Heroes In Relief

Graham Thompson pays homage to those he admires by carving their faces

People portrait in profile

We all have our heroes. Wouldn’t it be great if we could pay homage to them by carving their likeness in wood? Here’s my story of how I came to the idea of celebrating a whole family in one work. I am not suggesting that you copy me exactly, merely that you consider a single portrait or maybe a duet of an inspiring couple. Carvings in true profile are particularly rare, but you may unearth examples online, in terracotta or plaster. The Parsonage Museum, at Haworth, Yorkshire, has a relief profile work of Branwell Brontë on display. Either way I hope you find my ramblings to be, in some small way, inspirational and helpful.

The Brontës

How or why did so much literary talent converge with a single generation of the Brunty, later Brontë, offsprings? The Irish father and English mother raised six children in a tiny house in the village of Thornton before moving to the parsonage at Haworth. Two girls (Maria, Elizabeth) died early, but undaunted, father (Joe) and mother (Maria) produced four more children. The three girls (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) and a clever but flawed boy (Branwell) were destined to become word machines. Viewed from today their work is verbose but the messages are surprisingly modern. Charlotte’s early masterpiece, Jane Eyre, deals with chauvinism, emancipation, violence, charity and eventually hard-won success for a diminutive young woman. Between them they authored, among others, classics such as Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne). In their tragically short lives, the girls produced masses of novels, poetry, art and even miniature literary gems.

My process

I had determined to produce a work with multiple facial images. I imagined various arrangements of faces and, having discovered that there are no paintings or drawings of the first two daughters, or their mother or even their aunt, who moved from Cornwall to take care of the children after their mother died. Thankfully there are images of the other five family members so I was able to – with a large dollop of licence – recreate their likenesses, in profile, on alternating black and white cards.

Trying the cut-outs in various arrangements on the board surface, I settled on an overlapping cascade from top right to lower left. Starting with dad followed by, in descending age order, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and with Anne turned to the viewer sporting a modern look as a (rather corny?) link between the 19th and 21st centuries. The remaining four female characters (two first-born daughters, Mother and Aunt) are represented in the lower right corner by vague rear quarter bonneted heads looking up towards the main protagonists.

Your process

Even if you are going for the simplest single portrait it’s worth trying the cut-out card method – in various sizes or scales – to determine the best layout and appropriate size of board.

However, assuming that you are able to work straight from a photograph, select and print the portrait then add a suitable grid in pencil, bearing in mind the probable need to scale up or down from photo to board. Actually, in practice, I find that 1cm per square on the photo often translates conveniently to a 1in square on the wood. Then if you number the rows and columns it’s easy to locate the key features with great accuracy. Draw and number the grid columns and rows right to the edge of the material.

NB: Any camera lens setting below – or wider than – 50mm will distort the image. This includes most smartphones at standard zoom, so if you are taking your own photos, zoom in a little and check if it looks OK. Take your pencil and – working from your photograph – mark the following points, assuming a profile pose, on your gridded wood: Highest and lowest points

Point of nose
Bridge of nose
Brow extent – including eyebrow
Mouth extent – probably upper lip
Chin extent
Chin underside – lowest point
Rear of nostril – if you can see it and it’s not hidden by the cheek Front of eye i.e. eyelid – include eyelashes if prominent
Front of eyeball
Rear of eye opening
Ear upper, lower and rear extent
Ear tragus* – the only bit of the ear that is attached to the jaw. It’s the bit you press if you want to block sound from entering the ear canal
*Tragus is the Greek word for a male goat. So called because if/when hair grows here it looks like a goat’s beard.

Now join the dots with pencil markings, concentrating on the outer edge of the face. Using a V-tool, mark the outer edge with a groove, always cutting slightly to the waste side of the line.

Working away from your outline cut a shallow trench with a No.2 or 3 gouge. You will start to see a recognisable face profile. If not you may need to move your lamp backwards to enhance the shadow. The original pencil marks should be untouched at this stage, but in any case, if you have cut at 45° there will always be scope for adjustment back to the line.

Now comes the really interesting bit as you begin to create the facial features. Again using the V-tool, cut this time on the line so marking out the eye which, in profile, looks very different to the frontal view. It’s obvious really but it’s worth doing some careful observation as to just how the eye works. Coins and stamps are useful – observe the details using a magnifying glass. You don’t want to end up with an ancient Egyptian-style eye – or maybe you do, but I don’t think that would work very well here.

While constantly referring to the gridded photo, locate and draw in any other features. You will no doubt notice that some features are not perhaps where you would think or perhaps a different shape. But keep to the plan and things will turn out right in the end. Remember that you are creating a likeness (there’s a clue in the word), not just a human head in profile. Next, again with your V-tool, make a shallow cut along all the feature lines that are ‘inside’ the head. You will now have a fully outlined and featured head.

The real carving begins

Working on an ‘if it looks right, it is right’ basis, try removing a small and shallow piece of material where a feature stands away from the head. The ear is a good subject. The groove that follows the back of the jaw and disappears behind the lobe is a good place to start. Just cut up to the ear’s outer edge and stop. Then cut round the edge of the ear without undercutting* – all that comes much later. How far you can go will depend on the hairstyle. If the subject is follically challenged, then go for it and cut right round the top until you reach the point where ear and skull join.
*Resist the urge to undercut until absolutely sure that it all looks correct.

Redraw the grid and any feature lines/ markers that have been carved out. Working steadily round the other features, make small and shallow cuts to create those all-important shadows. In low relief carving it’s not important to have a linear compression of depth. It’s just necessary for it to look like it is three-dimensional. If in doubt, look again at the work of the Royal Mint engravers. Looking straight on there’s a perfect image of the monarch but from an oblique angle there is virtually nothing there at all.

Vanishing point and all that

Even though we are working in 1–5mm of depth, we can still create apparent depth without using straight lines (nature doesn’t have them – discuss) simply by one line ‘diving’ under another. Think of the disappearing nose obscured by a bulging cheek. Another useful technique is to tighten a curve just before it goes out of sight. The trick is particularly useful with anything that has a regular curve – such as a shirt collar – and how it appears to tighten its radius as it goes behind the wearer’s neck.

Credentials

Keep working round the features, cutting small amounts to create the desired effect. Imagine your work is a painting and you only have two colours: black and white. Mix the colours to get the appropriate shade of grey for each line/step, bump, hollow, crease. Keep looking – there will be many more of these ‘credentials’ than you think. Remember nothing is entirely plain, so if there appears to be nothing showing on your source photo, check the area on your own face. I can guarantee it will not be perfectly flat, vertical, horizontal, straight etc. If all else fails, put something in that’s not there. Try it, a shallow cut can usually be carved out if you are unhappy with it. Redraw the grid and any feature lines/ markers that have been carved out. Time to check the outer edge and sharpen the line, i.e. the disappearing point. When you are sure the edge is spot-on, make the cut vertical and tighten any disappearing curves. It’s also time to tidy any features that meet the outer edge by gently rounding the step between face and background. Add extra rounding where a hollow meets the edge to maintain the illusion.

Rub or carve out any remaining pencil marks and shape the background by creating a gentle slope towards the perimeter, leaving a ‘framing’ border. Oh, I nearly forgot – now is the time to do some undercutting. Try the back of the ear, remembering to leave the edge with an apparent thickness. You could also run your V-tool lightly along the outer edge to enhance the ef fect of distance from the background.

Finishing

Use files, scrapers to achieve a satisfactory surface – not too smooth, small tool marks add to the patina and character. Seal the surface with sanding shellac followed by a very light sanding when dry. Two applications of a good wax polish are all that is required to complete the work. Stand back and admire your work, adjusting the lighting if necessary.

Material

You can use any lightly grained wood, my favourite is sycamore.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRAHAM THOMPSON

Further reading