Carve "portrait"

[tonydrew]

I wanted to carve a picture of someone and it looks awful. The program carves it as an object, but I'd like to outline it sort of like a wood block print. I've seen examples in the forums and can't figure out it's done.

[fwharris]

Attach a copy of what you are trying to work with so we can take a look to better help you out.

[tonydrew]

Here is one photo I tried.

[sunmiztres]

Here is how I do my portraits. Of course, I make them a certain way depending on what kind of wood I am using to carve the piece, such as plywood. Once I carve the piece, I then use a lighter stain all over and then a darker stain for just the recessed areas and around the main portrait. After the stain dries, I then go back with sandpaper and sand the portrait with a flat block, so the high points become lighter, and the dark stain stays in the recessed areas to bring the picture to life. I hope this helps. When you do a picture, make sure that the forehead is a high point in designer software. You want the eyes recessed and the forehead as a highpoint. If they are not, then invert the picture. Another tip is always carve with the wood grain going from side to side rather than up and down.

[tonydrew]

Thank you. I'll give it a whirl. This looks better than when I imported it. Wonder if it's the different software than the basic?

[sunmiztres]

I just used designer 3. I did also use the pattern editor to get rid of the background, but that is it.