What are the styles of carving

[Tommy Taylor]

Is there a reference guide or glossary or something that explains terms used in carving.I hear relief carving,low relief,high relief and deep relief. I know I'm considered a power carver because I use a Dremel tool but to try to express to someone what style of carving I prefer or do I'm hesitant to say.I assume relief carving and from what I gather it depends on the depth. I've been avoiding asking this until I could see if someone had asked but haven't seen a post about it.

[pallin]

Woodcarving can be divided by the methods used (edge tools vs power), or materials used (bark, found wood, etc.) or the form of the final product ("in-the-round," caricatures, reliefs, whittling). Items that involve a pattern carved into a flat surface may be relief or chip carvings. Three dimensional items may be sculpture, caricatures, flat plane, stylized. Carvings may be functional (architectural, furniture details, kitchen items) or whimsical (chains, ball-in-cages). The WCI Message Board is organized in terms of these divisions.

[Tommy Taylor]

Thank you very much Phil.I think something that I'm unclear about is how to tell when looking at it if it is a chip carving or relief carving.If anyone else has a similar question you are certainly welcome to ask it here too. I've been trying to make a wizard staff.I guess to describe the type of carving it is to someone I would say it is a relief carving.Power carved in the round. I heard the term paper bag it which meant to wad up a piece of brown paper bag and rub the wood to get rid of the fuzzies on it which was helpful and I found out to take a small piece of wood and rub it will also remove the dusty wood residue.I suppose that could fall under paper bagging it too.

[Steve Reed]

Best thing to do is research! Internet, library, this website, other websites, you tube etc. It should become fairly obvious once you start looking. Chip carving is just that, removing "chips". Relief carving has a background typically. In the round carving means a miniature "sculpture" so to speak.
Best of luck

[Tommy Taylor]

Thank you Steve.I started painting when I was fifteen during the summer and after I had painted about ten years I thought I knew the majority about painting and at some point I went to work for a younger guy who was so detailed in his type of painting that once he painted in a neighborhood,because of referrals, he would stay busy without ever having to leave that neighborhood. I had to relearn almost everything and have a lot more patience to work for him.Now I find myself in the same situation and I'm sure I'll be asking some very newbie type questions about it because that's what I am.Again.

[sashadoc]

Tommy, Maybe these will help?

Chip carving:
Chip Carving 100 - What is chip carving? - YouTube

Relief carving:
Relief Carving with Dylan Goodson - YouTube

caricature carving:
Carving The Caricature Fisherman Part 1 - YouTube

walking stick/cane carving:
Walking Stick Carving - YouTube

Youtube is a good source of info, along with WCI. I use them a lot.

Good carving,
Tim

[AlArchie]

Maybe you are placing too much emphasis on the terms. Whittling, carving, whimsies. etc can all be applied to the very same thing, though whittling is generally referred to as work done with a knife (pocket knife?). Whimsies can also be "carved" with gouges. But you can whittle away a corner or detail with a chisle or gouge. Shallow relief...low relief can just as well be interchangeable.....seem to be a matter of degree. Deep relief and high relief may also be interchangeable terms. They can also correctly be defined as relief that has the base image undercut to the point it actually seems to be "in the round" Alto and Bass relief are more technical terms derived from old European works, althoug alto is traslated as high and bass is translated as low.. They tended to quantify everything better over there with their apprenticeship programs in the trades and arts.

Likewise, flat plane and caricature carving may be nearly indistiguishable, but flat plane is not restricted to caricature.. Some caricature work is nearly indistinguishable from realistic, and the other way around may hold true.

Carving styles can also be defined by subject matter......waterfowl carving, fish carving, animal carving, upland bird carving, songbird carving, etc. and each of these categories or styles if you will, has competitions in more divisions. Then there are a lot of caricature animal, bird and fish carvings out there....some to the point of whimsey..

You can also carve caricature, any of the animals, portraits, scenery, in relief or in the round.

So I guess to add it all up, call your work what mostly satisfies your own definition, unless you are competitively carving. Then you will definitely have to follow some fixed guidelines but those will be defined by the rules of the competition.

Al

[Robson Valley]

Don't forget that the whole pile can also be divided up on the basis of size or scale.
flyfisher's mastery of the miniature is breath-taking to me.
All the way up to the monumental, poles and chainsaw work.

Techniques: flat plane, kolrosing, scrimshaw. . . . . .

Food carving is a very big deal where chef's bragging rights are involved.

[Claude]

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

...
Food carving is a very big deal where chef's bragging rights are involved.

And, while technically not a food, ice carving is a big time deal as well. Tools include chain saws, mallets and gouges, and propane torches!. I've seen some beautiful ice carvings at brunches in large hotels...

Claude

[Robson Valley]

Good reminder Claude. There's a big "pairs" competition in Banff right now, I recall. Plus, there's a 1 block, 1 carver, 1 hour, sprint competition. I'd go to that because I'm so slow. . . . maybe get my throttle up past Idle.
There's nothing quite like monumental ice carvings, lit up at night with colored spotlights.

There was a chef school where I worked. Students (studnuts?) did lard, butter and ice carvings.8-24" tall.

At the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, SK, in the dead of winter, they build a 3-masted ship with 2x4, burlap and hay bales. They hose it down with water hundreds of times over several days of XXX cold weather and light it up at night. "Additive sculpture", if you will.

Another medium I've been toying with the idea of trying is salt block carving. . . . the farmer/livestock blocks = stone like and $15 each just down my street.