So, you’re interested in doing some carving, but what kind of carving appeals to you? There are many styles to choose from. Today in The Basic Styles Of Carving: Which One Suits You, we will go over the most common styles used by carvers. This overview will discuss each style to give you an idea of what each one is and looks like, so you can choose the one that appeals to you the most.

 

Let’s get started:

 

 

Relief Carving:

 

  Relief carving is the most common style of carving, you can see examples in any museum, art gallery, old church, or on the sides of any old buildings.  These carvings are mostly done from flat surfaces and are carved to reveal a raised object or projected image. Sometimes a column will also have a relief carving either at the top, bottom, or center to give it a decorative look. These pictures show both relief walls and carved columns.

 

 

 

  There are three major styles of relief carving, high relief, low relief, and intermediate relief. The above pictures are good examples of Intermediate relief carvings. They show a decent amount of depth, yet are still flush with their surroundings.

 

 

High-relief carvings will be almost three-dimensional, except they will remain attached to their background. The above picture shows a nice high-relief carving in the middle and intermediate carvings above it.

Low-relief carving has only a slightly raised image and a shallow background. The image above has a small amount of low-relief carving at the bottom of the picture along the top of the arch.

Relief carving is done with chisels and gouges along with a mallet to drive the tool into the surface of the wood or stone.

 

3D – Dimensional carving:

 

 

  Three-dimensional carvings are similar to sculptures. They are carved in the round and can be viewed from any angle. You can see examples of these in art galleries, churches, casinos, and cemeteries all over the world.

Three-dimensional carvings are done with the same tools as relief carvings, mostly chisels, gouges, and a mallet. More skill is required in this style of carving, as you not only have to carve more but all aspects of the carving as well.

 

Cottonwood Bark Carving:

 

 

Photo by Lynne Clay   https://carvingtutorials.com

  Most bark carvings are done from Cottonwood bark. This is NOT from the wood of the tree but from the bark only. The more forest fires a Cottonwood tree goes through the thicker its bark becomes. The Cottonwood tree has a much thicker bark than other trees because of this and is excellent for holding details and giving your carvings lots of character.

The above picture’s fairy house, pine tree, left-hand side rock, and path rocks are all carved from Cottonwood bark. The base is a green quartz stone, with some moss and fern greenery.

 

 

Photo by Lynne Clay   https://carvingtutorials.com

  The above picture is a side view of a piece of Cottonwood bark, as you can see it really is quite thick. This piece is about three inches thick. There are many kinds of Cottonwood trees and some have bark up to a foot thick.

 

 

Photo and carving by Alec La Casse   https://www.aleclacasse.com

As you can see in the above picture, Cottonwood bark holds fine details really well, but due to its fine texture, it doesn’t do well for three-dimensional carvings. This picture of a green man shows quite a lot of fine detail work in its leaves and eyes. Very nice work Alec.

 

Caricature Carving:

 

 

Photo & carving by Lynn O Doughty   https://outwestwoodcarving.blogspot.com

  Caricature carvings come in all shapes and sizes and depict an array of subjects.  They cover everything from caricatures of people to gnomes and animals such as dogs or rabbits.

  The term caricature is listed as an individual with exaggerated features to create a comic or grotesque effect. They can be complimentary or insulting, as is the case with caricatures of politicians.

  Caricatures can show a lot of details or have just a few, it depends on the artist’s liking.  In this picture of Lynn’s cowboy, he shows a lot of very fine detail. I especially like the barbed wire circle in his hand. Great carving and awesome details, Lynn.

 

Chip Carving:

 

 

  Chip carving uses triangular shape cuts to create intricate designs across the surface of the wood. You would think that this would cause a limited number of patterns or designs, but just the opposite is true. By varying the size and position of these elements new patterns are created.

  Chip carving is a traditional style of carving, and many countries use it as folk art. This can be used as anything you want, like boxes, bowels, picture frames, wall art, and borders.

 

Spoon Carving:

 

 

  These love spoons are full of romance. Just as the name implies, it is a spoon that signals love. They were carved by men who gave them to the women they wanted as their wives. This traditional craftwork dates back to the 17th century. These spoons were meant to be displayed instead of used. Displaying them was said to bring good luck to the couple. They are still carved today as kitchen decorations.

 

Stone Carving:

 

 

  There are two kinds of stone carvings. Some are done with small pebbles that have images carved into them, like the picture above.  Some are done with large stones or slabs of stone to make sculptures, like the picture below.

 

 

 

Either way, these stone carvings are a wonderful art form and worthy of your efforts.

The stone carving with the tree was carved using a Dremel tool. The stone statue was carved using both power and hand tools.

 

Whittling:

 

 

  Whittling is the process of carving off small shavings of wood to create shapes from raw green wood such as branches or twigs.  They are done with pocket knives or other small knives, but only one knife is used in whittling.

  Both carving and whittling as a term are used interchangeably. The only difference is that they are not the same art. When carving, you choose what tools to use to achieve that style of carving and what wood suits it best, but whittling involves using a single knife and raw wood only. So their terms shouldn’t be used interchangeably.

This form of carving is easy to do. It’s usually what most people start out with, seeing as you use greenwood that’s easy to carve. The only trouble with carving greenwood is it has a tendency to warp as it dries, so you never quite know what you’ll end up with. Sometimes the warping gives it character and sometimes it causes it to crack ruining your piece.

 

Power carving:

 

 

Photo from    https://Foredom.com

  This form of carving is done with a power tool called a Dremel, pictured below. It’s a handheld tool that you insert a bit into its end and carve your project with it.

 

 

 

 

Photo from    https://dremel.com

Power carving can also be done with a hanging version of this tool called a Foredom. It has a power base that hangs and a long shaft cord that ends in a handheld pen-like bit grip. The Foredom is easier to use due to its pen-shaped handle, pictured below.

 

 

 

 

Photo from   https://foredom.com

  Most projects that can be carved by hand, can be carved with power. We suggest you only try power carving after you have mastered hand carving first. The reason for this is to become confident with your carving skills before you take on doing it with any power tool. It’s not only easy to make mistakes with power but also easier to get hurt if you’re not extra careful.

 

Chain Saw Carving:

 

 

 

Photo by Robert & Kyra from   https://the woodcarvers.com

  Chain saw carving is the fastest-growing art in the world. This is because it combines beautiful art with modern technology.  Chain saw carving has a very long and rich history dating back to the early 1950s.

  To do this kind of art you need a special kind of bar for your chainsaw. You need a dime tip on the carving bar, so you will be able to get into smaller areas and get more detail from your chain saw. Regular chain saws will not work for this art.

You must know how to use the chain saw and be very confident with it to be able to do this kind of carving safely. This is something you’re better off learning from someone who knows how to do chainsaw carving, DO NOT attempt this on your own without training.

 

 

Photo by Robert & Kyra from https://the woodcarvers.com

  As you can see in these two pictures above, you can get details on the project. It does take a bit of planning ahead to achieve this though.

 

Fruit and Vegetable carving:

 

 

Photo from Shutterstock.com

  These are watermelons, Cantaloupes, and Mangos that were carved into flowers. Fruit and vegetable carving has become very popular nowadays. You can see examples of this art in almost any large banquette or large event. These are fairly easy to carve and hold detail well. The only problem with this kind of carving is they don’t last very long after you finish carving them.

  Pumpkin carving has been around for many years in the form of traditional jack-o-lanterns, like the ones below. These are very easy to do, children start out doing this kind of carving with their parent’s help most of the time.

 

 

Photo by Unsplash.com

Jack-o-lanterns have evolved into so much more than what they used to be. Nowadays they are no longer just simple faces, they have much more complicated designs and are getting harder and harder to do.  This one pictured below is an intermediate design but still shows detail.

 

 

  Pumpkin carving has evolved so much over the last few years, it’s now a real art form. The days of only carving all the way through the pumpkin are over. Nowadays pumpkin carving has become a complicated art form where you carve not only the skin but the meat of the pumpkin as well.

 

 

  This pumpkin was carved with only the meat of it showing through its skin to reveal Trump’s face. The shredded pumpkin meat was added afterward for hair.  As you can see pumpkin carving has come a long way since we were children.

 

 

Photo by Villafane Studios   https://villafanestudios.com

  This Squash person was carved by Ray Villafane, one of the best pumpkin carvers of today. His extreme carving skills have put pumpkin carving on the map, as far as I’m concerned anyway. Most of the people who do extreme pumpkin carving, look up to this man and his extraordinary talent.  I know I do. I want to be as good a craver as he is when I grow up.

 

 

Photo by Villafane Studios  https://villafanestudios.com

  These are actually two pumpkins that were used to finish this awesome Predator pumpkin carving by Ray Villafane. The main head is one pumpkin and the hair and mouth claws are from another. Ray used orange toothpicks for the Predator’s spikes. This is pumpkin carving at its most extreme. Who knew you could achieve this with a pumpkin? Fantastic job Ray.

 

Conclusion:

 

  In the article The Basic Styles Of Carving: Which One Suits You,  you’ve learned about a dozen carving styles. I introduced each style and gave you a description and a picture of each one. Now that you know what each style is and what it looks like, you can decide for yourself which one suits you and your personality the best.

  I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any questions, would like to leave a comment, or your own personal views on carving or this article, please feel free to do so below.

I would love to hear from you and help in any way we can. We will get back to you as soon as possible with answers to your questions. (Usually within 24 hours or less.)

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Carving!

Lynne Clay