Art & Woodworking: How I relief carved an Elf. Complete process with pictures.

tomtinderbox (55)in #art • 8 years ago

The Elf

Relief carving is a type of woodcarving in which figures are carved in a flat panel of wood. The figures project only slightly from the background rather than standing freely.

More recent carvings: Wolf Face & Gangster Owl

(1) The elf hanging on the wall like a painting.

(2) The elf against a black background.

The pictures above are the results of at least fifty hours of work. Even though I think this piece turned out pretty good, I’m by no means a professional woodworker. I’m still learning and that is the sole reason why I would like to share my woodworking process and progress with you Steemers.

Process.

The first thing that I do before I start a new relief carving, is asking myself what I would like to learn. Organic shapes. I wanted to create organic shapes. Hair, flowers, maybe even facial structures. The elf is originally an art piece by Kellee Riley.

(3) The original drawing transferred to the wood.

(4) I started working on the rose since that would be on top of the hair anyways, so safe to start working on, while planning on how to do the hair.

(5) Slowly I continued working on the hair. This was my first making hair structures. I fixed some of these lines later in the process.

(6) This is the moment I realized that I should make the lines way finer. You can clearly see the difference.

(7) I started to feel really confident doing these smaller and finer cuts. I created the wave effect by lowering smaller parts around the different flaps of hair.

(8) I had one problem though. How do I create layers in this carving? Both the owl and wolf had clearly layering going on. This carving however has none. I started to remove a little bit off wood around the edges of the hair and face. You can see it smoothed out, making the elf pop. You can also see that I fixed some of the earlier done hair structures.

(9) This is the carving after a bit of sandpapering. Carving out the face was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m still not really happy how the eye turned out, however, I think her nose and lips are spot on. Glad she popped in the end.

Next.

I still have no idea what my next project is going to be. I might even make something special for the Steemit community. Let me know if you have an idea on what I can make, and I’ll definitely consider it. Just leave a comment on this post so we can discuss the possibilities.

End.

For those that are unaware, I do also stream all my woodworking endeavours live on Twitch.tv. As of right now I’ll also try to post on this blog at least once every two weeks. Interested in supporting and following my efforts of becoming a better woodworker? A follow on Steemit would mean the world to me.