[.ca] Landscapes in Relief: Carving Techniques and Patterns (ISBN 1565231279)

What you see is not quite what you get:
I initially chose this book because of it's very nice illustrations. My mistake was in buying this as my first relief book. I assumed that the step-by-step instructions for the sample project, Mountain View Farm, would be geared towards beginners since it was, after all, broken into steps with corresponding photos. Not quite. Now, in her defense, Lora Irish does cover the basics of relief carving, however, I found it to be too general for a beginner. Also, I often found myself tripping over slight contradictions between what the author instructs you to do and what she actually does. This is especially a problem if you use the picture on the back cover for reference, which is a slightly different version of this project. Carvers more familiar with the process might not have a problem here, but for a beginner who hangs on every detail of the example, like myself, he or she might become frustrated. Lastly, I would have preferred that the entire lesson's scene been included in the process (the waterwheel, water, and reflection elements are left out) so as to have an opportunity to get familiar with creating the water's illusion of depth and the use of reflections. The good news is, the picture on the back cover is the full scene, you'll just have to figure out how to do the waterwheel yourself. In conclusion, if you have a bit of carving experience and are looking for a refresher course or beautifully illustrated patterns this book is worth looking into; if you are looking for a beginner's guide to relief carving, you might want to look elsewhere.

Neither fish nor fowl:
While I am a great fan of L.S. Irish as an artist, her newest book falls far short of being of the same caliber as her art. If it is intended for novices, it lack sufficient detail. If it is for intermediate or advanced carvers, it wastes far too many pages on the basics. It has 32 nice patterns which are mostly variations on the theme of old barns in the woods. One of the projects in the book can be downloaded from her website FREE. Last of all, many of the photos are in color. However, it looks as if the photographer used daylight film under incandescent lights because all of the photos are yellow-red. This makes it impossible to appreciate the sections on painting the carvings. All in all, I cannot recommend this book.