Carving practice in MDF?

[Lons]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving. It's about sculpting shapes one way or another, that's the difficult bit.

This is from the experience of an expert woodcarver.

 

[Eshmiel]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving. It's about sculpting shapes one way or another, that's the difficult bit.

It all looks difficult to me.

A discussion about the medium we work in/with/on is rather like the discussion about the tools we use. Does a poor tool/material limit or otherwise reduce the skill and intents of the worker? Personally I think it can and often does.

Try it with food. Does eating junkfud and ultra-processed goo-paste reduce or limit the biological processes of the beast eating it? Some will claim not, even as they go orf to the quack for their regular but failing maintenance procedures.

 

[Lons]

Why is mdf specifically not suitable......

Soap stone etc would also be rubbish for wood carving practice and yet people carve it.

MDF............. Read previous comments. Have you tried it? If you have then you would know and you should try on more suitable materials which would confirm it.

Soap stone.... A rather silly comparison. People don't practice on soapstone to give them the skill to do woodcarving. They carve soap stone because they want to carve something in soap stone. It's a bit different and has to be approacched as such, and yes I have carved soap stone

 

[Blackswanwood]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving. It's about sculpting shapes one way or another, that's the difficult bit.

I’m not sure it is the difficult bit. Carving shapes while taking account of grain direction is the difficult bit. You won’t get that with MDF.

 

[niall Y]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving. It's about sculpting shapes one way or another, that's the difficult bit.

Ultimately, it depends what you mean by carving. Carving and sculpture are not necessarily the same thing. I suppose , to some extent it mirrors the difference between Art and Craft.
I rate Grinling Gibbons, very highly as a woodcarver. For carving of still life arrangements he is unsurpassed. The composition of the items and the skill shown in the realisation of the forms is unsurpassed. But if you have ever seen his Memorial to Sir Cloudesly Shovell, you will see his limitations as a sculptor. It is very "lumpen" and was justifiably criticised at the time.

 

[Jacob]

It all looks difficult to me.

A discussion about the medium we work in/with/on is rather like the discussion about the tools we use. Does a poor tool/material limit or otherwise reduce the skill and intents of the worker? Personally I think it can and often does.

Could argue the opposite - that having to tackle difficulties of materials and tools can only improve your skills. In fact it could be a good idea.
If MDF is all you have, go for it!
OTOH Plasticine could be good for getting into shaping 3D forms.

 

[Jacob]

I’m not sure it is the difficult bit. Carving shapes while taking account of grain direction is the difficult bit. You won’t get that with MDF.

The point I'm making is that the mental and visual processes of forming shapes is the difficult bit.

 

[Eshmiel]

I started a new thread for pics of things made by others that we like. First post: three pics of the carved wooden abstract birds I mentioned.

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/post-pics-of-what-you-saw-and-admired.151338/

 

[mwinfrance]

re Memorial to Sir Cloudesly Shovell.

Yeah, you can tell he was having more fun on the drapery than the figure and the hair.

 

[joshvegas]

Soap stone.... A rather silly comparison. People don't practice on soapstone to give them the skill to do woodcarving. They carve soap stone because they want to carve something in soap stone. It's a bit different and has to be approacched as such, and yes I have carved soap stone

So its not a silly comparison then? Because that is exactly what i said.

The question i asked is what is specifically bad about carving mdf.

You seem pretty keen to knock Jacob who has pointed out more than once now that carving doesn't just mean carving wood, its nothing to do with whether he is a wood carver or not.

I can't figure skate but i know pratting about on ice with metal blades on my feet is still skating.

 

[Doris]

So ..... what to use after the practice cuts/board? I have amounts of cherry, black walnut, ash, oak and some afromosia (old chemistry bench tops) as well as small amounts of yew, cedar, beech and one or three others. I have carved oak in making various decorations, handles and the like for furniture I've made so I know its not ideal but perhaps worth practicing on since it may well be what I end up using "in anger". I must admit that I'm not fond of the blandness of lime - although its perhaps good for relief carving in that the grain doesn't overpower the shapes of what's carved ........ .

I'll ponder a while on the matter whilst I get on with doing the practice board in me bit of tulipwood.

I'd carve Oak out of those after Tulip. I'd stay well clear of Ash as the grain is not ideal (at least the pieces I've worked with) for relief work, in the round is more workable but you need a loose shape with it. Walnut carves lovely but will blunt your tools quickly as it's hard.

Not tried Cherry myself, Yew or Cedar as it's never crossed my path.

It's nice to know I'm not alone in seeing lime as "bland".

Carving in the round is quite simple if you work on 2 planes, Birdseye and side. Work from a marquette as reference, I use plasticine.

Failing that just find a bit of driftwood or a fallen branch that looks like an interesting shape to educate minimum cuts to the work. Once a cut is made wrong it can't be undone.

This lady I carved out of a dead shrub rootball a few years back. Her arms are the root and her legs are the branches.

 

[Lons]

So its not a silly comparison then? Because that is exactly what i said.

The question i asked is what is specifically bad about carving mdf.

You seem pretty keen to knock Jacob who has pointed out more than once now that carving doesn't just mean carving wood, its nothing to do with whether he is a wood carver or not.

I can't figure skate but i know pratting about on ice with metal blades on my feet is still skating.

Soap stone etc would also be rubbish for wood carving practice and yet people carve it.

EH? The above is what you stated.

No point in arguing, the OP asked for advice and he's received opinions from several members with varying experience and some wuith little or noe. It's now up to him to take or leave any of the advice offered anything else is academic and will turn the thread into an argument.

 

[joshvegas]

I will give it one more go.

A artist who predominantly paints in oils can learn much is their sketchbook with a box of charcoal.

Its plainly nonsense to claim it serves no purpose to carve something in a different material. There is still plenty to learn from it, any muppet (including Jacob and Me) can see that. It might not teach you some of the specific challenges.

You can keep misreading what i said but it doesn't make you any less wrong

 

[Blackswanwood]

I will give it one more go.

A artist who predominantly paints in oils can learn much is their sketchbook with a box of charcoal.

Its plainly nonsense to claim it serves no purpose to carve something in a different material. There is still plenty to learn from it, any muppet (including Jacob and Me) can see that. It might not teach you some of the specific challenges.

You can keep misreading what i said but it doesn't make you any less wrong

But the OP makes clear he wants to carve wood and asks for the view of someone with experience, rather than those that don’t, or (to use your phrase) a muppet.

 

[mwinfrance]

Just for interest..the french version of "muppet" in the sense it is used here..is "Guignol" ( pronounced as geen-yol, the first G is hard as in garage, the second g is not sounded, some say it shorter as Gin-yol, again hard G ) ..which is the name of the character..he is a carved wooden puppet .Usually carved from a simple 4x4 , often pine from a building site.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guignol

The second picture there on the Jimmy's website of knowledge is typical of a Guignol puppet..the head is very basic, the arms of the costume slip onto the puppeteer's fingers. The carnies usually make their own, hence they are very basic.

It's the equivalent for french people of Punch and Judy..many carnies here tour with a Guignol show and a Circus.

Among carnies here, to call someone a Guignol, is a major insult, as is to say that they have the head of Guignol..either will almost certainly will lead to instant violence.

 

[Eshmiel]

But the OP makes clear he wants to carve wood and asks for the view of someone with experience, rather than those that don’t, or (to use your phrase) a muppet.

Given that the website I referenced in the intial post shows someone carving in what looks like many of the fashions taught by Mr Pye, I would accept that such a medium as MDF can indeed allow a novice such as moi to practice making the forms, shapes and reliefs, even if the final result is not likely to last long .... and I'd be resharpening quite a lot. I don't dismiss it outright, especially if wood for carving is not readily available whilst every house in the land has oodles of MDF with, presumably, the scrap parts somewhere awaiting use (but maybe in the depths of the landfill).

Yet the point that a would be carver in wood should practice in that medium does make a lot of sense. If it was ice cream-making I was wantin' to learn, would I make Mr Whippy ice-cream-shaped cornets and oysters? No.

 

[mwinfrance]

Carving is "subtractive sculpture"..forming with plasticene is "additive sculpture".

You can sculpt plasticene with your fingers, you'll not get far trying that on wood .
Jacob, you are out of your depth on something which is not your subject, resulting in you talking spherical objects.
Put down the spade and quit digging..you are making yourself look silly, and potentially misleading any readers.

Make a sash window or something, some of us do this sculpture thing for a living, longer than you've been working with wood.

Just "going for it", when you don't know what you are doing, or talking about, results in this kind of thing.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/immaculate-conception-restoration