[Woodcarver] Latest St. Joseph Carving

[Ivan Whillock]

 >>I looked at your St. Joseph statue and I would like to know what 
"polychromed" is and how do you do it?  I do like the painting and colors of 
him.
Merrilee<<

Hi Merrilee, 

"Polychromed" is just a term generally used in sculpture-and in other arts-meaning "multi-colored"   Monochroming is applying one color, (as in staining the wood with burnt umber, for example), and polychroming is applying many colors.  That's generally a bit more descriptive than saying, as is common in wood carving shows, that it's "painted." A painted statue need not be polychromed: it could be painted with only one color.  Also, the term is a bit more flexible for art description purposes:  polychroming (or monochroming, for that matter) can be done any number of ways, not just with paint. 

For the St. Joseph I used artist's oil paints thinned to the consistency of a wood stain.  I brushed it on, then immediately wiped it off to let the wood grain show through.. In addition to white, I used umbers and raw sienna, colors that tend to be fairly transparent and reflect the tones already in the wood.     Since white makes other colors opaque, I do not add it to any of the other colors, and, because it is opaque, white must be applied in thin coats to keep it from obscuring the grain. I used no color at all on the flesh areas.

I like the technique because there are areas where there is no paint at all,  and, where there is, the wood "shows through."

Ivan Whillock Studio
122 NE 1st Avenue
Faribault, MN  55021
Visit my website at
http://www.whillock.com
Visit my Picture Trail album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=ivancarve
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