Abstract leaf

My last years discovery was plumtree. Got some branches when wind did its usual work above the fence. My first thought was ‘hey, there’s some serious brown in them’ and threw some in the car. When I looked at those more closely after some time drying I noticed those many different colors and some blotches here and there. While carving one can easily chance upon little irregular dark holes and groovy patterns. Here’s what I found in one random piece of plumtree-

 

 

And if my IPhone 5 can put these lines on picture imagine what it looks like in real life. Even its bark is wondrous to cut with pink, purple and so warm brown spots. I would certainly put bark pieces into XOR resin if I had some. I remember I had a few photos of this magic bark somewhere…

Leaf on a wood slice easy tutorial

This piece is easy to make and it’s easyness does not take away endless possibilities. I ended up carving a few different leaves and a cat’s face.

First, take a slice of wood that is sandpapered nice and smooth. I started with the main line of the leaf and then those smaller lines, completing the leaf’s shape with borderlines which I ‘shaded’ from one side. Just experiment with getting those lines right. Then grab a sip of dirt from your nearest plant (water the plant if it’s dirt has dried too dense to even scratch but don’t use too soaked dirt) and rub it in good. Green onion made the ‘color’ darker and better staying but sadly the outcome is not so green as I hoped. Time for some fine sandpaper to make highest parts lighter again and there you go, it is ready. To make it waterproof you’ll need to process it with wax or oil of your choice.

Some lines I drew to make me better to understand-

That tool on the upper part of the picture is what makes it so easy and flexible. With a knife it’s hard to make such curvy lines noticing not to go too deep/ shallow or to avoid doing the same line twice.

Beautiful northern people

Picked up drawing this week and came up with this:

 

It was done with casual writing pencil and eraser. Though the paper was fine grain I used a brush for shading since I wasn’t used to such quality paper. To me, this paper was still too ‘bumpy’. In general I’m quite satisfied and my client was real happy to see this.