When I first started carving I wanted to keep my carvings as clean and as crisp as possible. All the extra little lines that appeared here and then when printing, I tried to carve away. As I continued carving, I came to realise that these "carving shadows" actually enhanced the design, and now I use them in practically all my work.
This lesson is going to focus on carving shadows. The particular design shown
here exaggerates these shadows, as a simple starter lesson. Here is the
finished product:
You can refine your shadows, and leave thinner lines, as you grow more
confident with creating them.
I started off with a simple doodle (shown below) - this doodle was taken from
my carving journal - and traced on to carving material in the method described
in Carving - The Basics.
Taking my small carving v-blade, I carved a thin line all around the shape of
the doodle. Then I moved on to a larger v-blade tool, one which gives me wide
cuts - experiment with widths of blades to see which ones suit you best. This
larger v-blade I use constantly to shape the carving shadows in my work.
There are no rules here - take your larger v-blade and carve away the
non-printing areas - follow the lines of your original doodle shape as a guide,
but feel free to deviate from the line if it seems best to you. Try not to
pre-define the shapes of your shadows - let the v-blade take its course and use
long fluid movements to carve out the shadows. They key to this lesson is to
let your hand move freely - try to disconnect yourself from the real world and
just let go and carve. For easy movement, place the carving material on a piece
of paper, and move the carving round on the paper, this will help to keep your
knife hand steady and smooth.
Once you're satisfied with the carving, then stop, as with painting - don't
overdo it. You'll see here that I stopped short of carving out the top left
hand corner, as I felt that carving out this corner would ruin the composition.
Again, no rules here, but remember to keep an eye on your design as you go
along.
This particular design was finished off by printing it on a background of
acrylic paint smooshed around some card.
Have fun!
