Woodcarving is an art form that utilizes wood for carving and sculpting. Usually, wood carving is made in the following steps:
1. Selection: Choose suitable wood for carving, such as nanmu, rosewood, etc., with better texture and grain.
2. Design: Design a detailed carving drawing or model according to the demand and theme of the carving.
3. Cutting: Use saws or power saws to cut the wood, cutting the blocks into appropriate sizes and shapes according to the designed dimensions and shapes.
4. Carving: Use tools such as carving knives and carving planes to carve on the surface of the wood block. This can be done step-by-step according to the details of the design, or roughly using a large carving machine.
5. Sanding: Use sandpaper or sanding machine to sand the wood carving meticulously, so that the surface of the wood carving is smooth.
6. decoration: according to the need, can be added to the wood carving on the color, painting, metal inlay or other decorative techniques to enhance the artistic effect of the sculpture.
7. Painting: choose the appropriate wood lacquer to color and protect the wood sculpture, increase the visual effect and durability of the wood sculpture.
The above is the basic production process of wood sculpture, which may vary from one wood sculpture to another. Through these steps, artists can create beautiful and unique wood carvings.
Here’s a practical example of how to make a wood carving
Preface:
Circle is relatively easy to judge the line, whether there is a circle should be a look to know, the circle at the same time is also the fattest and most saturated curves, because the wood carving is to use the method of chipping to reduce the way to judge, just like a crossword puzzle we have to determine the characters to be removed in order to find the subsequent relationship between the lines, like peeling the onion feeling of one layer by one layer to open up.
Almost most of the modelling lines are composed of cylinders, so in the case of not being able to determine the details, we just need to turn the square wood into the most saturated curves first, then we can effectively reduce the scope of judgement, and at the same time, the contact area will become smaller, and then do the details of the adjustment will be relatively easy.
The shape of the seated animal is composed of a round ball on the head and a cylinder on the body, as long as we can successfully trim the circle, understand the way to use the knife and subtractive carving modelling rules, then it is only a matter of time and experience to do more complex shapes.
1.Preparation tools
● OLFA CK2 pointed tail knife – this knife can be free angle change, pointed tail can do detailing, generally this kind of small animal shape of the outer round curve can be handled with a knife.
Bow Wire Saw – There are two types of bow saws: clip type and lug type. Bow saws mainly use bow tension to tighten the saw blade, and this type of clip type is better, and is available at professional wood tool shops or art supply shops for about 150 TWD, and the blade is a consumable.
F-clamp – A clamp used to assist in fixing the woodworker, generally wood tool shops sell inexpensive versions, C-clamps can also be used, depending on the tabletop and the thickness of the wood to determine the size, it will be easier to have this in the sawing process.
●Wood materials – No matter what kind of wood can be used for wood carving, it’s just that the degree of softness and detail is different. The studio recommends that novices use the white wood used to make decorative panels for practice, which is one of the few softwoods in Taiwan that can be used to make details, and camphor wood is also very soft, just that some people will be allergic to it.
2.Three-dimensional modelling design: three-dimensional view
Before making a model, you must know what you want to do before you can think about how to do it, usually design symmetrical three-dimensional modeling will be based on a three-dimensional view of the way to judge the modeling, the front view of the past (front view), the side of the past (side view) and the top down the way to look at the top view (top view).
We only consider the relationship between the plane lines, when making wood carvings, as long as the focus is placed on the centre of the crosshairs to do the overall shape of the judgement, the plane you are sure that you can not use the place completely removed, to achieve smooth lines of symmetry left and right will be able to effectively achieve the effect of modelling.
3.Drawing out the rough outline of the front view
At the beginning of the first four planes of the centre line and the face hope that the most protruding horizontal line as a reference point, and then draw the outline of the body you want to make the approximate shape of the outline of the body, this time you can draw a little larger to make more reservations do not take into account the details, remember to go from the centre of the cross-reference line to determine the symmetry of the front elevation to determine that can not be used to determine the part of the place is the part of the body that can be removed.
4. Primary embryo sawing
First of all, use the F clamp to fix the wood well, use the bow saw to determine the place that cannot be used for sawing, the processing loess of the saw mainly relies on the structure of the teeth to treacle the fibre breakage, the saw teeth are downward as long as the pulling time to exert a little pressure to push the relaxation, to increase the teeth of the saw to contact with the wood will be able to achieve the processing effect, remember to hold the tool steadily to relax the wrist to maintain the level of straight line in order to remove the way to use the plane. Processing removal, do not hold tightly to exert too much pressure to squeeze the saw blade twisted to jam and resistance.
This is called the action of the first embryo, the saw can not be too detailed processing, just remove a large area to find out the approximate shape, narrow the scope of judgement, try to saw outside the line for more retention.
The approximate shape of the sawing is completed to remove the base, remember to pay attention to the direction of the saw to saw a straight line.
5. Tail sawing
base separation and then use the F clamp to fix the body, the tail to determine the use of the place to remove, here the saw will have the angle limit, sawing off a large area on the line, a little bit worse with a knife is easier, if you want to make a short tail as long as the side view to determine the excess part of the saw removed on the line.
After the completion of the four centre line and then fill back as a reference point for judgement, after processing these lines must be retained to help judgement, they are also our contour line, to change the contour should be chipped in the contour line, do not change the contour of the contour line do not move to the contour line.
6. round carving formula
After the sawing is completed, the body will first be cut into a cylinder, you can draw a circle at the bottom first to determine which are the parts that can be removed, subtractive carving modelling rule is to slowly cut the judgement from high to low, so in the case of uncertainty about the details of the time must be the first place that you wish to be most protruding around the place does lower after in order to find the subsequent line relationship, we can know that the curve is composed of polygons, so Side edges are certain to be sharpened, the curve will not have a clear plane present, so the plane can certainly be halved, if the knife can not be the most convex vertex around the vertices do lower indicated that the periphery of the part that is higher than the vertex, then he should not be present.
Once the vertex is found then redo the judgement multiple times from the edges to get the body lines as close to a smooth cylinder as possible.
7. The direction of the knife diagram
wood and other natural materials and other materials is different from his fibre texture characteristics, his structure is like a bunch of chopsticks tightly tied together, in order to smooth modelling on the wood must be fibre does cut off the transverse in order to successfully separate the longitudinal direction, so in the modelling of the direction of the direction of the direction of the knife if the direction is not the right knife stuck into the fibre gap will produce a greater resistance to cause processing difficulties, the wrong way to apply force is also prone to tearing affect the details. If the direction is not right, the knife will be stuck into the fibre gap, causing greater resistance and difficulties in processing.
Simple way to judge the direction of the knife, you can judge from the side view or front view of the plane shape, no matter how to change the shape, the wood structure is always only up and down two directions, in the design of wood carving shape should also try to arrange the fragile lines as much as possible in the straight line above, like the ears here will not be easy to break.
Knife as long as attention to the position of the wood cutting surface, the cutting surface will always remain in front of the blade, from the bottom to the top of the cut will be able to smoothly cut the fibres to the lateral cut, the wood is straight, the blade is also straight, try to the knife and the angle of the grain of the wood is slanting on the cut can be more easily.
The cutting surface is the place where the fibres do not continue to extend and are cut off horizontally.
8. Knife way: sharpening pencils
No matter what the processing loess of the knife is to use the sharp blade to cut off all the things in front of him, he is the way of sliding cut processing, so we must be able to make the knife at the same time to maintain a clear direction of the angle and the force to cut off, at this time the right hand alone can not be done by brute force, we need to control the angle and direction of the force to be separated from the way of sharpening a pencil and peeling apples. We need to separate the angle of control from the direction of force, and use a pencil sharpener and an apple sharpener to cut little by little. As long as the knife can slide smoothly to cut, the risk of snagging into the fibres and causing breakage can be reduced.
When sharpening pencils, use your right hand to pinch the fingers to determine the angle of the knife, relax the wrist to maintain a clear direction, hook the knuckles of your left hand to fix the wood, and use your left thumb on the handle of the knife as the axis and the point of application of force to push the knife blade diagonally upwards for sliding cuts, the key is to use your right hand at a clear angle to determine the angle of the knife and not to wiggle, while the left thumb extends outwards, the common problem is that both hands are desperately pressing down on the wood, wanting to pinch it to burst. The common problem is that both hands are desperately pressing down on the wood, wanting to crush it. If you feel that your hands are shaking and sore, it means that you are applying the force in the wrong way, and think about the processing loess of the knife, ‘how to maintain a clear direction of force and angle of sliding,’ just like cutting a watermelon, you must determine how much you want to cut in order to cut it smoothly, and at first you don’t have to think about the details, and learn to cut it into a cylinder by using the rounding formula, the structure of the wood is more solid, and it is easier if you don’t cut a too large piece of wood at a time.
9. Sharpening pencils focus on
left hand to buckle the wood in the knuckles, so as to free up the thumb of the tiger’s mouth space to extend the push, if not fixed wood, the left thumb will be distracted to fix the wood short, resulting in the inability to push the situation, the right hand pinched with the thumb fine-tuning the angle, do not tightly hold the knife, which will affect the angle of the knife.
First of all, the picture of the right side of the model of the 1.2.3 part of the pencil to sharpen the way into a 1/4 circle, remember to deal with a good part of the round curve to determine the status of the curve as a reference benchmark and then carry out the next part of the modeling, there is a way to carry out the subsequent lines of judgement, in the case of no reference to the basis of the situation of cutting all over the place, it is very easy to miss the hand caused by the chaos.
10. knife way: peeling apples
left side of this side because of the shape of the relationship will be affected by the tail of the angle of the knife, can not be used to sharpen pencils way to transport the knife, the need to use the way of peeling apples, the knife will be hooked steadily in the right hand fingers in the knot to fix the angle (as shown in Figure 11), with the right thumb to block in front of the knife as the axis of the force point, and then the use of the palm of the knot and the wrist of the force of the backward stretching to achieve the action of the slide cut off, the common problems For fear of injury, the thumb does not dare to put in front of the knife to exert force, the palm will block the knife forward, unless deliberately to press the blade, it is difficult to cut the thumb, and the other is afraid of cutting the bad cause of the fingers can not really fix the knife to maintain a clear direction, the palm can not be stretched back, the blade flip wrist stiffness and other issues, thinking about how to maintain the angle of the knife to exert a clear force to cut into the focus.
11. Peeling apples with attention to focus
blade upwards firmly situated in the finger knot, remember to hook the fingers in order to accurately fix the angle of the knife, freeing up the palm and the right hand tiger’s mouth space to achieve the effect of stretching.
The left hand is only to assist in fixing the wood, and the left thumb should not be extended to interfere with the right thumb’s work. Also remember to relax the wrist and draw the arc horizontally with the wrist closed rather than turning it up and down.
12. Neck size correction
body after rounding has really narrowed the scope of judgement, and then from the centre line to confirm the relationship between the size of the neck and the head position, mark the plane contour correction, this time after the contact area is very small, only need to be chipped in the outline of the front view can be easily adjusted, adjusted and then re-drew the line rounding, we can be close to the line we want to be close to the condition of the situation.
The approximate shape of the body has been completed, first put aside until the overall completion of the details to be carved and then adjusted.
13. Tail production
tail is also a cylinder, the same first four centre lines will be drawn on the view of the rounded and then do the front view correction, and finally slowly adjusted with the body to join the natural-looking lines.
Need to pay attention to the direction of the tail curve under the knife, try to avoid tearing the situation. The main reason why we start with the upper view is because it is easier to dismantle the wood with longitudinal straight grain structure.
14. Head up view trimming round
three-dimensional modelling is a flat way to think about the composition, at first do not consider the internal details, first of all, the contour of the up view adjusted to the full curve as a reference point, the modelling of this design is the nose wrapped in a circle, so do not be too concerned about the details of the nose, purely consider the circular contour, remember to observe the overall relationship of the lines from the centre of the cross, first of all, the vertex around the part of the real Lower the shape around the vertex first and then make a judgement on the curve slowly.
When sharpening, think in terms of a flat cylinder, as demonstrated in the picture on the right, the knife must pass through the most protruding horizontal line of the cheeks (the contour line in the upper view).
15. Upper view trimming round focus
To change the contour of the contour on the cut in the contour line, straight through the contour line.
The contour line here is just at the turning point easy to get stuck in the fibre, cut a small piece, try to let the knife slide carefully tear, you can also use the left and right way to peel off the fibre bit by bit, like peeling bamboo shoots will be the blade straight line and wood straight line close to the level of the sliding cut.
16.45 Degree Angle Connection Rounding Direction
The 45 degree angle plane is the diagonal plane hidden in the cube, if you only use the 3D view to judge the modelling, it will become the diamond shape in the picture, then you just need to establish the relationship between these lines by the same rounding formula, then you can effectively achieve the effect of rounding.
These lines are the contour lines of our three views, and they are also the most protruding places that we can determine at the moment. When you cut, you just need to lower the parts around the lines first, and then remove the unsmooth parts in the middle, and then you will be able to trim the rounding effect.
17. 45-degree angle link to trim rounding:Sharpening pencils
When cutting from the position of the line, will be all around the really lower a little bit, and then slowly do the middle line judgement, the curve will not have a plane with the diamond angle.
Remember to keep the knife at a clear angle of depth when cutting, have cut into the wood and then push out.
18.45-degree angle link to trim round: peeling apples
Because of the modelling angle limitations of these two ways of using the knife will certainly be used, remember that the knife must maintain a clear direction of the angle of the slide, in order to effectively achieve the cutting effect, the thumb is the key to the precise application of the key for fear of cutting into the hand can take a thicker finger sleeve.
The thickness of the ear is not quite sure, so only the approximate removal to reduce the contact area on the line.
19.45 degree angle downward direction of attention
from the centre of the radial downward direction, thinking about the focus is around the apex of the part will be lower, the wood structure is always the same longitudinal straight grain, must be cut off horizontally in order to dismantle the smooth.
The nose part is still uncertain, just lower the original plane a little bit, make more reservations and then slowly adjust.
20. Front view head shape correction
Finally, according to the shape you want to do the front view correction, this time after the contact area becomes less, in the cross-section will be easier, remember to knife in a straight line way, really will be determined by the plane can not be used to remove the place.
Measure from the centre line of the cross to determine the symmetry of the left and right, the position of the cross line can also be adjusted according to their own desired face shape to make corrections.
21. Ear notch processing
Judging from the upper view, cut straight down in a V-shaped way for vertical separation, and then finally cut the root fibre horizontally and deepen it slowly in a thin layer.
To cut the clean must first know how much to cut, to cut the stability must have two points of support, wood carving is to draw the lines you want with a knife, the blade will be injured in contact with the place, as a way to judge whether to use pencil sharpening or apple peeling under the knife.
Cut the inner ear and then thin the edge of the back of the ear in the middle more to keep, not to thin the whole ear is less likely to break.
22. Front view details depicted
After the overall modelling is completed, we should seriously consider the details of the style, the same with the plane of thought, the front view of what should be long, the upper view of how much to protrude, the details of the expression of the expression of whether or not to reserve space to adjust and so on, you can start from the simple expression of the details of the exercise to understand the complete subtraction of the rules of the shape and the tool to control the experience of the more complex details of processing more to be able to get started.
23. Decide the nose hand height difference relationship
want to protrude how much will be around how much lower indeed, such as the hand front view size of about 5mm, to make it into a cylinder should be lowered to the periphery of at least 2.5mm more than the way to make a semi-circular sense of three-dimensionality.
Around the nose is also slowly circled out, catch a rough on the line, do more to retain the details of the carving and then slowly adjusted.
24. Decide the position of the hand and the thigh in side view
Wood carving modelling is regular, just like drawing a matchmaker must have a head as a reference base, in order to go from the head to find the relationship between the surrounding lines, doing wood carving is the same, after determining the relationship between the hand and the body, you will be able to determine the relationship between the position of the hand and the thigh from the side view.
Once you have determined the position, you can use a knife to remove them in a flat, courageous manner. Once the thighs have been located, we can use the front view to judge the relationship with the neck line and make corrections.
25. Draw the centre line to repair round
Finally draw the hands and thighs of the centre line of the turning point to draw to repair round, soon close to the shape we want.
26. overall modification lines smooth
all positions are determined to repair round after is finishing, this time the same can be drawn out of the centre of the reference line for rounding adjustments, do the overall judgement can be taken a little farther away from the centre line to judge from the centre line to the front view and the side view of the shape of the relationship, try to adjust to the lines smooth symmetry of left and right feeling will not be too strange, think of ways to fibre flakes to tidy up the clean.
27.detail carving
detail carving is to carve lines in a three-dimensional modeling way to add more rich details, indeed the wood fibers to cut off the separation, carefully pinpoint the angle of the force of the knife, to cut off the separation of the concept of sliding cuts little by little, often at first because of uncertainty about what they want to line exerted too much pressure cracked impatience or dare not do it, affecting the stability of the knife, which requires more time practice and experience accumulation. This part requires more time to practice and experience, if you are not sure you can first practice carving on the wood you do not want.
28. Details of the focus of attention
pictures can be seen when the details of the gesture of the carving, is to take the pen to determine the way the tip of the knife contact position, to the ring finger fixed in the wood as a support point to increase the degree of stability, and then finally with the left thumb to promote the guidance of the knife to move forward, this way of sharpening the pencil to sharpen the apple of the same concept of the wood must be able to control the knife to cut out the lines you want, and at the same time will not accidentally injure the part you want to keep! Therefore, we only need to think about how to use both hands to control the knife to increase the stability of the division of labour, in order to target the structural characteristics of the wood processing can effectively achieve the effect of precision shaping.
29. Quick-drying glue repair
accidentally broken can be used to repair the quick-drying glue (three seconds glue), quick-drying glue divided into two kinds of gel and liquid, gel is suitable for uneven surfaces of the joining operation, liquid can be paired with wood chips to repair holes, quick-drying glue is hard after drying, you can quickly carry out the subsequent processing, if you can not find broken parts, you can also be adjusted through the line for correction or to the AB soil. Shape.
30. sandpaper modification
seams at the turning point will inevitably have clean debris, this time you can use 180 or so sandpaper folded to remove the picture of this white sandpaper is more suitable for irregular shapes, paint line can be bought.
31. Acrylic painting Acrylic
colouring can use easier to operate acrylic paint (Acrylic), general stationery shops can be purchased, acrylic paint diluted with water itself has a high degree of transparency once do not paint too thick, as far as possible, the pigment will be pushed equal to the pigment dry after stacking a few times on the presentation of a more saturated tone, this part is just to paint their favourite colours, interested in the painting of the Friends can go to the library to refer to the relevant techniques book.
32.Accessory Decoration
Dressing it up with other materials at the end can give the wood carving more warmth.
