Drawing Patterns

Tips from Jack Kochan author of Realistic Dogs

How do you make a pattern for a carving? This is akin to asking how to make vegetable soup. There is no one method or approach to either creation.

Many carvers work without a pattern - simply sketching directly on the piece of wood. Some need only a basic outline of the subject to produce the desired results. Most of the patterns appearing in WCI have been drawn after the carving was made. Accurate measurements are taken of the piece at key points, then freehanded into a workable pattern or illustration. For publishing in the magazine, patterns are embellished to indicate knife cuts, gouge marks, grooves, or smooth and rounded surfaces.

If the piece has a lot of fine detail, photos are used to get exact locations of the detail. Some very simple pieces can simply be outline-traced, then filled in with the details. To produce a working pattern from a photo, you have to compensate for "lens parallax", or the angle that the camera sees the object. (A difficult thing to explain without illustrations.)

A light box is used to trace mirror image outlines, so that both sides and also the front and back plan have identical outline shapes. With the advent of computer technology, freehand drawing and tracing are slowly taking a back seat to graphic programs.

Over the years there have been relatively few published articles pertaining to developing patterns - usually for birds and decoys. Like making vegetable soup, there is more than one recipe for good results.

Jack Kochan