Depth in Relief Carving

[bhusbands]

I hope aI am doing this right I have not figured out how to post a question properly.

1. When trying to carve a scene in relief carving and you have a stream or fence that goes away in the distance how do you figure out the layers in the scene?
2. Usually when I find a scene to carve the designer gives the thickness of the wood and you adjust you depth from that. I then find a scene that I want to try and it is full of trees and buildings. I have no idea whether to use 1" or 2" thick material. How do you judge what thickness to use.
Thanks,
Bill Thank You (nearly a complete novice)
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[Ashbys]

There are many on this board that do it differently. But in your roughing out stage , When your cutting your layers set up check points to pick up on.
Basically your cutting a tapered flat plane through the layers. Clear the material away in steps so when you come back to detail you will be moving only on that plane.

If your cutting an open fence, where the background is shown, your still working to the layers of the main scene but cutting between the slats to these levels. Then maintaining the plane for the rest of the fence. Hope this helps .

As far as thickness, well, that can be adjusted to almost anything. Plan your Layers , sometimes you can cross layers , but decide how thick you want them. Lets say you have a 1 inch board , and want 7 layers , leaving 1/4 for backing then the peice is adjusted to 1 inch - 1/4 = 3/4 3/4 = .750 .750 / 7 = .107 of an inch or just under 1/8 of an inch for each level. That may sound small but you can get amazing results in 1/8 inch layers.
Ash

[bhusbands]

Thanks - That helps. I am still trying to work everything out in my head before I start.

Bill

[Ron Davidson]

The peice I am working on now is 1&1/2" thick and I have counted 32 diffeerent layers to it. If you look back to the WIP section under Elk and Canoe you can see how I have been layering . Since this post though I have gone back and lowered all the areas to make enough room to do the bull elk. My point is to always leave some room for removing more if needed. You can always take more off easier than adding it if you take too much. In this peice I may not have enough for the full effect I want to give the elk but I will do my best with undercuts and shadows. Just take your time and try and plan as carefully as possible. Keep us posted.
Ron

[bhusbands]

Thanks - I saw your carving with the canoe and it already looks good. A scene is what I want to do, but am having to hold myself back from picking to complicated a scene.

Thanks,
Bill

[Ron Davidson]

I haven't seen any of the carvings you have already done but am sure you will do fine.Look for the book Landscapes in relief by Lora S Irish there are allot of scenes and instructions if I remember right. You never know until you try.

Ron

[feb]

Bil, a while back Lora Irish had a post on that subject. She explained the whole process. Iyou check the archives under rekief carving you should be able to find it. good luck. Feb