a chip-carved optical illusion · 18 woodcarving illustrated | spring 2017 a chip-carved optical...

Woodcarving Illustrated | SPRING 2017 18 A CHIP-CARVED Optical Illusion A clever geometric design and careful carving make this flat plate look 3-D By Bill Johnson I came across some interesting examples of trompe l’oeil, or “fool the eye,” pencil sketches while searching for inspiration for a new project. A circular design made up of many darkened triangular shapes caught my eye. I was fooled into seeing the flat drawing as three-dimensional. The surface appeared convex, giving the illusion of seeing a photograph of a ball. I decided to try carving the optical illustion. I sketched the design on paper before trying it on wood. After a lot of erasing, I slowly developed an understanding of the geometry that made it work. The order in which the various steps had to be taken took a little longer to figure out. The most important lesson of all, after having multiple lines overlap where they shouldn’t and others not meet at all, was that close enough was not good enough! This project requires attention to detail, starting with three critical steps: (1) marking the exact center of the wooden plate, (2) accurately marking the halfway point between the center and the outside edge of the plate, and (3) drawing two straight lines through the center that intersect at exactly 90°. This article focuses on the design and layout of the piece more than chip-carving technique. Technique is always important, but if this particular layout is sloppy, no amount of good technique will make it look right. The majority of the three-sided chips that you will remove are fairly wide and therefore deep. All three sides of every three-sided chip are curved, and the position of the chips, relative to the grain direction, changes each time. There is not a single straight knife cut in the entire piece. This layout is unaffected by project size. The instructions here will yield the same result no matter the size of the plate. The chip-carving creates the illusion of three-dimesionality. A side view reveals that the plate is completely flat.

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Page 1: A CHIP-CARVED Optical Illusion · 18 Woodcarving Illustrated | SPRING 2017 A CHIP-CARVED Optical Illusion A clever geometric design and careful carving make this flat plate look 3-D

Woodcarving Illustrated | SPRING 201718

A CHIP-CARVED Optical IllusionA clever geometric design and careful carving make this flat plate look 3-D By Bill Johnson

I came across some interesting examples of trompe l’oeil, or “fool the eye,” pencil sketches while searching for inspiration for a new project. A circular design made

up of many darkened triangular shapes caught my eye. I was fooled into seeing the flat drawing as three-dimensional. The surface appeared convex, giving the illusion of seeing a photograph of a ball. I decided to try carving the optical illustion. I sketched the design on paper before trying it on wood. After a lot of erasing, I slowly developed an understanding of the geometry that made it work. The order in which the various steps had to be taken took a little longer to figure out. The most important lesson of all, after having multiple lines overlap where they shouldn’t and others not meet at all, was that close enough was not good enough! This project requires attention to detail, starting with three critical steps: (1) marking the exact center of the wooden plate, (2) accurately marking the halfway point between the center and the outside edge of the plate, and (3) drawing two straight lines through the center that intersect at exactly 90°. This article focuses on the design and layout of the piece more than chip-carving technique. Technique is always important, but if this particular layout is sloppy, no amount of good technique will make it look right. The majority of the three-sided chips that you will remove are fairly wide and therefore deep. All three sides of every three-sided chip are curved, and the position of the chips, relative to the grain direction, changes each time. There is not a single straight knife cut in the entire piece. This layout is unaffected by project size. The instructions here will yield the same result no matter the size of the plate.

The chip-carving creates the illusion of three-dimesionality. A side view reveals

that the plate is completely flat.