e leaves, like the patches of sky seen behind a
tree.

CHAPTER IX

ROUNDED FORMS

Necessity for Every Carver Making his own Designs--Method of
Carving Rounded Forms on a Sunk Ground.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.]

Fig. 16, our second exercise, like the first one, is only to be taken as
a suggestion for a design to be made by yourself. It is a fundamental
principle that both design and execution should be the work of one and
the same person, and I want you to begin by strictly practising this
rule. It was indeed one of the main conditions of production in the best
times of the past, and there is not a shadow of doubt that it must again
come to be the universal rule if any real progress is to be made in the
art of wood-carving, or in any other art for that matter. Just think
for a moment how false must be the position of both parties, when one
makes a "design" and another carries it out. The "designer" sets his
head to work (we must not count his hands at present, as they only note
down the results in a kind of writing), a "design" is produced and
handed over to the carver to execute. He, the carver, sets his hands and
eyes to work, to carry out the other man's idea, or at least interpret
his notes for the same, his head meanwhile having very little to do,
further than transfer the said notes to his hands. For very good reasons
such an arrangement as this is bound to come to grief. One is, that no
piece of carving can properly be said to be "designed" until it is
finished to the last stroke. A drawing is only a map of its general
outline, with perhaps contours approximately indicated by shading. In
any case, even if a full-size model were supplied by the designer, the
principle involved would suffer just the same degree of violence, for it
is in the actual carving of the wood that the designer should find both
his inspiration and the discipline which keeps it within reasonable
bounds. He must be at full liberty to alter his original intention as
the work develops under his hand.

Apparently I have been led into giving you another lecture; we must now
get to work on our exercise.

Draw and trace your outline in the same manner as before, and transfer
it to the wood. You may make it any convenient size, say on a board 18
ins. long by 9 ins. wide, or what other shape you like, provided you
observe one or two conditions which I am going to point out. It shall
have a fair amount of background between t