Since I was rambling on yesterday about tonal values / shadows and light, I thought I would show you how those tonal values are captured in our wood carving.
Incised carvings, also called intaglio, are extremely flat and have little or not actual shadows on the main elements as those elements are not carved. Instead the background areas are carved to a very shallow depth and then cut with fine, sharp lines. This is the common techniques used for engraving.
Sunken relief is where the main elements are carved down into the wood and the background is left at its original depth. This is most often found in Egyptian stone carving.
Low or bas relief, also called basso-relieva, is a shallow carving technique where the joint lines between the main elements and the background are straight cut and visible. Few shadows are created in the work so this may also be called silhouette carving.
Middle relief, Canada Goose Relief Wood Carving Project, is the first carving technique that uses some undercuts to create darker shadows along the edges of some elements. Usually less that one-half of the element edges will be undercut with the remain edges or joint lines worked as bas or low relief.
Tonal Values in all crafts – wood carving, wood burning, colored pencils, and painting
If really is amazing the odd moments that you remember and that affect the rest of your life.
Mom and I had been to a doctor in lower, southern Baltimore that day. She decided to take the long way home as it was a wonderful country ride and it avoided the “new” interstate highway. I must have been less than 10 as my younger sister was not yet born, so about 1958 to 1962.
It was all rural dairy farm land at that time, Maryland’s main agriculture for the Piedmont area. Late afternoon, driving into the setting sun, we came to a T intersection just above the little town of Olney. Mom just stopped at the cross road and looked out across the farm land in front of us. We just sat there for the longest time.
In front of us was a small hill of pasture land with an old wire fence. On top of the rise was a dilapidated barn, leaning slightly, surrounded by young weed-tree saplings. The silo was long gone, but the old, rusting tractor still sat by the side of the barn.
“See that fallen down barn … look at where the roof has caved in and where the windows and doors are long gone. Do you see the light coming into the inside of barn from the holes in the roof? Look at how black the inside of the barn is but how bright the sunlight patches are where they hit the floor. They are brilliant white”
“Do you see the locust trees growing inside the barn, how their trunks and branches are white in sunlight coming into the barn, then disappear into the black shadows, but come out of the roof looking white again?”
‘Notice how you can’t really see anything inside the barn where the black shadows are but you can see all the details where the sunlight has come through the roof. Now THAT’S a painting!!!!”
It wasn’t the barn; it wasn’t the old tractor; it wasn’t even all the colors of the field, trees, and red barn paint that she saw … it was the light and shadows. Mom was an accomplished artist who, as I, started out as an oil painter and later supported her family from her craft business income.
I passed that barn many, many times later in my life when I traveled from the University of Maryland to home. Over the years it slowly settled into just a pile of rotten wood planks, and eventually was lost under those weed-trees that had grown to full size. Every time I came to that T intersection, like Mom, I stopped and looked and pondered the bright sunshine highlights and the black afternoon shadows – the tonal values of that rustic landscape.
So in working on a new update for my blog and pattern site I was compiling a series of images of some of my work, shown above. When I put them together as one image – wood carvings, wood burnings, colored pencils, tutorials, and oil painting – I realized they all had one thing in common. Every project, for me, is about tonal value and how to capture those bright white highlights and blackest shadows.
Art is about the white eyelashes of that cow lying over the blackest shadow inside her ear. Its about cutting a deep undercut to free the sides of the fence from the wood to cast a dark shadow. Its about working the under painting of a white flower so that the insides of the petal are starkly contrasted to the white roll overs of the petal’s edge.
For me, art is about tonal values, and it is because of that one little, brief moment of my Mom sharing her love of just seeing the world through those highlights and shadows.
Do you make these common mistakes in your chip carving?
Too often a chip carved triangle is just not perfect. So let’s look at why these small errors happen and how to correct them to create the very best chip carving project you can!
1. RAGGED WALLS
Ragged walls can be caused by either poor quality wood or an improperly sharpened knife. Basswood is a common chip carving wood that has finely packed, dense grain lines, and is considered an easy wood to work. But not all basswood is adaptable to chip carving. Avoid end grain plaques as you are cutting across the open end of the vascular bundles, which are similar to small soda straws that draw moisture up through the tree. Also avoid ‘hardware store’ thin basswood sheets. The 1/4″ and 1/8″ thick sheets are not the high wood quality of a 3/4″ plaque.
A dull knife tears through the wood grain instead of cutting it. Learn how to properly sharpen your chip carving knife. When you are concerned that your chips are repeatedly coming out rough, stop and take time to resharpen and hone your knife edge.
2. ROUGH CENTER POINT IN THE CHIP WELL
Each chip should have a sharp, clean point at the center of the chip well. This is caused because the angle of one of the side cuts did not fully reach the deep center point of the chip, where the three walls intersect. Correct this by re-cutting that wall, taking your knife point slightly deeper.
Free form lines and straight wall cuts also can get misaligned at the center of the well. Double check that you are using the correct hand grip on your knife and that your depth is even throughout the cutting stroke.
3. STAGGERED WALL STROKES
This chip’s wall was cut with several staggered strokes. During the cutting step either you changed the angle of your knife, or paused during the cut which misaligned the knife’s edge through the remaining stroke. Re-cut that wall with one, smooth, clean stroke.
4. THIN TOP EDGE
Your knife angle is just as important at the top of the triangle cut as it is on the wall and well. It is easy to end up with a top edge that is not razor sharp, the preferred finish for any chip carver. A simple wobble as you make the stroke can cause the knife to miss the fine edge of the neighboring chip.
Try turning the wood to recut the chip. A new view of that top edge may help steady the stroke.
5. WOBBLY EDGES
Every chip carver discovers wobbly edged chip walls. I find this problem often occurs when I am cutting through a spray adhesive paper pattern. Both the glue and the paper can cause the knife edge to be pushed away from the pattern line. Correct this by re-cutting the chip wall by thinly shaving just the bulge, not the points of the chip.
6. CHIP OUT
Chip outs happen and can be caused by several reasons. If you are working on a heavy grain wood as sugar pine, the change in the grain can cause a small thin point to break free.
On soft woods, as basswood, the edge of the point can be lost because the knife was pulled out instead of lifted out of the cut. To lift out the knife simply stop the stroke. Gently pull the knife back along the stroke just a small bit, then lift the knife free from the cut. Pulling on the tip of the blade at the end of the cut can add excess pressure that lifts a grain line.
Over cutting one side of the point, reaching the blade too deeply into the wood, can cause a point to chip out. Try scoring the pattern line first by lightly cutting along the line with just the tip of your chip knife. This pre-cuts and therefore pre-releases the wood grain at the point of the chip before you make the actual chip stroke.
Chip outs can be repaired by using wood glue and a tooth pick. Place a small drop of glue on he board at the break out spot. Use the toothpick to insure that the glue is deeply pressed into the chip area, not trapping any air space below the glue. Replace the chip out and press firmly. After about one-half hour of drying you can re-cut and sand this area.
NOTE – SANDPAPER FEELING TO THE CUTTING STROKE
It bares noting again that the greatest success with your chip carving comings with a properly sharpened chip knife. So, please download a copy of our free, 38 page, pdf file on Easy Steps to Bench Knife Sharpening.
Learn how to carve beautiful designs in wood with just a few basic knives!
Over 200 designs, ready to use, with layout ideas, grids, borders, and motifs
Step-by-step practice project helps you master the simple chip carving shapes and techniques you will need
Expert advice on knife selection & sharpening, how to prepare your wood blank, and how to transfer patterns
Tips & techniques for hand positions, knife positions, gang cutting, and how to handle a chip out
Blank practice grids so you can use your new chip carving knowledge to create your own designs
Chip carving, also known as spoon carving or “Kerbschnitt,” is the ideal introduction to woodcarving for beginners.
This simple traditional carving method uses just a few basic knives to remove selected chips of wood in small triangles, squares, and free-form curves, producing amazingly intricate and delicate results.
Internationally known woodcarving artist and author Lora S. Irish shows you how to get started in this venerable craft! Inside Chip Carving Workshop, Lora takes you through all the essential chip carving techniques, from tool sharpening and preparation to hand positions, chip cutting, and finishing.
You’ll discover how to use both geometric shapes and free form designs to create wonderfully detailed patterns. A step-by-step practice project shows you how to master the simple shapes that will allow you to cut any grid pattern in the book.
Hundreds of ready-to-use designs offer a rich treasury of chip carving layout ideas, grids, borders, and motifs for you to trace and reproduce in any combination or size.
Decorate household items and create artistic pieces in a variety of original designs: Hope chests, wooden spoons, jewelry chests, clocks, candle plates, serving trivets, and decorative plaques are just a few ideas for your new chip carving skills!
The first post features the supply list, wood preparation instructions, and in-depth instructions on how to center and trace a wood carving pattern to a round-top basswood board.
The free pattern is also posted today, June 5th, 2024. So please stop by the project page, and please share on your favorite social media outlet.
What do you do with that old fish tank that has been hidden in the corner of the basement forever? You turn it into a terrarium to display your collection of hand wood carved fish decoys!
Fish decoy carving is an area of whittling that is both easy, expressive, and creative. The lid from your cat food can or leather scraps from an old purse can become the fins of your fish. Copper wire can be made into the whiskers of a cat fish decoy, imitation fishing hooks, or hanging loops.
Coloring options are unlimited. Bright acrylic craft paints color the body of your fish. Now you can splatter it with white dots, dip the tip of a pencil into your color for big dots, or use the very edge of a shader brush to make ragged lines.
Just want some fishing patterns for your next pyrography or relief wood carving project … Visit my pattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com, Fishing Category
