My 2nd try at Relief Carving

[Burtoni]

6" x 7" Basswood 1" thick.
This one's my 2nd go at Relief carving. Learning a lot as I go...all I need is practice, practice and more practice!!! Thanks to Mottles for a lot of good info!

[SeaLeveler]

That's alot better than mine.I am still on letters and some simple shapes.The corners are boogers.Tony

[Burtoni]

Tony:
Thanks a lot for taking a looksee at this one! I know what you mean about the corners!!!!!

[Mottles]

Hey B, I really like your latest a real feast for the eyes. I love your imagination in putting this one together. Your carving skills are improving and as you say it's practice, practice. Heck, seems I'm always practicing. lol
One place where you have to be really watchful is the border. It's really easy to get out of line and create uneven borders. All comes with time.
K

[tucker1931]

Hey there Burtoni, I'm not a relief carver but I am seeing a lot of them on here and yours is comming along really well. Personally, I would suggest something a little less agressive. You are sort of stepping ahead of yourself with so much detail in only your second attemp. Try something a little with a little less subject matter till you feel compfortable.
Cliff

[Burtoni]

Cliff:
That makes a lot of sense. I get excited about something like Relief carving and tend to jump in ahead of myself. Working on one now with a lot less complicated design!

K:
Thanks for the helpful comment on this one!!
I know what you mean re: the borders. The darn things always seem to be off kilter. I'll have to pay special attention to that!

[Thor]

Burtoni,
I taught myself relief carving, and took YEARS to learn the simplist things such as tool sequence during the carving process, designing for the tools I have available, and how really good tools are well worth the money.
Your carving is a wonderful accomplishment, and folks here will make themselves available for every step you have questions about.
May I ask what tools you have?
Christina

[Burtoni]

Christina:
I appreciate your comments a lot!! I have a lot of tools from carving I had done around 10 years ago. Had never thought about relief carving back then. A few of those can be seen here on Burtoni Gallery.
Right now I have a set of larger tools from those days...and a load of the smaller tools...gouges, skews, chisels, fishtails and 2 Flexcut knives I purchased recently. Am paying a lot of attention to sharpening, so I picked up a
SlipStrop kit to help with that. Yes, folks here have been incredibly helpful with info here at WCI! It's a great place!!! I thank my good friend Mottles for telling me about it!!

[twilli227]

Burtoni, I am new to relief carving to. I found you have to take your time. It take a lot of time to clean out all of the nooks and crannies. And it never seems that I am satified with my work.
I like your carving, so keep working at it.

Todd

[Burtoni]

Todd:
Thanks for taking a look at it.
Those are exactly the things I discovered working on my first two Relief pieces!! Going on further with Relief carving, am hoping practice will help cleaning out those nooks and crannies!!!!!!