Acanthus leaves..... the old stand by.

[Mark Yundt]

If I didn't carve Acanthus leaves I'd be out of business.
With this last minute addition to a job I figured I'd show how I go about doing a set of left and right onlays. It's not too in depth but hopefully it gives you some ideas to try.
In this "installment" I'll show the basic layout which is very common to all designs. Lets face it, they are merely variations of one another and can easily be adapted to any situation. That's what makes this design so versatile and useful when you have to fill up a space with some sort of carving.

True to any design regardless how simple or complex is the basic line that flows through it. I always lean on a version of an S curve. If you stand this design on end you'll see it immediately. This design lets your eye flow from one end to the other and keeps it moving without break. Also it's a natural shape that if you stand it with the larger end on the bottom you can almost make out a Swans neck, head, body and wings sweeping back from it. Trust me, it's there.

Now most designs of this sort start from a curl of some sort and spiral out from it. I'm keeping this basic so the center of my swirl is a simple round button type shape. I just loosely freehand start a spiral and let the design expand from there. In this case it starts from the right , gradually opens and sweeps across to what could be a base line and then returns on itself.
As the design expands I keep sweeping lines from it to give me a general flow of the design and where it's going and this is where I'll build additional leaves.
Now most designs you see commercially done tend to look like they were done with a compass. Don't do that. They look too rigid and stiff. And if you think about it, an acanthus is a sort of lettuce looking plant. If it were coiled or draped gravity would play on it and not allow it to curl in a perfect circle. In this case the center button of the piece adds "weight" to the look and hence makes it droop. The center isn't in the center as you will see.
This also allows the piece to be used in either position. In one case the center of the design will droop and the rest of the design sweeps away from it. From the opposite view the rest of the design will fall away from it.
In these sequence sketches you can see the elements of what I was looking for. I just let my hand flow with the pencil and let the lines fall gracefully. As the design starts to reach across the page the lines gradually shift their direction from wanting to continue to follow the spiral to starting to stretch to the terminal end.
At the terminal end you 'll see that the leaf wants to curl again,, or is curled and wanting to straighten out. Think of this as how a fiddle head fern grows.
Maybe I'm writing too much and trying to let you in on what's going on in my mind and I should let the sketches talk for themselves.

[Mark Yundt]

Now that you've seen the sketches you can see how the first leaves coming off the swirl want to curve back into the circular beginning. The third leaf ( from the right) points nearly straight down. The fourth leaf it starting to go in the direction of the rest of the design. And what would be the 5th leaf actually becomes the link to the terminal end of the design. the final leaf, emerging from within the last leaf curls as if it's almost a hand curved on itself. Curl your own hand into almost a tight cup and then try to curl it into your wrist. the basic shape of what you did is found in this design. You can almost imagine as the leaf continues this final leaf will "unwind" and stretch out as well.
That's the basis for this design.

[Mark Yundt]

Now once I have a design ( and it's approved) I need to transfer it to the wood. Pretty simple I know but if you're new to this I 'll describe the way I do it for a left and right mirror image design.
The simplest way I think to make a mirror image of a design is simple. I like to use old fashioned carbon paper. Now as I attach the drawing to the stock I place two pieces of carbon paper , back to back under the design. Now when I trace the design onto the wood the exact same image is, at the same time copied to the back of the original. Cool huh?
So I continue tracing the design and when done , I turn it over and I have an automatically transferred design in the mirror image. Now just lay this on a second piece of stock and trace away with just one sheet of carbon paper.

Now it's just a matter of band sawing /jig sawing them out. Where I can't access the design with a band saw because the cutouts are within the perimeter of the design I use a jig saw. Drill a few holes for access and I'm good to go. Now one thing I did in a case like this where the center button of the design is rather fragile I leave a small bridge to act as a support while carving. Since it's small it's easy to cut off and finish after nearly all the other carving is done. Based on experience this is an area that always wants to snap off. This helps solve that problem. Though having a carving like this snap into pieces isn't really a big deal. In some cases to eliminate a lot of jig sawing, I'll purposely snap carvings into pieces so I can just use the band saw to do faster and more accurate cutting out. Works like a charm. And a snapped piece glues back together flawlessly. Imagine , or actually snap a pencil in two, now push the pieces back together again. Fits pretty well doesn't it? Same thing with carvings like this. Go ahead,, break them on purpose. Makes your life easier.

[Mark Yundt]

I happen to be using a hydraulic swivel vice but there is no reason you can't use a flat bench top. I did for years.
In this case I attached the carving to a chunk of smooth ply with carpet tape. Don't use the stuff that looks thin like skin. You want the stuff that looks like cloth.
I also cut off the extra plywood as it just gets in my way. Not very elegant looking but it's just holding a carving. Not pretty but it works for what I need.

[Mark Yundt]

Now just to make life easier I used a router to remove areas of the carving that I know will be deep and away from the surface. 5 minutes with a router rather than how much time with a chisel to just remove extra stock.
Just get it out of the way quickly as there is more than enough here to spend time carving rather than waste time and effort removing waste stock.This area,, especially the inner surface of the spiral design is most like a stalk of celery. You have to imagine a stalk of celery on its side and curling around on itself. That's what this part of an Acanthus looks like and does.

The most important time in carving is getting the basic form right. Too many times most people will try to start carving looking at the details. That's where most carvings fail and you can readily see it in the final product.
They look flat, lifeless, there isn't any movement. At the worst case you can still see the block the carving was started from in the final piece. Remember ,, everything falls within the parameters of the design and the way it moves.
For example consider a cluster of grapes. You've seen them. Now imagine carving them.
Do you start carving individual grapes? Nope. You don't unless you want the cluster to look like a block of wood. So what do you do?
Well imagine wrapping the cluster in Saran Wrap. Not to distort it but just to cover all the grapes as closely as possible yet span across all of them. That is the first shape you carve. What the grapes look like wrapped in Saran. The image would improve if the saran wasn't transparent so imagine it opaque. Got it? Good. You can imagine all the grapes in the cluster within this shape. Now you'd carve the individual grapes themselves and you'll end up with a natural looking grape cluster.
That's how you carve the form first and the details last. That's why I said carving the form ,, the overall shape is the most critical point in carving. Doing the details is the easy part.

[Ryan Mooney]

Good stuff Mark. Really appreciate you taking the time to break out the steps like this, really really helpful.

[Mark Yundt]

Hopefully you can make sense of it all. I'm so used to doing it that when I try to spell it out I'm afraid it all turns into gibberish! In my head it makes sense but that's only my perspective.
If I confused anything don't be afraid to ask.

[Brett Luna]

I'll have to give this thread a close read later. I'm also an occasional leather worker and it's nice to see the familiar acanthus pattern in wood.

[Roger Strautman]

You are wonderful teacher Mark! I'm working on my 10 Commandments and want to carve floral on the scroll but by way of chip carving. Floral is way out of my design box but what you just gave me will help. Thanks!

[Mark Yundt]

Thanks guys.
Acanthus has found its way onto everything from the early Greek's using it on their capitals and panels carved in marble, to wood , leather and even the engravings of shotguns and cutlery. It's a versatile form worth learning.

and Roger, please be careful when working on your project . You don't want to break any of them !!! Yuck -yuck . I just had to say that

[Paul Kasman]

Thanks from me, too. That is really interesting and great advice, to think of the object wrapped up initially. What kind of router are you using? A trim router with a small straight bit, free-hand, or what set up exactly. Thanks.

[Mark Yundt]

In this case I grabbed my Porter-Cable. I built a lucite base for it as it's more stable in situations like this and also aids visibility. I used a straight 3/16 bit. I also like to use trim routers as well which also has a wide base on it. In these situations like this it's all free hand.
Not sure if you saw it but the tree I built got a lot of router work as well. Ironically it's back in the shop now for more work.

[Mark Yundt]

I finished the carving today and got the second one roughed in and will continue carving it this evening.
So.
Once the router work was done I used a #2 -12 to start roughing it it. The actual chisel doesn't really matter. It could have been a #1,3,5,etc.I don't really care as I'm just removing stock. Here I'm only trying to do what I discussed earlier. Not find details but to simply get each of the leaves moving, getting the swirl to look like the stick of celery I described by just rounding over the outside radius of it.
Now here is something to consider. If I did the swirl all on the same plane I don't feel it would look right. As something like this unwinds, gravity, weight ( thinking as if it were a real leaf) it would be on different levels. So what I do to this area is make it undulate. From the center button it drops slightly ( the thickness of the stem) , rises, falls and then rises again. This just looks better and when mounted will catch light differently , cast different shadows and not look so rigid and uniform in its depth.
You can see the photo of the pencil which is sitting on the center button and how the remainder of the swirl is lower in sections and high in others.
I also like to get the main surfaces of the leaves moving in different directions but it's not an arbitrary decision. Some nearer the original swirl tend to tip inward towards the curves. The leaves that are mid way out will lay more flat and the ones that are further away will tend to go towards the terminal end. This adds a nice variety again without making them all look stiff, flat and uninteresting. Even in a small carving this adds so much to it without it looking like some machine or laser just burned out a profile of the piece.
And when you are carving a piece like this it can be handy to pencil in the lines you just carved away to have a good reference where the next cuts will be. In some area you may want to keep the fuller such as where the eyelets are. But then again with whatever surface you have, everything else is just below that level so there is always enough wood to finish a carving.
Even though this has only seen one chisel I tend to think you can see just how the leaves are laying,, how the swirl is appearing to open up, the curl at the terminal end is starting to show just what it will be and the only thing done is to remove some waste wood. This tells me I'm finding the form.

[Mark Yundt]

Once the basic shapes are found I start to lay in the primary lines that give the leaves direction. These are very close to the initial lines I drew just on the paper. These establish the lines, the rise and fall and the main stem of each leaf. Visually it is what gives the piece it's flow. It's what your eye follows.
Using just a V too I lay in the stems and watch for odd kinks in the lines. They should be smooth and graceful looking.

The main surfaces have only seen a V tool and the #2. I did use a 8 or 9,,, something really curved to start cleaning out the inner curve of the swirl. My celery stick!

[Mark Yundt]

Now here I start to refine each element of the leaf. The various off shoots , extra leaves and basically do the same thing I did to the entire piece just on a smaller scale. They too rise, fall , sweep off in different directions but still they have to remain cohesive to the entire piece. Nature can get away with all sorts of odd things, but in a carving it has to have an overall flow.

It would be silly of me to say at this point " use a # 8 to carve this leaf,, a #7 to do this,,, bla, bla ,bla because chances are you are not carving this exact piece. Even so,, you wouldn't have to use that exact chisel any how! If you have some common sense you'll probably realize very quickly that if you want a deeply curved leaf you'll use a deeply curved chisel. If you want something with a deep crease like the center vein of the leaf you won't use a flat chisel,, no ,, you'd use a V chisel.
If you look at a carving you'd like to use as an example,, or try to carve,, simply look at the curves created it in and it will tell you what chisel to use.
Besides,, you can make a # 3 carve like a 5,, a #7 can make the same basic cuts as an 8 or 9 depending on its size. No one chisel ever makes just one cut. Now how,, no way. And each leaf in this example isn't made with one pass of say a #8 chisel.

Also you'll notice that one section is partially sanded. I wasn't going for a finish here. At times a quick scuff with some paper shows just how the carving is progressing. Granted going over sanded wood with a chisel can dull it,, but doing this, sanding, tells me a great deal.

[Mark Yundt]

Once everything is in place, carved etc. start with the sanding. As you work your way around the piece and sanding reveals some glitch,just break out the chisels, address the area and continue. You'll end up with a decent looking piece.

[Derek Cox]

Hey Mark,
Let me echo the sentiment of others here. I find your instruction very easy to understand and I have gained many insights by reading your posts. Thanks for the time you take to share your knowledge.

Warm regards

Derek

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm thinking this should be a sticky, this is one of the better tutorials on acanthus carving I've seen.

I found it curious that you pretty much finished the first piece before starting the second. Perhaps it says a fair bit about your skill level but I'd be tempted to do both in parallel or I'm sure they'd end up pretty far off from being similar.

[Mark Yundt]

I'm thinking this should be a sticky, this is one of the better tutorials on acanthus carving I've seen.

I found it curious that you pretty much finished the first piece before starting the second. Perhaps it says a fair bit about your skill level but I'd be tempted to do both in parallel or I'm sure they'd end up pretty far off from being similar.

thanks Ryan,
i will always finish one before starting the second. Doing this allows me to work out all the details and what I want the piece to look like and solve any issues along the way.
This gives me a completed piece to follow. If you were to try and carve both at the same time you'd start carving one and make some cuts. Then go to the other and reverse the image and make those cuts . Then continue this process. Now what would you have to do if something isn't looking quite right? Go back and recarve two of them to correct the mistake.
I'd rather complete one, have it resolved and looking good then just copy it as I have a complete example.
Besides with reversed pieces you aren't making the same cuts are you?
I've done this long enough that I have little problem reversing images in my head.But a handy trick if it gives you difficulty is to simply place the completed carving in front of a mirror and looking at the reflection will show you the exact form you are now trying to carve. It's so much easier to just copy something that is already done. Hence, finish one first and make your life much easier.
The mirror trick came in handy when I carve statues. Especially the ears. I'll carve for example the left ear. Now I want to carve the right. I can keep going back and forth and reverse the
image and try to carve it. But this is tedious and time consuming. So I just prop up a mirror and the left ear image turns into the exact picture of the right ear I'm carving. Easy. It's done . Just carve what you see.
not that anyone sees both left and right at the same time. But it's worth it just to make life easier. Why keep reinventing the wheel when it's already done. Same reason for not trying to carve two at the same
time.
As well as eliminating the need to either have both carvings set up at the same time or having to swap carvings repeatedly in the vise .

[Ryan Mooney]

Besides with reversed pieces you aren't making the same cuts are you?

Hadn't really thought about it in that context; makes a lot of sense.



But a handy trick if it gives you difficulty is to simply place the completed carving in front of a mirror and looking at the reflection will show you the exact form you are now trying to carve.

The mirror trick came in handy when I carve statues. Especially the ears. I'll carve for example the left ear. Now I want to carve the right. I can keep going back and forth and reverse the image and try to carve it. But this is tedious and time consuming. So I just prop up a mirror and the left ear image turns into the exact picture of the right ear I'm carving. Easy. It's done . Just carve what you see.


That's a really great idea! Especially with something like facial details where some small variation makes it more "real" this would be great. I'm still working on that "what you see" part.. we'll see how far that goes :rolleyes:

Thanks again for taking the time for the detailed explanations.

[Mark Yundt]

No problem. Now that they are both done I'll post some shots . You'll see the mirror trick and a simple way to transfer some measurements.
Always have reference material at hand of something specific you want to carve. Even though you have seen faces your entire life doesn't mean you can sit down and carve one. That's a mistake for sure. Even a painter has a model or sets up a still life to do a painting yet at many sites guys wonder why they are having difficulty carving, and they aren't using any reference material. A mirror can be helpful when carving a face but does it give you a side view to see just how far out the nose is compared to the cheeks? The mouth to the chin? A top view to see just how round the forehead is to the cheeks or how quickly the cheeks sweep back to the jaw and ears? Knowing that ahead of time lets you not try to think your way through a carving. It removes your need to think and just carve relationships between things.

That makes you have to think instead of just "see" what you are about to carve. Thinking gets in the way and just confuses things instead of just carving. When carving it's a matter of putting things in relation to each other. " I see this area is lower than that "
so grab a chisel and make it lower.
If you stop thinking " I'm carving a nose" and just see it as essentially a triangular tapering ramp with two ball looking shapes on each side , well you carve that basic shape and when you do that have the bulk of the work done and you just put in the details. Carve the form first.
Bernini's assistants would be upset when he'd rough in a carving and then leave it to them to put in the details. He did the most important part.

Realize this, a copy machine doesn't need to think. It merely copies what it sees. And does it perfectly. I know this kills any perceived notion of the romance of carving but that's how it happens. But most people because of how we need to use our thinking powers for most of what we do on a daily basis to solve our problems turn to this faculty to think their way through carving.
Carving(art) is a right brained activity and trying to use the generally more dominant left brain ( hey, it can think of a solution) but not where spacial references are needed. It's ill equipped to do the job but it still tries to dominate because it seems to solve other problems daily. And gets stumped when it fails in a job it can't do. And was never intended to do.
You know, artists don't think , or see things the way everyone else does. They think out of the box because they never saw one in the first place and what it represents to everyone else.

Carving is a mindless activity.
The less I think the better I carve and see the difference.

[Mark Yundt]

Here in this pic which I staged just for this shot you can see the mirror. If you look at just the image in the mirror it perfectly reflects the carving in the foreground that I'm about to carve. This makes it so easy rather than looking at the first carving and try to reverse it in your head.
All you have to do it look at it and see just where the new carving needs to go. It's a matter of Monkey see,, Monkey do. Ah,, that leaf needs to be curved and it nearly touches the background. That leaf tip curves over a bit. The center vein,,,etc.etc.etc.

[Mark Yundt]

Now to aid in transferring some dimensions I use the depth rod that extends out the bottom of my caliper. You can also use a tire tread depth gauge.Photo #1

You don't need an actual measurement such as "this leaf tip is 1/4 " off the background.
All you need to do is set the depth against the carving you're copying, move the gauge to the section in question and make a pencil mark on the side of the carving, grab a chisel and remove to the line. Photos # 2,3,4.
Simple ,,, eh? Now all the tips of the leaves can be registered to the same height and since the center is the highest point just carve the leaf down until you reach the pencil line. Easy duplication.

The last two pics are the partially sanded ( not completely done as I may make adjustments to sync them.) on the right and the roughed in one on the left.
Look pretty close at this point. And really , when they're mounted nobody is going to look at one, go examine the other line by line with a depth gauge in their hand so be sure they are perfect duplicates of each other.

[Mark Yundt]

Finished shots. I elegantly taped them to a scrap piece of cardboard just to shoot side by side photos.
I see some areas that will be addressed but these are close enough that you can see they look pretty much alike and should work well in this job.

[Mark Yundt]

Speaking of using Acanthus leaves in different situations here are some I did for myself. The Shell sits on the moulding I have surrounding an archway between my LR and DR. It's the original mld. that I added corner blocks to and then wrapped it with some trim I made. I decided to leave this one natural. The deep moulding next to the ceiling isn't all moulding. There is a Crown mldg. ,then paint and a single strip attached about 8" down creating the look of a larger moulding. My ceilings are over 9 ft. so this works well.

On the other side I used the same basic design but instead of the Shell I used my family Crest. Since I wanted the Crest to be painted in the original colors ( and I "antiqued" it a bit) I painted the rest of the piece as well. I also threw little leaves in the corner returns on the moulding as well. Fills up the space a bit and adds a nice detail.

[Mark Yundt]

Lest you think you need a rack full of chisels to do carvings here is an example that dispels that notion.
I did this as a rather lengthy tutorial showing how with a beginners set of 6 chisels you can do quite a bit of carving. Provided they aren't the ones typically suggested as a "starter" set.
Seeing the Greenman hopefully you see that you can carve faces, leaves etc. with just a few chisels. And considering the range shown on this piece any number of things are possible with a limited collection of tools.
This was done in Spanish Cedar. The piece was just over 1" thick. So depth can be achieved as well in a fairly shallow piece of wood.
Those who are familiar with my posts on other sites will recognize this as my usual Avatar.

[Mark Yundt]

And larger Acanthus leaves I had posted at one time. 4 ft. long and they incorporate Roses.
Again the basic "S" shape.
Learn to carve just one leaf. Then put a bunch of them together and voila'. This is the same basic shape that I used for the onlays in this thread. I just expanded the design and put in more leaves. Like I said,, they fill any space.

[Roger Strautman]

Mark, when you sand your carvings do you go beyond 220 grit? Do you worry about sanding across the grain? I assume to keep the crisp leaf edges you are just careful when sanding.

As far as breaking any leaves goes this chip carver finds that funny!! But a slip of the knife Is Not Good! No fixing that one without a major overhaul.

Thanks!

[Mark Yundt]

Hi Roger,
you being a chip carver would find that funny about breaking a carving. That as well as a slip of your knife.
With this type of carving it isn't an issue as it's easily disguised. Every cut is a slip of the chisel.

As to sanding 220 is about it. If I'm finishing a piece I may go further but in the vast majority of the time I'm not doing the finishing. But after stains, sealers, sanding between coats they come out just fine from the pieces I have seen. As I said that tree I did is back in the shop and has been finished. I took that to 220 and it looks just fine now .

Trying to sand just with the grain is impossible on most any carving . Especially a piece like this one. Here the priority is to get the leaves smooth along their length and have them blend smoothly.
I also never sand using just my fingers backing up the paper. That can kill crisp edges real quick. Also prior to sanding pull the strip of paper over a square edge ( sanding side up) to get it to curl so when you do use it it folds better and doesn't have flat, sharp corners to it when you wrap it around your backer. But if you do fold it you can have a better fold line to reach the depths of a crease such as the center vein here.
The little things add up to a nicely finished carving .