Design is absolutely crucial to any successful carving. A highly developed skill and impeccably executed carving does not necessarily qualify the piece as successful if the design does not imbue a sense of harmony within the eye of the observer. Even a small irregularity in line will distract the eye from following the flow or form of a carving. An understanding of the principles which mark an object as ‘pleasing to the eye’ is essential to all design aspirations, whether it be a simple box on paper or an elaborate cathedral. Even our cereal boxes, cigarette packets, and the plants that grow around us, all are governed by these proportions. In man made, commercial presentations it is a conscious aspect of marketing, in plants and creatures the rule is a natural template.

The elements of a balanced form always adhere to the proportions of the Golden Mean, the ratio of which is….. 1:1.61.
Computer based calculations have taken the decimal point past one million places and still going….. an impossible, never ending number, which the entire Universe appears to be built on.

The great masters were familiar with these propotions as is evident in the writings of Leonardo Da Vinci which is evident in this well known drawing.

“…no human inquiry can be called science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration.” -Leonardo Da Vinci

For a long time Leonardo displayed an acute interest in the mathematics of nature and art. He had earlier, like Pythagoras, made a close study of the human figure and had shown how all its different parts were related by the golden section. Leonardo’s unfinished canvas Saint Jerome shows the great scholar with a lion lying at his feet. A golden rectangle fits so neatly around the central figure it is probable the artist meticulously painted the figure to conform to those proportions. This is more than likely, knowing Leonardo’s love of “geometrical recreations” as he described them.

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