A Ronde-bosse is a 3D sculpture isolated from any support behind. This one is a torso of an old magician, wearing a hood.
As often, it starts with some drawings and a model in clay. For a bust, we start by working on the naked face and skull, in order to focus on the dimensions, proportions and expressions. The hair, beard and drape are added afterwards, which the work with clay allows, while direct wood crafting would not.
2D projections of the clay model are then made, from face and side views. These silhouettes are reproduced on the block of wood, which is partially sawed with thin saw kerfs from the external surfaces to the silhouette limits. This method weakens the superfluous part of the block, which can be hammered and reduced.
The sculpture with gouges can then start, from coarse to details. The clay model is very regularly used as the reference of dimensions, using a comb with mobile metallic hairs which allows to reproduce a depth profile along any line. Since the face anatomy and the expressions can easily be distorted, these constant checks with the clay model are essential to respect the initial design, since an extra wood withdrawal cannot be repaired.
The hood is finished with a small rasp in order to mimic the aspect of fabric. The drapes are stained with 3 different blue shades.