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Wood Carvings
| Visualizing |
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Some people say, tongue-in-cheek, that wood carving is easy: All you have to do is to remove the wood you don't need. True enough, I suppose. If you coud just see what wood is not needed. It's really a visualization problem when just seeing isn't enough. The vision must be mental.
If you're working from a photograph, your mind tells you what is behind the image you are carving, but you can't see it. If you carve it, your mind must see it first. If you look with your eyes, your perspectives may go awry. Sometimes your sense of touch is better at helping your mind create a visual image. For carving people, I struggle with visualizing hair. My wife had to help me understand the feel of braided hair; I cound'nt translate the sight into three dimensions. Often with carving the hands see better than the eyes.
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If you're working from a pattern or drawing, the flat two-dimensional image does not describe how to capture the light that gives the carving its apparent depth and perspective. You have to see the lighting change the effect as you remove then wood. It helps to have good, directional lights. The sketch at the left gives little guidance about the wood to be removed.
