Elephant Carving

[Frede]

Working on my second carving for my son. Been at this for a LONG time and would love for you guys to let my know what you think and how I could improve it. I'm def going to revisit the tree on the hill and the clouds. I'm happy with the skin on his nose/legs, but not happy with the skin on his body....just not sure how to improve it.
6_23.jpg

[NoDNA]

Frede , I haven't seen too many Elephants, and seeing the ones that I have in real life ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,a long time ago it looks old, so it has a good texture IMO. The depth is good on the relief. One thing you may consider is not knowing how old your son is and unless he lives in an area that Elephants run free. I am sure he will love it.

Great job and I do know it takes time to get the depth you want. I have done a few relief's and some times just wish to scrape them ,, I think a Cat or Bear face is the hardest I have done.
Cheers and Thanks for sharing
Chuck

[joepaulbutler]

I don't know how thick your board is, but depth is always a good friend of relief carving. I usually reduce my background by 2/3-3/4 the thick of my board. Again just my 2¢

[woodburner807]

I don't do relief carving but your elephant looks good to me.

[Randy]

Excellent looking elephant, nicely done. I agree a little more depth could be a plus if you have the wood. However once you put a finish on it will high light the shape and detail and show depth not obvious in the photo. One suggestion I would make, at the upper left where the ear comes back in the the body It blinds into the back, a line down to the back of the head and separating the ear from the back may give you more depth in that area.

[Glenn Jennings]

Hi Frede
Take a look at the photoshop version of your picture.

By trimming a bit off the left ear and curving the forehead a little you can add more of a 3 dimensional look to the piece and it eliminates the top of the ear looking like it is joined to the backbone.

The left tusk looks a little more curved with a little taken off the top and the bottom.

The left leg I trimmed a little off the top of the curve and from the bottom inside edge. I put curved creases on both sides of the leg to give it the illusion of roundness. The leg looks a little thin on the top end and I think this could be improved by making a deeper cut half way from the trunk to the edge of the leg so that it was like a step in the wood. Then if you carve the edge off the step and round it up a bit it will add width, depth and roundness to the leg giving it more of a 3D look.

The tail I thinned top and bottom. it needs a furry bit on the end. If you were to make the tail deeper into the wood and carve down from mid tail toward the body so there is a deffinite step from end of body to the start of the tail then round the end of the body a little, this will create the illusion that the start of the tail is much further around on the body.

Take alook at the tails on the Lion, Rhino and springbok on the attached table edge and I think you will see what I mean. The maximum depth of the cuts in this piece is 5mm so you don't have to do super deep cuts to get the illusion of depth. But the deeper you go the more detail you can get into it.

Hope you find this of some help Frede. Just use what you want from this or totally disregard it if you don't think it is going to work for you.

A good effort buddy like the background and clouds it adds a lot to the piece.

Happy carving
Cheers
Glenn

[Claude]

Nice work! I think Glenn has given you some good suggestions.

Claude