires me, or where i can learn from or...and so i have a good full folder on my harddisk with wonderful pictures, and your roses are there too :-)

hi patrick, yes differnt style again, i do love trying out everything...

thanks peter, yes i looked up jelutong in google, and found some pics of it, they do look very similar to my wood. maybe mine has a little more of these little darker "stripes" (sorry, i am so unlearned with trees, i dont know what these stripes are)

alice, glad you enjoy, but please do ask ! i, and i am sure mark too, will try answer your questions, and dont be shy, all question is good question... i let you know when i am finished if it was easy or not ...

ash, than you too for tips. i can use every... yes, i know thors work, i visit her homepage frequently, since i like her style...

[Thor]

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Hi Doris,
Interesting subject and I like the composition of what you've started. I'll be watching it as well.
It is amazing how much depth you can achieve with the shadows. I prefer to let the perspective speak for itself instead of physical levels of depth....don't know if that makes sence, but it is taking out less wood the way I do it.
Your style will surely come through even in a relief carving.
Thor

[mark yundt]

Re: prickly beauty - wip

One other thing to keep in mind with a relief carving. The larger the piece you are working on ,,the LESS wood you will have to carve. The smaller the piece the MORE you will carve.Given the same thickness of wood. Sounds contradictory but it's true.

I've also included two of four doors I carved with a Bonsai type tree growing out of a cliff,,very shallow relief given the size and constraints I had. And the second is a modified Climatis type flower and leaves done as an insert for a coffee table. This was done in 1/2 inch. These are not posted as an example of what I just said,,,only as a reference.

And Gary,,if you're still listening,,,I've got more info and ideas for you to consider,,,next time maybe we can talk longer until my mind goes dead and not your phone ...LOL

[Ashbys]

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Sounds like a plan Mark. LOL

Nice carvings. The leaf turning the tips up, really made the leaf stand out for an excellent effect. Using light lines behind the subject will also allow for increased depth.

This is what I mean, Doris your doing a stand alone flower. The idea is to bring the viewer to see the subject , so the flower being stand alone the person seeing it see all the subject at one time, So your depth becomes only what is perceived from the seeing the flower. As people are creatures of habit , we expect certain things. When we see a living flower , we do not just see the flower. We se the flower, the grass behind it and the little twigs on the ground. Our mind expects it, so we will fill it in even if it is not there.

So if we look at a carving of a flower , we see the carving , but it will always seem empty. We may love the piece admire everything about it , but it is always missing something. The thing missing is the fill in, the vase , the grass , the background. Something to give the feeling of being complete.

I always consider a relief carving as a picture, if the flower was being painted , would it be painted on a white canvas without support ? With the flower standing in the air ? Not usally , so using lines simple diagonal cuts while removing the background will add extra depth to the carving. Those little lines of motion will add direction to the subject matter and depth to lift the carving up. You can't use this effect for all carvings, but on this one it would work well .

Ash

[doris]

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hi thor, yes makes sense to me :-) is what i was discussing with mark... hi mark, is not contradictory, since the proportion of depth to width is bigger when width is smaller, but depth is same. yes, i realized that, ...so mine is rather small ain width as you can see from the gouge lying near by...i am in easier situation than you with prodigal son carving... and thanks for the reference fotos, i love the bonsai carving in particular :-)

[doris]

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ash, i need think about what you say, not sure if i see yet what you mean.

[mark yundt]

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Possibly,,,though at times less is more. Depending on the subject,,filling in a background MIGHT make a more complete picture then again it just might make it too busy and detract from the key element of focus.
Just recently I had seen a wonderful sketch of Mother Theresa where only her face was drawn in detail,,her habit just faded out to nothing simply framing her face. Having it done this way was very dramatic and made you focus only on the expression and character in the lines on her face. Adding all the other extraneous details to make a complete drawing would only have distracted from this moving image.
In my Prodigal Son,,,I only outlined the two faces and the hands to allow the light to shine here. Focusing on just these elements tells a more important story than had I outlined everything in the effort to show a complete picture. Focus on the important elements and the rest will take care of itself.
Sort of like the photos you see where the flower is in crisp focus and the rest of the picture is slightly blurred,,,the element you wish to highlight is all you really see.
Look at how wonderful the Audobon prints are,,,they simply focus on the flower,,nothing else is needed...

[Mottles]

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Doris, nice start and one of my favorites too, cactus flowers are so beautiful.
Kathy