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Chess Board Illustion

2747 Views 20 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  marecat3
A new direction and having fun with this chess board illusion.
I am demonstrating basic parquetry and making a chess board live online this Sunday 6th 12 noon ET.
Register here

Enjoy!

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Nicely done but I would go crazy or blind trying to play a game on it.
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Very neat . Can’t get over the illusion
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Wow! What a great job. The illusion is so strong that I can't force my eyes to see anything but the apparent hole. Very cool.
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Great illusion and work, Scott! What does it look like if you turn it in a different direction?

David
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That is an amazing piece. More of an art piece that game board. It belongs on a gallery wall at a premium price.
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De'amn too cool!!!

I've done alot of illusion work, but I have never seen that before! Just very, very cool! Great work..

I see that on the right side of the drop, first row colors match,,then on the top drop they alternate...have you tried alternating the right side?
Did you use sand shading for this or did you use thinned transparent dye?


Nice looking project, this would be good if it was a usable board on the opposite side from this illusion. That way it would be decorative as well as a functional piece.
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Nice looking project, this would be good if it was a usable board on the opposite side from this illusion. That way it would be decorative as well as a functional piece.

You just HAD to say that didn't you.....................
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I initially only dropped down four squares so you could play on it, kind on.

It does look even better upside down. I'll show that during the demo

The shading was dyed. Next one I'll try shade to blur the edge a bit and then one using darker wood

If I alternated the right side, then the inside corner doesn't look right.

thanks everyone
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Absolutely amazing piece. Sorry I missed the tutorial.
Fantastic!
The place where my Woodworking guild meets (Denver Rockler store) has in the downstairs meeting room a workbench that has the back (facing the audience) a marquetry piece. If you look at it, it appears to be arched cabinet doors with raised panels. You need to get up and feel it to realize it is completely flat, all the 3d appearance is expertly done Marquetry by Rich Gady. Like you, he is a master. I have always been fascinated by the art.

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Scott when YOU look at yours can you see it as flat?
Herb
This work is great beyond my aspirations.
I first saw this type of art when I happened to visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a study that was taken from a ducal palace in Italy - belonged to a 15th Century mercenary general who became a duke, and was also a man of science and letters.

It can be seen on the website (Google studiolo Gubbio), but the experience in the flesh is unbeatable. It is a difficult room to capture photographically, as it is quite small, and darkish.
It did not work when the curators first assembled it in the Museum, so somebody went to study its original locale in Italy. Turns out the artist had designed it for the very particular lighting that came through a smallish window, orientated in a particular way towards the sun, and facing a stone wall. When they rebuilt the installation and lit it in that way in the Museum, the 3-D results are spectacular. One stands in front of a flat panel, but keeps trying to get inside latticed cabinet doors, or tries to touch ledges and shelves. There is a dramatically realistic dentil moulding, which would only look 3-D with the light coming in at the angle it does, and the pattern changes subtly around the walls, to match the change in incident angle of the light.
In reality, the only 3-D is the coffered ceiling, and some raised gilt lettering - and even the latter is enhanced by tromp l'oiel.

Apparently it took a whole workshop of craftsmen years to make the piece. They used shoulder chisels to do the inlay - so called because of a long handle, which rested on the craftsman's shoulder, allowing the guiding hand to exert significant downwards pressure on the edge of the blade, while maintaining fine control. Technically, the technique is called intarsia - I am ignorant as to whether Scott's technique goes by the same name

I imagine that there are members here who would prefer to go to war, rather than go to NYC, but if you happen to be there and you have not seen the studiolo, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
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I checked out studiolo Gubbio, and it is absolutely stunning, especially when you discover is was made around 1480, by craftsmen using simple hand tools.

This work is great beyond my aspirations.
I first saw this type of art when I happened to visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a study that was taken from a ducal palace in Italy - belonged to a 15th Century mercenary general who became a duke, and was also a man of science and letters.
3
@Gaffboat,
Oliver, the amazing thing is that every detail is an optical illusion - the perspectives were worked out perfectly, at a time when perspective had not been around that long (remember the old Byzantine paintings, where saints appeared suspended in the air a various heights, because nobody had figured out how to portray people at different distances?)

The installation is temperature and humidity controlled, limited number of people in the room at any one time, no flash photography, etc. Just as well - I am certain any number of rubes would try to put things down on the shelves, which clearly have "legs" supporting the cantilevered edges, the legs themselves have shadows, etc. All in 2-D
I still have a guidebook - kept it from 2001, I was so impressed.
I have attached a couple of shots from the guide. The slight curvature is due to Photographing the pages - the actual panels are flat.

Notice the change in shading of the components of the lattices in the cabinet doors, depending on whether they are above or below the incident light. Also notice the disks-on-a-dowel ornamentation around the cabinet with the parrot cage inside: the orientation of the disks changes, depending on their position relative to an artificial horizon at average (shortish Italian) eye height.
And how about that portable organ on the shelf? There re a few anomalies in the fluting of the "columns" on either side - probably due to repairs.

None of this takes away from the superlative artistry of Scott or Rick Gady - they are standing on the shoulders of comparable artists.
Sorry about the third photo - have not got the hang of rotating yet.

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