STONE CARVING

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the art of stone carving. Carving direct onto the stone without the aid of large-scale models is called direct carving. The drawings can be traced directly on the stone with black-leaded or carbon paper placed under the drawing, the process being to press through the two thicknesses with a nail or any sharp point, being careful to see that the point is not so sharp as to tear the paper. The drawings are done on big pieces of tracing paper that one can buy by the roll, having enlarged the design from preliminary carefully worked scale drawings. The enlarging can be done very easily by crisscrossing diagonally from corner to corner, which is a far simpler method than the laborious one of squaring up by measuring. When the design has been placed on the stone, the carver follows this which, if drawn with strength and thereby expressing solid shapes, can be followed by carving away from the highest points that should be shown in the drawing with white paper or white chalk. In the drawing, the tone represents gradual change of depth while carving.