I’ve been working on a commission of two oak panels, approximately 2 1/2 ft x 11″, each featuring a selection of animals, plants and patterns along with initials relevant to the customer.
I started off with the rough oak panels, and planed and sanded them to a workable level. I didn’t want the finished panels to look too slick or machined as I thought it would detract from the subject matter ~ I’d done a bit of research into African carvings and they are instantly recognisable as being hand-crafted and quite free in their design and finish; although I didn’t want to simply reproduce that style, I wanted some of that character to be visible.
I’d decided to use a traditional African triangular pattern as a border, so then the next stage was to attempt the layout:
The drawings had been prepared earlier as part of the emailed ideas between myself and the customer, so it was just a case of scaling them up or down and shuffling them about to make a pleasing design.
Once traced on the carving started with the patterned border, then methodically from top to bottom with the animals and patterns.
One done, and the process is repeated for the second panel:
