Part 4
Having blocked out the whole quasi-perpendicularly, that is, in one direction or on one side, proceed to cut away the most apparent hollows or depressions. With care and measurement even the beginner will soon find his leaves beginning to assume shape. If he has not learned as yet to cut and sweep boldly, he may finish the whole by simply wasting the wood away with straight cutting, aided by the file, riffler, or rasp. In fact, for many beginners, and especially for those who are slow to learn, this straight cutting and rasping is really advisable, because it at least makes them familiar with handling tools, and teaches them how to model and hollow out. Beginners always experience great dread or hesitation as regards hollowing and curving "in the round," but when they perceive that an object is beginning to assume shape they take heart, and when they have succeeded with one or two by easy, certain work, even with the help of rasps, they will carve with more confidence.
NINTH LESSON.
CARVING SIMPLE FIGURES OR ANIMAL FORMS--FIGURINI FOR CABINETS--SIMPLE ROUNDED EDGES AND APPROACH TO MODELLING.
When the pupil has had some practice in carving leaves and similar ornaments in relief, he soon learns to deepen or to cut them higher and higher, and then to model them into form. He may now, if he chooses, attempt some simple animal forms. A bird, a duck, or a hare hanging up, will present no special difficulty to him, firstly, if he will obtain one of Swiss work, already carved in wood, and imitate it. There are few towns where he cannot obtain something of the kind. It is true that much Swiss wood-carving is not at all to be recommended as regards style or finish, but it will do very well for a beginning. The best method would of course be to model a hare in clay after a dead one. In any case he can make a beginning by buying some toy animals, carved in wood and not painted. These are made by being sawn or turned out of wood into the profile section. This is then sliced into many pieces and each of these carved, sometimes fairly well, into an animal. The wool or hair is imitated in the very small gouges or V tools, and sometimes scraped with a rasp, comb, or other tool. After the blocking out such work presents no peculiar difficulty.
The process is quite as easy as regards the ordinary or grotesque animals in Gothic carving. Draw such an animal, Fig. 46 or 48 _a_ or _b_, and having fairly bosted it out, proceed to very gradually round away the edges. If it be, for instance, a serpent, which is everywhere round, this process is very simple, especially if after the cutting we smooth it with files and glass-paper. It will shape itself. Now the limbs of animals, and even of human beings in low relief, may be rounded in this manner to approximate correctness; or to correctness enough for initial ornamental processes. As the pupil proceeds, and improves in modelling and advances to copying--let us say excellent patterns of Renaissance and classic work--he will go far beyond such beginning. But there is in itself absolutely no reason why, if he only draws his outlines correctly, he should not begin by this simple Gothic work.
Whatever a pupil can draw from life or a block, _that_ he can shadow; and whatever he can draw and shadow he can model (or _vice versâ_); and whatever he can model, he can execute in wood; nor would the working it out in sheet brass or leather trouble him at all. This is the best way to work, so much the best that, under all circumstances, and in spite of all drawbacks, every wood-carver should strive with all his heart to learn to draw and model; for in so doing he will learn a great deal more than all three of these cuts put together, for he will most assuredly have acquired a faculty which will help him in anything which he may undertake.
Having learned to sketch out, bost, and round simple figures, I advise the pupil to execute a number of them, with or without leaves and ornaments. He may thus sketch and cut fishes, animals of all kinds, human figures in outline, until he feels a certain confidence and ease as regards their execution.
What the pupil must do, therefore, in this lesson, is to draw, bost out, and round easy animal forms. At this stage let him pay more attention to the few points which constitute general correctness in a sketch than to minor details. I refer to the general distances of the eyes, joints, outlines of legs and back in a horse, deer, hog, etc.
Simple figures may be executed in flat or ribbon-work, or in the lowest relief, as well as in any other work.
The Italian carvers, for cabinet making, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, made great use of _figurini_, Fig. 49, also the ornament on page 60. These were little statues, generally of human beings, from three to five inches in length. They were, in ordinary work, rather sketched out than elaborately carved, but the effect was good; sometimes a hundred of them would be worked into a single cabinet. These _figurini_ were also very freely used in later Roman and Roman Byzantine stone and ivory work, generally as rows of saints or scriptural personages, every one filling a niche under a round arch. These latter were often as rudely and simply shaped as it is possible to conceive, yet, owing to their "making up" or disposition, as subordinate parts they were in good taste. Any carver with a little practice can produce them. Rows of _figurini_ in niches were frequently used for borders, or to surround caskets.
TENTH LESSON.
FINISHING OFF--IMITATION OF OLD AND WORN WORK--WHERE POLISHING IS REQUIRED.
The finishing off of wood-carving depends on what the work in hand may be. If it is a piece of carefully executed foliage, or leaves (and leaves, like _crochets_ in decorative art, is a term widely applied to all shooting out or growing ornaments), it is of course the best plan to finish only with the gouge or chisel, so that the skill of the artist in clean cutting may be evident. But it has become the fashion for writers on wood-carving to insist on it, as a law without exception, that all wood-carving must be finished by cutting; that glass-paper and files should on no account be used, and that a carver should not seek to smooth over the surface of his carving, as if to conceal how his work has been executed. In wood-carving, as in everything else, a true artist does not go by mere rule. He uses what tools he pleases, and finishes as he pleases. He does not confine his work to a single kind, and declare that everything should be limited to that in which he or certain experts excel. An examination of the beautiful and curious wood-carving in the great hall in Venice will convince any one that other things as well as leaves may be carved in wood; and that when these represent, for instance, old books with metal clasps, or household utensils, or arms, imitation may be legitimately carried so far as to polish the surface. Again, it may very often occur to the artist to imitate old and worn objects, such as a pilgrim's bottle, a casket or horn, for age in this way often gives very beautiful and curious effects of light and shadow, polish or roughness, differing very much and very advantageously from the stereotyped uniformity of style of too many schools. All of this requires a wide departure from the no-polish theory.
The truth is that the beginner should indeed _learn_ to cut clean and well, and to do all his work with an edge, without files or glass-paper, but there is no law why he should go no further. A great deal of the beauty of many old objects comes from a certain worn look, by which they have lost some crude defects. We will now consider how such polish may be given.
Draw on a panel half an inch thick, more or less, Fig. 49. Having bosted it out, _very_ slightly undercut the figure, not completely, but by rounding the edge a little. Do this firstly with the chisel, as neatly as possible; then take files. For many places in your work, especially for smoothing grounds where the work is difficult and the curved tool not available, a bent file is most useful, and these may be had of every shape and curve. For rough finishing you may use rasps and large rifflers, for finer work small files. Having brought your work into shape, you may scrape the ground flat with pieces of broken glass or a tool made for the purpose, or a chisel. Then take glass or glass-paper, the former being greatly preferable, and with care finish still more. It may now be advisable to oil all the carving, if oil is to be applied. Lay the oil on with a broad flat brush, but if there are any places which it will not reach, use a smaller paint or camel's hair pencil. Let the oil soak in for a few days in a warm room. Then with a piece of very soft pine wood, rub with great care. The harder you rub the better the polish will be, but also the greater the risk of bending or indenting the surface of the carving; therefore great care is necessary. The longer this polishing is continued the better the effect will be. Workmen often spend as much time in polishing a piece of work intended to be handled as it took to carve it.
It may be observed that in using the glass-paper it is often very difficult to get into certain holes or cavities. These are reached either by making a bit of the paper into a roll, or by folding or rolling it around the end of a stick cut for the purpose. But the most effective way of all is to take a stick, say of the size of a lead pencil, or according to the cavity, round the end with a gouge and glass-paper, dip the end into glue, and, while it is moist, into powdered glass. When dry these make admirable finishers, and they can be again dipped when the glass begins to wear off. Glass may in this manner be put on the ends of old bent files.
When there are figures of animals, or leaves, or bands intended to be thus finished and polished _all'antico_, or to resemble worn work, it is not advisable to put in them too much inside work or _in-lines_. Inside work is, for instance, the feathers on a bird, the hair on an animal, the scales on a fish, the middle lines and veins of leaves. A very few lines to serve as indications must suffice. But the student of old and time-worn carving cannot fail to draw all these conclusions for himself.
The last finish to be given to such work may be executed by rubbing with the hand. This communicates to certain kinds of wood and other substances a peculiar polish, which nothing else can really give.
In a very large proportion of simple flat or ribbon-work the effect is very much increased or improved by polishing the pattern, and leaving the ground rough or indenting it. This is not only perfectly legitimate, but commonly done in marble or metal _repoussé_ of every kind, as well as leather-work, and yet every writer on wood-carving repeats as a duty the injunction that there must be "no polishing," and nothing but cutting. This is, indeed, equivalent to prohibiting the application of wood-carving to furniture, objects to be handled, house and many other kinds of decoration. But, in fact, there are instances in decoration in which paint or dyes, French polish, nails or other metal work, may be most artistically and beautifully combined with wood-carving, as many thousands of relics of the Middle Ages and Renaissance prove.
Polishing a pattern makes it shine, while roughing or dotting a surface darkens it. Therefore, when we want in decoration bold effects of light and shade, we may legitimately polish the parts which are in relief. Elaborately cut work which is to be studied by itself in detail, and not simply as a part of a whole, need not be polished or rough; its finish will depend on the conditions of its design.
ELEVENTH LESSON.
DIAPER-WORK--STAMPED DIAPER-PATTERNS--CUTTING DIAPERS.
That which is called diaper-work is where the ground consists of one generally small pattern frequently repeated at regular intervals. It is so called from the well-known diaper or figured linen cloth, from the Old French _diapré_, meaning the same, from the verb _diapréz_, to diaper, or "diversifie with flourishings" (Cotgrave). The verb, according to Skeat, is from the Old French _diaspre_, later _jasper_, a stone much used for ornamental jewellery. Italian, _diaspro_, a jasper. "_Diaper_, to decorate with a variety of colours, or to embroider on a rich ground" (Anglo-Norman). "There was a rich figured cloth so called" (Strutt, ii. 6), as "also a kind of printed linen" (Halliwell). The latter are still common. It is, however, most probable that the word really comes, as Fairholt asserts, from Ypres, _i.e._, d'Ypres, which was famous for such work. Some writers apply the term to merely dotting, indenting, or roughening a ground, but it is properly applicable to small figures.
STAMPED DIAPER PATTERNS. These may be produced firstly and most readily by means of wood, stamped or punched, Fig. 23 and 27, and a hammer or mallet. Practise with these first on waste wood. It is not at first easy to repeat them at perfectly regular intervals, making one the same as the other. The work is greatly facilitated by drawing lines like a chequer or chess-board on the ground, and making a stamp or diaper in every dot, or all along the lines. Punches for this purpose may be had in great variety. This class of stamped work is very effective for narrow edgings and borders, and on fillets, which would otherwise be tedious and difficult to carve. With but little practice this work can be executed with great rapidity.
CUTTING DIAPERS. There are some patterns which are very easily cut with a single tool, as, for instance, squares, diamonds, and triangles. For these a firmer or chisel is sufficient. The reader will observe that one square, etc., is removed alternately, and another left. In designing or selecting these, or any diapers, care must be taken to choose such as fit together exactly. But any figures of this kind, whatever they are, are well adapted for grounds.
A more advanced style of diaper-work is made by cutting lines with the parting-tool or smallest gouge, unless, indeed, you are expert enough to do it with a chisel or firmer.
This was the commonest kind of diapering on caskets in the Middle Ages. A very pretty effect was often produced by filling these lines with dark brown or black paint. In any case, when oiled, or as they grew old, and dust and oil or moisture worked into them, they became dark. It has already been said that any kind of mere _line_-work can be executed on a smooth wooden surface by means of a V tool, or generally by a small gouge. It may also be effected with a tracing-wheel, or with a tracer, or with any rather dull-pointed instrument. In hard wood of a light colour very beautiful effects may thus be produced.
The next step is to cut lines, and combine with these cutting out and excavating spaces, as in ordinary carving. Nevertheless, it is not, as a rule, a good plan to make diapers too ornamental or elaborate; for this will lead to making them large, and then they will draw attention from the pattern, if there is one, or the main figures. When the whole surface is all diaper, as in a carpet, the diapers may be as large and as elaborate as one chooses to make them.
There is but one general rule for designing the diaper. Draw a chess-board, and then by diagonals convert these into "points up and down," squares, or triangles; or fill the equal spaces with equilateral triangles, hexagons, circles, or pentagons, etc.[1] These may be filled in with any suitable decoration. In Fig. 50 portions of the original surface of the panel have been left as ridges to separate the diapers, and then every one of the latter has been carved with the same ornament; a rather advanced example, but cut only in moderate relief. Another plate, Fig. 52, gives a variety of suitable figures in low relief; some two or three of these should be chosen and repeated in regular order in neighbouring spaces.
[1] To draw these and ornament them, consult "Drawing and Designing," by C. G. Leland; London, Whittaker and Co.
Where the main object is simple decoration of surfaces, plain diaper-cutting is an important industry, and one by means of which, with no very great degree of skill, beautiful results may be obtained. Thus, large pieces of furniture, chests, and especially walls or wainscoats, may be expeditiously adorned by means of it, even by one who is far from being able to carve in the round or cut leaves. It may be very much facilitated in many ways. One of these is to cut out the patterns in duplicate, many at once in paper, paste them on the wood, and carve round them. Then wet the paper, and thoroughly remove it with a stiff brush. Another plan is to cut out the pattern in card-board, thin brass, or wood, and stencil it with a lead pencil or colour which will wash off. Then cut away as before. It is extremely easy, when we have once cut a certain figure a few times, to go on repeating it, and beginners can, therefore, with great advantage, be set at diaper-cutting, since they thereby acquire not only a familiarity with the use of the tools, but by dint of repetition familiarize themselves perfectly with at least one process; for the greatest trouble in all arts and studies is, that they do not, at any early step, sufficiently master any one thing.
TWELFTH LESSON.
BUILDING-UP, OR APPLIQUÉ WORK.
It will often happen that in carving, while most of the work is on a level, some portion, generally the centre, will rise above the rest, or project beyond it, illustrated by Fig. 52. It would often be a waste of wood and time to cut this out of a single piece. In such cases we merely glue an extra piece of wood on, and carve it into shape. Sometimes in carving a face, only the nose, and perhaps the chin, require to be added. It is said that this method of gluing wood on to wood to obtain additional relief was first extensively practised by Grinling Gibbons.
In Germany this addition of a central "boss" is so well understood, that in many shops they sell heads or faces of men, women, or animals, wreaths, and similar centres or bosses for carvers who can execute flat or ribbon-work, but not high relief. In this way very ornamental or showy pieces of work may be executed with the least possible pains and expense. In the same manner a piece of old carving, or, it may be, several pieces, are taken or saved from some half-ruined ancient specimen, and well glued on a sound piece of old wood exactly like them in colour and texture. This is then carved in the same style. In this way really valuable work may be easily made, for such half-decayed pieces of old carving are too often thrown away, and may often be purchased for a trifle.
Still, this method of _appliqué_, or applied wood on wood, though it may be resorted to in certain cases to save a great deal of cutting and material, may be carried too far, when it degenerates into mere manufacture.
_Appliqué_ work of this kind falls still further into manufacture when it consists of thin boards, cut into patterns with a fret or scroll-saw, worked up with gouges, and then glued on wood. This is plain imitation. Yet it may be borne in mind, though most writers on the subject deny it, that while it is absolutely _not_ high or legitimate art, there is no law and no reason against it; and if a man can contrive no better way to ornament his house, he is perfectly in the right in doing so, if he thinks fit. And if he can afford the time, skill, and materials, he will probably advance from _appliqué_ work to something better. In any case he will have learned something by it, and it is worth learning. It is too often the case with high art critics, that they exact that everybody _must_ have finished taste and _high_ perceptions all at once, with no regard to expense.
The pupil may now attempt an easy piece of _appliqué_ work. Take a panel, Fig. 52, and trace on it the pattern. Leave a blank flat space of the original surface, called the "seat," for the figures, of their precise size, and then work out the ground. Where this consists of a _diaper_, it may be made either by carving or by stamping. Having finished the diapered ground, saw or cut out the figures, glue them into their places, and carve them; or the carving may be executed before the application.
_Appliqué_ work is liable to the objection, especially where large surfaces are laid on, that two pieces of wood are seldom of _precisely_ the same quality and texture, and that, therefore, they may sometimes afterwards shrink or swell in different directions, with the natural result of warping and splitting. This is sometimes remedied by using screws as well as glue; but the best preventive of such accidents is to cut both the ground and the piece glued on to it from the same piece of wood, of course perfectly seasoned.
In many cases frames or borders may be _appliqué_ or glued on. If the work be intended for an album or book-cover, the frame may be made a trifle higher than the central ornament, to protect it from being scratched when lying with the face on any surface. This will not be necessary if it be used for a panel in the side of a box or in a wall.
THIRTEENTH LESSON.
CARVING IN THE ROUND.
Carving in the round is cutting an object which is finished on every side, as a bust or statue. It is in fact "statuary." It seems to be very difficult work to a beginner, but the pupil who has mastered the rudiments which are laid down in this book, and who can measure and cut a low relief of an inch, or a high relief pattern of two or three inches, will find no trouble whatever in carving something small in the round, and in progressing from this to something larger. The steps in wood-carving from hammering an indented pattern to carving a statue are perfectly defined, and very easy if they are thoroughly mastered one at a time.
Carving in the round will be least difficult to the one who can model his work in clay or modelling-wax. This is especially easy if he alternates carving with designing and modelling; it is, in fact, so great an aid to carving, that there should be little of the latter without it. He who has modelled anything in clay or wax has, in a way, carved it in a soft material, while true carving is only modelling with gouges and chisels.