Relief carving challenge

[robertf1]

I have been relief carving for almost a year now and I would assess my skills at an intermediate level. I prefer carving from patterns I've drawn freehand. As an avid flyfisherman, my latest carving is of a dry-fly pattern of a Green Drake mayfly. My challenge is this: The hackle on the fly is formed from a feather wound around the neck of the hook so that individual feather barbules project out from the thorax (neck area) in all directions. Some of these should be projecting out directly to the viewer. How would I carve these in perspective so as to realistically depict the feather barbules going in all directions? Its hard enough to describe my challenge in this forum, much less carve the 3-D image into a relief format. Bob

[AlArchie]

You mayhave to do some additions, Bob. Either wood or fiber/ good luck.

Al

[Dicky]

Glue and/or jewellers microdrills may be your best bet for attaching projections.

[pallin]

In relief carving the "third dimension" (depth) is intentionally distorted. You should not try to have the feather barbs rise out of the carving. They may, in fact, be represented by incised lines. Among the photos in my gallery, look for one called "Dachshund" and look at the reeds in the foreground. They are cut into the background. Also, look at one called "Waterfall." The plants in the left foreground are incised into the picture. The railing on the building is incised into the building rather than sticking out where it would realistically be.

[flyfisherman_53]

I've been working on a relief carving for over yr. and half off n on it's a couple of Hummingbirds in flowering bushes man is that tedious work. Thinking bout tracing same photo on another piece of wood and see how woodburning works for it. Think that might be ticket, just finished the drawing tonight gonna try woodburnner tommrow.

[johncarves]

If I understand what you are asking... Take a kutzall burr and press it into the wood in the area you're trying to show as the end view. For some areas/treatments I have actually taken the burr by the shank and used it to beat on the area I wanted imprinted. Try it on a scrap of the same wood and see it it will suit your purpose.

John Moore
Greenville, SC

[northwood bob]

First, you may want ot attach a photo of the incomplete work. That may give us some perspective.
Second, if you look at the hackle, you will find that it not only stands out perpendicular to the hook but lays forward as well as backward (rignt / left) Using this perspective, you can lead the impression that it is standing out. You can see this in wet hackle more sothan in a dry fly. If this is the look you want, try playing with the length of the hackle. (shorter on the direct perpendicular to the carving and longer top to bottom as well as right to left.
Thirdly, you may want to add artificial hackle to the carving using something such as monofilimemt line or something like that.

Hope I've helped
Bob

[robertf1]

Pallin

Phil- It appears that you understand my predicament. Describing it was difficult to put onto words! The feather barbules I'm trying to represent are hair-like in diameter and there are hundreds of them projecting out from the neck of the hook. Realistically, I cannot carve all of them. As you can imagine, a barbule projecting directly out to the viewer would look like a period "." and another not quite projecting straight out would probebly look like a short dash "-" while one projecting out sideways would look like a long dash. Tell me more about incising. Should I mix an incised barbule image with an adjacent positive-relief barbule in order to give the appearance of depth? What about perspective? Or am I trying for too much detail where the illusion of the hackle would better serve my needs? Remember, I'm only an intermediate carver, learning from my mistakes. As I mentioned in my original post, I prefer to carve from patterns I've drawn, thus presenting myself with challenges others in my carving class haven't been exposed to. By the way, I was able to find your "Waterfall" carving in your gallery but unable to locate the "Dachshund" carving to see how you did your incising. Thanks again for your insightful response. Bob

[Thor]

Robert, it would help is we saw an image of your carving, but it sounds as if you are trying for super realism with the piece.. I have seen simplification work, by essentially carving the "shape" of the projectiles, and using texture to "imply" the projections of tiny pointed pieces. It can be very effective from an overall perspective. The thistle has long been a favorite project of mine, and if you've ever seen one, they present the same problem. By simplifying the "fuzz" of the bloom, it becomes carvable.

You might try looking through relief carving images in books and on the internet with that challenge in mind, and see how similar texture challenges have been dealt with. I use the works of masters like Rheimenshneider to find answers often.

Don't know if this helps, but I do understand your dilemma, and know that I would simplify it, but I don't do super realism.
Christina

[pallin]

Bob - There are other figures that present this challenge in relief carving: palm trees, barrel cactus, and the thistle mentioned by Christina. Relief carving is on the line between the flat representation of an object, such as a painting, and the "in-the-round" representation such as sculpture. You are also limited by how much detail you can put into wood.

Here is a link to another piece. Note how the cactus and aloe plant at the lower left are done.
Reptiles - Woodcarving Illustrated Photo Gallery