How do you relief carve???

[patriclop2pl]

Hi guys!!

I want to try my hand in relief carving but how do you relief carve? I mean how do you actually begin? I have a little angel charm I want to increase in size and relief carve it but don't know how to begin.

Any suggestions greatly welcome!!

Patty

[squbrigg]

Whole books have been written to explain the process, but the basics are:

1. Draw your image on a plank of wood, the angel.

2. Make a stop cut all around the outside edge of the angel.

3. Use a gouge to remove the wood on the outside of the stop cut, the background, about 1/3 of the depth should do.

4. Carve the angel, just round the edges and carve the highlights of the body, head, etc.

I'd suggest you get your hands on a book covering the subject or some magazine articles. Your local library might have some to start with. Check out books on basic wood carving, they often have sections covering relief carving. The idea is to have your subject stand out from the background and look as much like the subject as possible. Experiment, do some homework and most importantly ..... practice! You'll enjoy it.

Bob

[patriclop2pl]

Originally Posted by squbrigg

Whole books have been written to explain the process, but the basics are:

1. Draw your image on a plank of wood, the angel.

2. Make a stop cut all around the outside edge of the angel.

3. Use a gouge to remove the wood on the outside of the stop cut, the background, about 1/3 of the depth should do.

4. Carve the angel, just round the edges and carve the highlights of the body, head, etc.

I'd suggest you get your hands on a book covering the subject or some magazine articles. Your local library might have some to start with. Check out books on basic wood carving, they often have sections covering relief carving. The idea is to have your subject stand out from the background and look as much like the subject as possible. Experiment, do some homework and most importantly ..... practice! You'll enjoy it.

Bob

so very much Bob!! Very clear, concise and to the point!!

Patty

[Kadiddle]

What Bob said, have fun, look in used book stores also.
Carve On,
Kadiddle

[Irish]

Before you even go off the forum go here:

Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP

That's a full, in-depth look at relief carving the wood spirit/greenman face and will provide the basics to our style of carving.

Susan

[patriclop2pl]

Originally Posted by Irish

Before you even go off the forum go here:

Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP

That's a full, in-depth look at relief carving the wood spirit/greenman face and will provide the basics to our style of carving.

Susan

Susan!! I will be checking that out now and learn the techniques!!
I have another question though, how would I know how deep to go in my carving? The wood I am using is 8 x 6 x 1" thick basswood. I wanna do high relief not low so do I go no deeper than 3/4 inch deep or is that too deep and risk the board becoming weak/warping?

Patty

P.S. I wanna do this Angel carving, how do I figure out what level is what?

[patriclop2pl]

I guess I added the link to the picture wrong so here is the picture.

[Irish]

Patty, that is the ultimate question for any relief project ...

My rule of thumb is to work in the top one half of the board, allowing the second half to secure against warping, cupping, and splitting.

So for a 4/4 board you can work your deepest areas of the background to 2/4s - 1/2" for a flat, even background. As the board thickens you want to back off that 1/2 rule of thumb a touch. Thicker cuts put more tension on the wood as it naturally adjusts to changes in the air temperature and moisture. A 2" thick blank will have more chance to develop a very dry area along the edge with a more moist area in the middle of the blank, thus putting greater strain of the carving.

If the background will be sloped where I work the background in a concave (bowl shaped) curve I can work the very deepest inner section maybe just a bit more.

For me 1/2" allows an amazing amount of depth and detail to be done. I'll go see what photo I might have a 1/2" carving depth.

Susan

[Robson Valley]

1. Make several copies of the drawing, of a size to fit the block.
2. How thick is the block? Based on that I try to decide on no more than 4 depth levels and mark them on one of the drawings. Maxium might be to leave 1/4 of the block at the bottom.
So those levels could be surface, 1/4", 1/2", 3/4". What's in front and on top? What's behind that?
3. Follow squbrigg's advice. I use a double-beveled carver's chisel for the stop cut. You can't hammer the stop cut to the finished depth in the first go-round. Might have to do stop cuts along lines 5+ times to eventually get the depth you designed.
4. I do very little relief carving any more. This winter will be shallow simple relief carving for wood block printing. I'm inclined to think thaqt undercut edges look better but that's just an opinion (or maybe an opi-onion?)

[Midnight Carver]

I don't want to hi-jack this thread but had a question that goes along with it. As far as the grain direction, I have heard that when you look at the end of the board the grain should curve up, like a smile instead of a frown. Is that correct or doesn't it matter?

Eric