NY Public Library carved wooden doors

I came across these door panels while doing some research in the New York Public Library.

I rarely get asked to create trompe l'oeil boiserie, but it's always good to have a sample in your portfolio. Besides, these panels are beautifully carved and worthy of a close look. A staple of the Van Der Kellen Institute, raised paneling such as this would be taught as a paint technique to every serious student.

What I find especially nice about these panels is the use of low and high relief. There are areas with delicate relief in the manner of a porcelain cameo, where the three-dimensionality is very understated (around the scrolls of the central panel, for example), and there are passages where the artist has gone for full relief (as in the fleur-de-lis).

Worth studying for that alone, but also to note how the grain of the wood and the light plays across the raised surfaces.

With my business partner Mark, we developed a method of creating three-dimensional boiserie like this digitally. Here, I used a low gloss relief, though I can control the direction of light as well as the refraction and reflection to create high gloss effects.