SOAP CARVING ON A SOAP CANVAS. Everything out there today offers instruction for carving individual bars of soap, well a Soap Canvas is the next level of soap carving. It is basically a giant piece of soap mixture in a wooden frame. It allows you to carve then paint a particular subject, giving you a true 3-D piece of art, the great part it is already framed and ready to be hung on the wall or displayed on a shelf. Once you complete the carving, paint, and seal it will last forever. But I am getting ahead of myself, this is a how-to so let me get to it. At the end I'll give a link to go to to get your Soap Canvas supplies.
1. Select your subject you are going to carve. You can draw something original to paper(if you are gifted enough to draw), but the great thing about a Soap Canvas is drawing is not required. I'm not very good at drawing and could never grasp the shading required to give a picture depth, there for I use computer generated subjects that I just print to paper.
2. Once you have your subject to paper, you need to select the size of canvas you want to carve. The current sizes available are 6x12in, 8x10in, or 10x10in
3. After you have selected your canvas size, take your paper copy of your subject and examine it. Look at it 3-dimensionally, with a black sharpie, number your picture 1-4. The values will help you as a beginner to remember your height points as you carve. #1 being the lowest point in the picture(background attributes) to the highest point in the picture will be numbered #4.
3.1 You are about to begin, but before you do, the Soap Canvas factory pours the soap mixture into the wooden frame, then allows to cure for 30days, then there maybe warehouse time so before you begin carving, spray a light mist of water on the canvas to add moisture, to soften and prevent chipping. Wait about 1 hour then go to step 4 if the surface is now dry to touch.
4. Now take your subject paper and affix it with masking tape to the top of the Soap Canvas wood frame.
5. Begin tracing all detail lines of the drawing with a dull lead pencil allowing the pencil to intermittently break through as you trace. Apply enough pressure to trace into the canvas surface about the thickness of a dime. The main purpose of the tracing is to get everything sized proportionally, so if some of the finer details are hard to see at this point it's alright you can always come back to them later.
6. Once all major details are traced begin trenching out your lowest points #1's first then on to #2's. The rough trenching goes pretty fast, once that is done the detailing will go a bit slower.
7. For example lets say you are carving a profile of a face, the highest points would be the #4hair, #4ear and #3cheek bone and your lowest point being the #1background, #1neck, #2chin etc.
8. After roughing in lowest points you will begin to round all low point edges, you will begin to start seeing dimension develop. Since you have roughed in the low point the head will be raised, the neck will be lower therefore the jaw will be visible and you will begin rounding it to give it more definition.
9. Lets say you are to the ear, well from the tracing you'll see your trace line, just work the outside edge, going deeper in shallow passes, this will raise the ear from the surface making it one of your high points. Continue to refer to your subject page and detail it by following trace lines, rounding to give correct appearance.
10. Anytime you break from carving more than 24hrs, then repeat the spray misting with water, as you did in the beginning.
11. Once all carving is complete, the final step is wet brushing. Spray with water(shiny on surface but not pooling, about 7 or 8 squirts). Take a large round brush and lightly brush the surface, this will remove any uneven carve lines and smooth the surface. Don't over do it though or you will lose too much detail. If you do then just go over any areas that need to be sharpened.
12. Allow to air dry 24-36hrs.
13. Paint with approved acrylic paint, 2 coats recommended.
14. Seal with acrylic sealer after a minimum of 4hrs after painting, 2 coats recommended.
That is it.
You can get your Soap Canvas and supplies at www.soapcanvas.com
also there is a tutorial with over 40 pictures which is not an option here at Helium go to www.soapcanvas.com/032409soapcanvas_006.htm
Good luck and happy creations.