shared by Ellen Kisker

Creating realistic portraits of people in marquetry requires representing skin and making it three-dimensional through changes in tone. Collecting a variety of veneers suitable for skin tones in color and grain is only part of the challenge of representing skin. Deciding how and where to change tones to create three-dimensionality is another.

Adding complexity to this decision are several unique features of wood: woods vary in chatoyance and how they look when viewed at different angles, and woods change in tone to varying degrees as they are exposed to light over time. Not considering these factors when making a portrait can result in a portrait that looks good from one angle but strange from another angle, or a portrait that looks great when it is first completed but becomes strange as some veneers in the face darken substantially, but others do not.

For example, I used cherry veneer for the shaded side of a man’s face. When the picture was made, the cherry was slightly darker in tone than the lighter wood used for the front of the face. Now, a decade later, the cherry has darkened while the lighter wood hasn’t changed much, and it looks like the man’s face is outlined in a contrasting dark wood.

If one collects a palette of “skin woods” and is careful about the features of the woods that are used together, however, it is possible to make remarkable portraits in wood