Wood Carving Often Uses Silhouette Art
Silhouette Art can be remembered by many from childhood. Yet its application can be profound in wood carving to bring about beautiful designs.
The key in its use and success is due to how a wood surface has difficulty displaying depth within art. A pure two dimensional design is easier to achieve in this medium.
Silhouettes by nature are strictly two dimensional. It is for this reason why monochromatic art works well with wood.
The popularity of wood burning across the last century owes its success t the fundamental principles of Silhouette Art. Despite the challenges of wood art, it offers a beautiful medium like no other.
Wood offers no depth of field in how an object is perceived. Its contrast is derived from at the minimum of two colors of contrast. In essence it is very basic line art.
If one has interest to reaching beyond the silhouette they could explore sketch art. It is another form that works extremely well in wood design.
A Traceable Silhouette For Art
As a beginner it is easy to take a silhouette and turn it into a stencil. This is essentially what one must do in order to begin practicing.
For small objects this can be achieved by using your printer and cutting out the silhouette. From this very basic childhood experience one can also go to very complex and detailed solutions.
Today software can take images and render them for use as vectors to be carved into wood. This is done when one uses cnc milling.
Not every artist will have this ability yet it is the most complex and detailed way to use silhouette art. While it may be more complex the principle it uses is the same.
It traces the outline. Here very fine decorative lines can be carved to within thousandths of an inch.
This application is not the most common for artists due to cost in equipment. There are more practical and affordable solutions to achieving the detail one desires.
A common alternative way to accomplish this more complex art is through the use of a projector. If one can remember the older 1990’s classroom projectors schools once used then you get the idea.
A design is laid on the glass while light and mirrors simply project the image onto a surface. From here one can freehand trace the art and modify as desired.
There are creative alternatives to getting an outline of the desired art onto the wood. With time and experience one will eventually be able to freehand draw much like a pencil artist would.
This allows the ultimate freedom to alter designs and add as much detail as is wished.
Begin Carving The Silhouette
One must decide what type of wood carving is to be done. If it is to be engraved, the wood art should be rather simple.
The wood is carved so that the artwork is cut into the wood. Material is removed leaving the design set into a deeper portion of the surface. This is the most common way for beginners to learn.
Relief carving is an alternative solution to creating this art. It is no doubt more challenging but in the end you will find if more fulfilling.
In this process you remove material that is not the art. The artwork is left as a relief work.
To better understand this think of how a blind person would use braille. The fingers run across the surface to feel the raised letters.
With relief wood art the principle is the same. The fingers can feel the artwork stand out from the surface of the wood. Whatever was not a part of the artwork was carved away allowing the work to stand out in its detail.
Tools which will help a beginner achieve this can be found in different formats. Traditional wood carving tools are an immense help if not a requirement. Yet modern power tools such as a dremel or router can aid the artist as well.
Cnc applications offer the most for detail and accuracy within wood art. While they can do wonders in carving know that they are not the final solution to the process.
The touch of the hand working the wood is still required.
Scroll Saw Adaptation For A Silhouette
Once a silhouette has been traced onto wood one can use a scroll saw to cut out the art. This can then be used in two ways.
One option is to use the piece which was cut out as the art. This is simple and as a child or young craftsman we often learn this concept.
The second option is to use the wood which the art was cut out from. The outline of the art also exists within this original wood piece.
If you were to take another piece of wood of contrasting color it could be placed behind the the cutout allowing for a unique design. This is often referred to as a reverse silhouette.
The Difference Between A Stencil And A Silhouette
Historically one could say that silhouette art was the result or end product of a “stencil”. While this was not traditionally the way original silhouette art was done, it no doubt became a tool which would be used.
In this way they are in no way equal when compared in historical context.
As time moved forward things began to change due to technology and application. The silhouette became a tool for art much like a stencil rather than being the end product of art itself.
While this idea was never originally envisioned there is no mistaking its impact in areas such as wood art. The silhouette became the foundation for many art concepts.
Within this concept of thinking a stencil is essentially a simple silhouette. The more basic the design the easier a stencil is to make.
If it can be cut out and traced easily the more practical it becomes. With this comes the ability to duplicate the process for small scale mass production. Letters and symbols are great examples of this.
More complex designs are difficult to achieve this speed and ease of use. Artists often will create their own designs or alter existing art that they find for their personal use.
Creating a template to reproduce the same object of art is a little more complex than the stencil.
In freehand work often projectors are used as I mentioned earlier. Yet with this there is not a way to mass produce.
This method is refused by makers who seek quick turn around. Artists on the other hand enjoy this method for it allows for customization on the fly.
This template when created often is the foundation for concept art which they will apply to the finished work. Within the creation process the original template can be altered freehand on the wood.
The idea is to allow more complex design for beauty and realism while allowing for additional creativity if desired.
While historically a silhouette was the final product of art, one can see how easily it has been adapted as a tool for creating new art.
Digital applications allow for far more extensive use with design. Here a silhouette is taken and rendered as vectors for machine cutting.
These vectors can then have additional layers added to them within the silhouette. Engraving names or relief art is possible within these layers. Border design can be made to simulate frames or give decorative lines for objects made.
Additionally multiple silhouettes can be utilized to create 3d standing objects. Each cut out connects and joins for items such as boxes or candle holders replacing lathe wood turning.
Computer driven cutting systems has allowed for silhouette art to step into a new evolution which could never have been envisioned at its peak in popularity.
The History Of Silhouette Art
Silhouette Art began to gain popularity in the mid 18th century and reached its peak in the early 19th century. When paper became more readily available silhouette art became an easy way to create art from real life objects.
Silhouette portraits quickly became collectibles across Europe and America.
Within the Renaissance period a tool known as the physionotrace was used to render an accurate silhouette. It would be in the mid 19th century with the advent of photography that silhouette pictures would become a type of folk art.
The concepts derived from this art form would impact many future styles.
Artist paintings would use this concept for more than portraits. Landscapes and other life objects would become the focus of this art.
The impact of its simplicity and use would play a role well into the 20th century. Disney itself would eventually use simple silhouette art in their early adaptation of cartoons.
Japanese art styles grew in popularity due to their simple designs which also followed these same principles. Zen black and white art are an example of this.
Cultural origins seem to reach across history with many civilizations. From cave drawings to more complex designs.
We find the Greeks and even the Minoans used this art form among others. More advanced civilizations would render this art in sculptures and carvings.
Within our modern era realistic art has come to prevail especially through the use of computers and graphics. Yet many artists today still utilize some form of silhouette art.
Its transformation in time has forever changed how art is applied to many daily objects we use in life. While it may not be the same within historical context it will remain as a cornerstone of art.
On an interesting note the name silhouette was derived from a man named Etienne de Silhouette who was a French finance minister in mid 18th Century France.
He enjoyed creating cutouts from real life objects. There is irony behind this man being a finance minister and his name being used to describe this art as “a la silhouette”.
The coined term translated would mean art on the cheap.
Why Silhouette Art Popular In Wood Art?
Its popularity in wood art and other products is due to many characteristics found within wood as well as simplicity in application.
Colorful and strong wood grain by its very nature does not do well with engraving which mimics a drawing. Even with carving the grain can cause the artwork to be hidden if enough contrast in color is not achieved.
Wood by itself is beautiful. It does not need the help of an artist to display what nature has created. Yet as an artist we often wish to use beautiful things to create with.
Natures design requires us to use things such as stain or paints in order to create enough contrast so that art can be seen within the grain.
Once this is achieved the end product is beautiful. Yet silhouette art is what adapts to this art medium better than most others.
In terms of the maker community they have adapted this art to create simple items or objects for quick turn around and profit. Often they do not maximize the potential but rather opt for ease of production.
There is no doubt that modern machinery makes for quick profits. Yet this is only one aspect of a larger process.
Software such as Vcarve was created for those who wish to step into this machining world in a more affordable way with less invested in education. As cnc applications became more readily available these people could create decor with ease.
This is often seen as cheating the system by those who are in fine woodworking or wood art.
Nevertheless it shows how easily adaptable silhouette art can be in wood. It is as if they were made for each other.
No other medium can offer the same kind of beauty when done properly.