Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486149158 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/12/2013 |
| Series: | Dover Woodworking |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 72 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
Read an Excerpt
How to Design & Make Wood Reliefs
By Robert Skinner
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1980 Robert SkinnerAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-14915-8
CHAPTER 1
Analysis of a Free-Form Relief: "Early Forms'
Before plunging ahead to make your first relief, you should consider several elements of the design. By analyzing the first relief in this book you will gain an understanding of what went into its planning that may help to make yours a successful piece.
The total concept for Early Forms (Fig. 7) came from a fondness for simple, even primitive, shapes, together with a respect for the way puzzles fit together. Several line drawings of shapes in various arrangements were made on scrap paper before deciding on this one. Full-scale paper patterns were then cut out, trimmed, changed and arranged before transferring the patterns to wood. In addition to the integrated arrangement of interesting shapes, there had to be variety among the shapes to avoid repetition and boredom, and unity within the arrangement to "hold it together" (variety and unity, you will note, are also essential to life and work as well).
The shapes range from very basic (the egg and the circles) to suggestive (a spoon? a fork? a tool?) to nonrepresentational and new shapes. Relationships of shapes within any design are important to its unity. In this relief seven circles relate immediately to one another even though they exhibit differences in size, color, grain pattern and texture. They relate also to the one egg shape, and to the round hole. There is (or should be!) a conscious or subconscious effort by the observer to find the circle that came from the hole. This positive-negative relationship of circle to hole is reinforced by another shape with an interior hole and the shape that came from it, even though the holes are completely different. Another shape relationship is found among the pieces that partially enclose another piece, such as those enclosing the "spoon" (right of center) and the "egg" (upper left-hand corner). Similar but more shallow enclosures occur at top center and in the lower row of pieces.
Relationships among shapes are the most quickly perceived but relationships of texture, size, value (the amount of black or white in an object) and grain pattern can also be found.
We have already spoken of the positive-negative contrasts found in early twentieth-century reliefs. Such contrast creates tension and gives "life" to a work of art, and should be a consideration in the designing of sculptural reliefs. Contrast can be created in several ways: as a play between mass and space (solids and voids), as a play between light and shadow (mass causes shadows depending on the amount and source of light), as a play between light and dark surfaces (tone or color) and as a play between smooth and rough surfaces (texture). All of these contrasting elements, and more, exist in any work of art, and the degree to which they have been considered by the artist is often the degree to which the work is successful.
Continuing our analysis of Early Forms, we will look at each of these positive-negative contrasts. The play between mass and space (the wooden shapes and the space around them) is perhaps most dynamic where S-curves occur and where space suddenly changes direction. These areas can be found in the lower right quarter, the upper left center, the lower left corner and the center. The areas of more vertical and unchanging direction are more static and less interesting. Where much space surrounds a wood shape (far right center), the "space shape" is lost and, with it, some of the interest.
The play between light and shadow in Early Forms is difficult to see in a photograph, since the observer's point of view cannot change in this case. The particular lighting in this photo was chosen in order to show the wooden shapes as three-dimensional. If the relief had been lit from all sides and the front, shadows would have disappeared and the relief would have looked totally flat. Much is lost in a photograph of sculpture which was made to be seen in three dimensions and which relies partially on light and shadow changes for its effect.
The play of light and dark is more apparent here than the play of light and shadow. Values range from three very light-colored pieces to three very dark pieces. Between these extremes are about four shades of brown (gray in the photograph). These contrasts are subtle and transitional rather than bold and sudden. Contrasts may be subtle or bold in a work of art, although art that relies solely on extreme and sudden contrasts for excitement is often not interesting over a long period. Within some of the pieces the wood-grain pattern, weathering tones and cracks create light-and-dark play as well. Four or five pieces in the relief have very distinct grain patterns. The rest vary from an almost imperceptible pattern to a slight pattern. Again, it is the range and variety of contrasts, both subtle and sudden between extremes, that help determine the interest of a work.
The play of texture between smooth and rough surfaces is related to the variety of grain patterns. The difference is that texture is actually smooth or rough while grain pattern only looks smooth or rough. We are apt to associate a fine, barely perceptible grain pattern with smoothness and a bold grain pattern with roughness. We know, however, that this association is not necessarily true. In planning and selecting wood for a relief, the play between rough and smooth textures can become interestingly complex. This can be seen more readily in the relief Wheels (see Fig. 11), where two parts of the same piece of wood are used smooth and rough as they become elements of a circle or elements of a rectangle.
CHAPTER 2Making a Free-Form Wood Relief: "Integral"
The only way to start your relief is by collecting wood. The more stock you have at hand to select from, the easier it is to combine interesting pieces. In collecting planks and boards, look for variety in grain pattern, color, size, thickness and texture. New wood and building plywood are the least interesting for a wood relief, although new wood can be used for contrast sometimes and can be picked up from scrap at construction sites and millwork shops. Barn boards in all stages of wear and decay are particularly desirable. Pallets and industrial crating can be found everywhere, from urban manufacturing plants to rural farm warehouses. Dumps and landfill areas are gold mines to the sculptor who works with found material. Beaches, bays, riverbanks, and shorelines are continuous sources of flotsam. The stockpile will grow quickly if you are continually on the lookout for wood, picking it up when you find it, even though it may be dirty, wet or of questionable value to you at the time. In these days of energy consciousness and a trend toward wood-burning stoves, you are apt to encounter competition in your search for wood.
Clean the pieces when they have dried (Fig. 8). A wide wire brush will not damage fragile old boards yet will easily remove embedded dirt and flaking paint. Wood that is actually rotting around knot and nail holes should be cleaned vigorously to remove all the rotten material. Such pieces often have considerable character but must be handled with care. Brush pieces only in the direction of the grain. A wire brush wheel on your power drill will quickly wear depressions in any wood surface and should not be used. A variety of tools is available for removing nails: a claw and rip hammer, a pinch bar with nail slot and claw, and a cat's-paw. All of these tools should be used with a large, flat scrap of wood as a fulcrum for leverage and as a pad to protect the surface from tool marks. Where nails cannot be pulled easily, they may be driven out from the back with a nail set, or broken off in the wood. Unscarred nail holes and the natural marks of wear and decay can enhance a relief, but artificially made distress marks usually look as fake as they are.
If wood must be stored out of doors, it is best stacked vertically and loosely in a corner where it can't be blown over. Sun and rain will continue to change exposed surface color, although not appreciably unless the wood is exposed for many months.
If you have worked with wood extensively, you are already aware of its limitations. If you are just beginning to work with wood, you'll have to learn what it will do and won't do. Thin necks or narrow bridges across the grain will break easily, particularly in old wood. Try to avoid them in designing your own reliefs. Tight knots may be featured in a shape rather than cut through. Not only is a knot likely to loosen and fall out if cut through; the presence of a cut knot indicates that the sculptor is somewhat insensitive to his material.
To begin the relief Integral, study the photo of the completed work (Fig. 9) and the diagram of lettered template pieces (Fig. 10). The actual templates, with the corresponding letters, will be found in the heavy-paper section of this book. Cut out the templates and place the larger ones on a few pieces of your collected boards. The long axis of the shape should correspond with the grain of the wood. Try each of the large templates on several boards until you have found the area of a board that is most compatible with the shape. Use knots, nail holes or other unusual features sparingly within a couple of shapes. Avoid taking shapes from the same board that will be next to each other in the finished relief. Use from four to six different boards selected for their contrasting colors, grains, thicknesses and textures. Both texture and color can be altered by sanding the faces of some pieces after they have been cut out. This will reveal light, fresh color beneath a weather-stained or worn surface. As you continue to lay out the remaining templates, refer frequently to the photo of the finished relief to assure that there will be a variety of relationships and contrasts. No area of the relief should dominate attention but all areas should command some interest.
Tack the templates in place with push-pins and draw around the larger ones on the boards with a soft-lead pencil. Remove the templates and cut out each shape with a saber saw or band saw. (On particularly fragile wood the shoe of the saber saw will crush ridges and leave marks that cannot be taken out. To prevent this, clamp a thin sheet of pressed board such as Masonite over the wooden board and cut both at once.) As each piece is cut out, lay it in its relative position on a full-scale sheet of cardboard. Using this care throughout construction will help avoid mix-ups and damage. Continue to cut out the rest of the shapes. Where necessary, pencil marks can be erased and the cut edges sanded on a belt sander, sanding wheel or block.
At this point the box frame must be made (see Section IV).
If your shapes have been cut from found wood, they are undoubtedly of different thicknesses, a factor you considered in selecting the boards. They do not need to be mounted at different heights from the backboard unless still greater height contrast is desired. In either case, shapes should not be raised so far from the backboard that they protrude above the depth of the frame or reveal the posts on which they are mounted. A ½" or ¾" space between the pieces and the backboard is enough to give the pieces a floating quality.
Posts should be set about ¼" into the pieces and into the backboard, so posts of. 1 or 1¼" in length should be cut from a ¼" dowel. Plan on two posts for most pieces, three for the largest pieces and one post for only the smallest pieces. Bore ¼" holes ¼" deep into the back of each piece, locating the holes near each end of the center axis to keep the posts from being seen. A drill press with a depth stop is best for truly aligned holes, but a hand or power drill can be used. A piece of masking tape around the drill bit serves well as a depth gauge. If the wood is fragile, the hole may have to be bored deeper (and a longer post may have to be cut). Before tapping the post into its hole, squeeze a little wood glue into the hole for permanence. Lay each piece on a padded block when mounting posts to avoid marring the face.
Locating the holes for the posts in the backboard is apt to be the most difficult step of the construction. Start with corner pieces. Place small scrapwood "spacers" against the box-frame walls. (Quarter-inch plywood scraps cut into 2"-by-4" pieces are very useful in any shop as wedges, clamp pads and, here, as spacers.) When the spacers are in place, brush a thin layer of colored paint on the ends of the posts of the corner piece. Position the piece precisely within the spacers and press it down against the backboard. Paint marks will be left where you must drill for the posts. Use a hand or power drill with masking tape around the bit as a depth gauge. For maximum accuracy, put the bit directly in the center of the paint mark and press down gently before pulling the drill trigger. Squeeze a bit of glue into each hole and tap the piece lightly into its holes with a rubber mallet. Continue to mount pieces in a logical order, working from the outside toward the center, and from the larger pieces to the smaller. Where holes are slightly off, whittle the end of the post a bit to correct the alignment. Absolute precision is not necessary, of course, but spaces should not vary so much as to be disturbing or appear to be mistakes. Pieces can be trimmed if spacing seems crowded, or a new piece or two can be cut if too much space is left as you get to the last pieces. When all the pieces are mounted and the glue is dry, your first relief is done.
CHAPTER 3Making "Wheels"
The wood relief Wheels (Fig. 11) introduces at least four elements not found in either Early Forms or Integral. First, the shapes are geometric (circles, arcs, rectangles) rather than nature-related. Second, each rectangle also forms part of a circle (or two circles); conversely, each circle is made up of three or four pieces of rectangles. This totally integrates the composition: circles do not exist without rectangles to make them; rectangles rely on the circles to relate them. Third, the shapes resulting from the cut rectangles form a pattern of their own distinct from the circles they surround. Finally, there is an element of discovery in the realization that one of the pieces is not a rectangle but is L-shaped. These new design elements, added to the relationships discussed in the earlier chapters, create a totally unified work relying on the actual integration of forms, yet made up of diverse and contrasting forms for variety.
Making this relief of geometric shapes demands more care in marking, cutting and positioning the pieces than in the first reliefs. Since the circles are obviously intended to be perfectly round, they must be marked and cut perfectly round. Likewise, the rectangles must have 90° corners and parallel sides.
To begin, make a box frame with inside measurements between 18" and 24" wide and 24" to 30" long (see Section IV). Making the frame first will assure you of an accurately finished relief.
Next, select short lengths of board from your stockpile, choosing them for their relationships and contrasts of color, texture, thickness, width and grain pattern. It is wise to begin with at least twice as many pieces as will be used. Careful selection will necessarily result in acceptance of the best pieces. Give these pieces the same considerations given those in the last-mentioned relief, remembering that some may be sanded later for lighter values. Before trying to fit the pieces within the frame, lay them on a large white surface in several possible arrangements, disregarding the final size limitations but considering grain direction, final size and shape. This will help you make decisions about the composition. Cut the pieces as you compose, eventually working the pieces down to the correct sizes for the frame. Spaces between rectangles may vary in width as long as the variations don't become so great as to attract attention (the narrowest space in the relief shown here is 9/16"; the widest is 1 1/16"—a variation of ½", yet not immediately noticeable). Spacing widths between the surrounding frame and the perimeter shapes may also vary, but less so because they tend to be more noticeable. It is more critical that pieces be parallel with the sides of the frame; the eye is very sensitive to non-parallel edges or lines that are supposed to be parallel but aren't. The use of spacer blocks between the frame and perimeter pieces, and between interior pieces, as described in the previous chapter is necessary if the relief is to be laid out precisely.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from How to Design & Make Wood Reliefs by Robert Skinner. Copyright © 1980 Robert Skinner. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Page,
Introduction: - Reliefs and Their History,
Section I - FREE-FORM WOOD RELIEFS,
1 - Analysis of a Free-Form Relief: "Early Forms',
2 - Making a Free-Form Wood Relief: "Integral",
3 - Making "Wheels",
4 - Making "Totem",
5 - Making "symbols",
Section II - GEOMETRIC ILLUSIONS IN RELIEF,
6 - Analysis of an Illusion in Relief: "Upstairs, Downstairs",
7 - Making "Upstairs, Downstairs",
8 - Making "Stable",
9 - Making "Corner Cube",
10 - Making"Hole in Nine",
Section III - WOODEN PUZZLES IN RELIEF,
11 - Analysis of a Puzzle in Relief: "How Many Squares Can You Count?",
12 - Making "How Many Squares?",
13 - Making "81 Squares",
14 - Making "Nine and Nine",
Section IV - FRAMING AND FINISHING,
Framing and Finishing,