[Woodcarver] (no subject)

[Bill Judt]

Mary Jo:

Even by the time I was an experienced carver, trees "stumped" me. They 
have shape and texture which is hard to understand, much less reduce to 
texture and relief. I knew that before I could "branch out" as a 
carver, I needed to figure out how to carve them.

It was "knot" without considerable thinking that I managed to do this. 
Actually, a picture of a white pine carved in relief, which I noticed 
in one of Tangerman's many books, helped me solve the puzzle.

First, there is the shape.  A basic shape of a tree consists of a 
silhouette with holes through which light manages to pass. The 
silhouette includes the leaves, branches and trunk. There is not other 
detail to a silhouette except the perimeter and the white spaces where 
the background shows through. A tree must eventually be reduced to a 
silhouette.

The silhouette consists of two other silhouettes - simple areas of 
leaves and branches/trunk. By simple I mean that the collection of 
leaves must be reduced to an area. So must the branches/trunk. Think of 
the leaves as being one silhouette and the branches/truck as being the 
other silhouette. Place the two silhouettes over top of each other and 
what you have is a tree reduced to a silhouette.

Now that the tree has been reduced to a silhouette, you can make 
decisions about the branches and leaves - where they are in front or 
behind each other. Sometimes branches pass through an area of leaves. 
Other time the branches can be clearly seen.

Next, decide which parts of the tree are closer to you and which are 
farther away. The farther away any object is, the deeper it must be 
carved. I usually assign a number of depth layers to a tree. Each layer 
is separated from the one above or below by 1/8" or 1/4" as the case 
may be. The leaves and branches near the perimeter of a tree are 
farther away than the leaves and branches nearer the centre of the 
tree.

I do not carve individual leaves. Leaves must be reduced to a texture. 
I use various gouges to create the texture, and try to orient the tool 
cuts so that they follow the shape of the tree.
Branches are first rounded at the edges, undercut and then smoothed. 
Finally they can be textured with a veiner or a v-tool, as is your 
preference. The tool marks on a trunk start, say, on the left side of 
the trunk and move across to the right side at a gentle angle. They 
should not run parallel with the sides of the trunk.

Undercutting leaves, branches and trunk help make the tree more 
realistic, though sometimes the undercutting can be a little tedious.
Take a close look at some of the pictures of trees I have carved. They 
are in my books but also online (bigger images).

Let me know if all this has been helpful.

Blessings and Peace,

Bill

W.F. Judt,
46 Harvard Cres,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
S7H3R1
PH: 306-373-6649
Email: bjudt at sasktel.net
Website: http://www.wwwoodcarver.com

On Jul 29, 2004, at 7:31 AM, mary jo tiger wrote:

> To make a DONATION to the Mailing List using PayPal OR regular mail, 
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> Hi everyone,I'm just starting out on relief carving and I"m having 
> problems making my grass and leaves on my trees look real.I have Lora 
> Irish,Bill Judt and Georg Keilhofer books in my library but I think I 
> need some hints.I'll take any advice that would help me break thru the 
> block.mjb--joanna45 at hotmail.com
>
>
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