US2656634A - Process for making relief pictures from plane pictures - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 27, 1953 o. M. VARNER 2,656,634

PROCESS FOR MAKING RELIEF PICTURES FROM PLANE PICTURES Filed Aug. '21. 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet l Odette M. Varner INVENTOR.

Oct. 27, 1953 o. M. VARNER 2,656,634

PROCESS FOR MAKING RELIEF PICTURES FROM PLANE PICTURES Filed Aug. 21, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Odette M- Varner 6' INVENTOR.

M MM,

Patented Oct. 27, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS FOR MAKING RELIEF PICTURES FROM PLANE PICTURES Odette M. Varner, Vicksburg, Miss.

Application August 21, 1950, Serial No. 180,624

2 Claims. (01. 41-25) This invention relates to a process for making relief pictures, using a photograph, an original picture, or a reproduction of an original as a base, and it has for its main object to provide a process which permits the making of realistic relief pictures, the exposed surface of which is still formed by the photograph, original picture, or reproduced picture while the features of the object are accentuated and rendered more realistic by the relief.

It is a further object of the invention to pro duce relief pictures, the outer surface of which is formed by a photograph, an original, or a reproduction and which are of great and practically unlimited durability and which may be mounted on a plaque or plate so as to form ornamental objects for decorating walls or pieces of furniture.

When making reliefs reproducing objects which are either covered by black and white photographs or by colored photographs or which are covered by colored original drawings or pictures or reproductions, it is essential to make a relief of such a type that it reproduces roughly, the front part of the objects facing toward the observer, although the scale applying to the depth dimension may be much reduced when compared with that of the other dimensions. However, on the other hand, the relief must be made in such a way that it is possible to cover the same completely with a sheet of paper without leaving air filled spaces between the covering sheet of paper and the mass forming the relief, such air filled spaces being mostly the result of the fact that the curvature between the raised and depressed portions of the relief differs from that which can be adopted by the covering pic ture sheet. The molding substance from which the relief is produced must moreover be highly plastic and relatively soft at the beginning, so as to permit shaping of the object by a skilled operator. Therefore, the plasticity must approximately be that of Plastiline or modeling clay, the former being a special modeling clay containing in addition to the clay beeswax and oil, this special product being frequently used for modeling purposes, but afterwards the substance must harden when dried and must then be capable of remaining in this hardened condition indefinitely without contraction, shrinking or cracking so as to avoid the separation of the picture carrying sheet from the surface to which it is applied in the course of time.

It is also preferable to confine the raised picture to a portion of the plaque or plate carrying the same and it is therefore necessary to produce 2 an air-tight connection between the edge of the plastic picture and the said plaque or plate.

The process according to the invention permits the fulfilling of the above named conditions without necessitating the use of intermediate or transfer sheets or entailing the necessity of obtaining a coincidence between the features of a prepared relief and the corresponding features of a picture and it permits the obtaining of pietures and photographs in relief which are of great durability and which, if properly and skill fully made, are capable of making a realistic impression greatly improving the impression gained by viewing a picture in a planar surface, the light reflection from which is mostly unsatisfactory. The relief picture in addition to showing the lights and shadows visible in the plane picture has its own system of lights and shadows which produces the impression of depth and which, if the relief is skillfully made, partly corrects and partly reinforces the system of lights and shadows visible in the picture. Thus pictures of great decorative value and great realism may be obtained from ordinary black and white or preferably from colored photographs and originals or reproductions from originals may be greatly improved.

The process is illustrated in the accompanying drawings by way of example. It is, however, to be understood that the drawings intend to illustrate the principle of the invention and the best mode of applying this principle. The drawings do not give a survey of all possible modifications of the process and a departure from the process illustrated is therefore not necessarily to be considered as a departure from the principle of the invention.

In the drawings:

Figures 1 to 5 are perspective views illustrating the first five stages of the process according to the invention;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the finished article; and

Figure 7 is an elevational sectional view of said article, the section being taken along line 'l--7 of Figure 6.

The invention essentially consists in a process by means of which a thin sheet of paper or of other material carrying a photograph, an original. picture, a reproduction in print of an original or the like is placed and permanently held on a relief of the object reproducing roughly the shape of the surface of said object preferably on a somewhat reduced depth scale. The relief cannot reproduce the object completely but must be shaped in such a manner that the said photograph, picture or print carrying sheet covers the surface continuously and adheres to the surface at all points without any intervening non-supported and air-filled spaces or gaps. Moreover also the marginal edges of the relief must be so shaped and so joined to the plaque carrying the relief picture that the picture carrying sheet may join both the relief and the plaque in an air-tight manner.

The relief must be made by using a composition permitting easy shaping and modeling of the surface Which shape must be retained when the relief is subjected to a hardening process. When varnished the picture relief and the plaque their present a single surface covered bya protective coating which is durable and which may therefore be used for decorating a wall or a piece of furniture.

The process according to the invention is described as being carried out with a colored photograph but it will be understood that the specific character of the picture is immaterial and that the process may be carried out in exactly the s: way with any original picture, with an etc g, with a lithographic or a printed reproduction and the like and all these pictures may either be colored or merely finished in black and white. When reference is therefore made to a photograph, such a reference always includes original pictures, printed reproductions, and reproductions made in other ways whether made by a photographic or by any other reproduction process.

Let it be assumed that the photograph of a person is used for making a relief picture of the said person on a plaque. The first and preliminary step consists in the preparation of the sheet is carrying the picture. The sheet H) is usually a paper sheet and if the photograph for instance was made for the purpose of making such a relief picture a special very thin sheet may be'selected as a carrier of the emulsion. However if the relief is made from an existing photograph the paper is usually a heavy paper and in this case the paper must be sanded on the back until the desired reduction of the thickness has been obtained.

The photograph it may then be clamped or held in a suitable frame H and this frame is placed before a strong source of light I2 with the picture carrying side facing the said source of light. On the bacl: of the sheet the main lines of the picture especially those lines along which a depression or a raising should take placeare traced by the operator on the reverseside of the sheet. Figure 1 shows this stage of the process.

The sheet is now removed from the frame and the background portions of the picture are cut away along the contours of the object l5, so that the latter, for instance the contours of the figure or head of the person shown in the portrait; now become the border lines of the sheet.

These steps are all preliminary steps and-they may of course be carried out in a different sequence in accordance with conditions and with the preference of the operator.

After the picture has been cut out and has been removed from the frame it is placed with its face downward on a work table or board It. A sufficient quantity of a plastic molding mixture has been prepared previously, which is now applied. The molding mixture may consist of 'fiour, water, oil of cloves, alum, plaster of Paris and of a standard brand of adhesive paste, for

instance of a paste of the type known as Library Paste. This term is a well known trade name for paste, the composition of Which is, for instance, described in Bennetts The Chemical Formulary, vol. I, pages 10 and 11. The above named substances are mixed in the desired proportions which may vary. It will also be clear that any other adhesive paste may be used.

To give an example for the molding mixture 2 cups of flour, and 1 tablespoon of alum are mixed with 5 cups of water and are boiled to the desired adhesiveness. Then teaspoon of oil of cloves is added, and about by weight of the desired quantity of the mixture and of Library Paste are mixed and creamed. Then plaster of Paris is added until the proper moldingv consistency has been reached.

The moldin mixture is then applied to the back of the sheet carrying the photograph or picture (Figure 2). Preferably the molding mixture is first applied with a spatula and then at fine points is worked out with a stylus or with any other small rounded instrument which will not puncture the paper. The surfaces which will appear raised in the finished work, for instance, the features of the face, the contours of the body, creases, folds and so forth of the clothing are covered with the molding mixture in proper thickness. The correct amount and thickness of the molding mixture must, however, be left to the judgment of the operator and must be so chosen that the .realistic appearance of the photograph will be the result.

Those portions of the picture or photograph which are to be depressed in the finished work receive a smaller portion of the mixture.

When the proper amount of mixture has been placed on the reverse side of the photograph or picture all the molding mixture is cleaned away from the edges which must be perfectly clear, and paste of the above mentioned type, for instance the above mentioned Standard Library Paste is then spread over the entire reverse side of the photograph and also over the molding mixture which covers the same (Figure 3).

Now the plaque or plate is which forms the background for the finished relief picture is placed on a working table and the photograph or picture is placed with the molding mixture downward and turned towards v the said plaque 18 (Figure 4). Now all the surfaces which are to be depressed are gently pressed to the plaque or plate by the operator. Then the raised surfaces are pressed to the, plaque. This pressing must be done very carefullyand the amount of pressure which is exerted must be finely regulated by the operator as the mixture is still soft in this stage of the process. The edges of the photograph or picture are then pressed smoothly to the plaque by the operator using her fingers, and care must be taken that no air spaces are left.

During the next stage, shown in Figure 5, the detail of the picture is worked outby means of a small instrument or stylus. With this instrument the operator has to shape the features of the face of the portrait and also the body contours, the hair and the clothing in detail.

When this work has been performed the plaque 18 with the relief picture now completely shaped is left to dry at room temperature. Duringthis drying process the molding mixture will harden completely so that a firm and hard relief body, covered by the sheet with the photograph, is

formed. When the relief is set and dry the plaque and the raised picture are'provided with a coating of shellac. The shellac is then allowed to dry and the surface is then sanded with a very fine marine sandpaper. Also the photograph or picture is sanded very gently. Next a coating of clear varnish is applied to the entire plaque and to the relief photograph. The plaque may be left glossy or, if desired, only the background is left glossy and the photograph or picture is given a dull finish by removing the varnish therefrom by means of a linen cloth as soon as the varnish has been applied. In any case the varnish should be allowed to overlap the edges of the photograph in order to permanently cement the photograph to the plaque.

The finished article is shown in Figure 6 and a cross section through the finished article is shown in Figure 7.

From the above description of the process it will be seen that a skilled operator will produce an artistically attractive article of highly realistic appearance consisting in a relief picture of the object, the photograph of which has been used,

which object although still presenting to the observer the full view of a photographic picture, or print will also produce the impression of a relief in three dimensions and will thus replace the impression of a monocular picture viewed in a plane by the impression of a reproduction in space. This impression is produced and highly accentuated by the fact that such an object has a varying system of lights and shadows of its own, changing with the illumination and the relative position of light and relief, and if a suitable photograph is chosen in which the visible and permanent system of lights and shadows may cooperate with the lights and shadows produced by the relief, at least in definite positions, a highly satisfactory three dimensional impression may be obtained, much superior to the flat and monocular view of a picture presented in one plane, as viewed from a fixed standpoint.

While the artistic qualities of the relief will largely depend on the skill of the operator, the process, as described, provides an opportunity to obtain good pictures even without much skill, if a number of rules are observed and merely a single stage of the process, viz. the shaping of the details shown in Figure 5 requires a higher degree of skill.

It will be clear that the process may undergo a number of changes especially with respect to the unessential details without in any way departing from the essence of the invention as defined in the annexed claims.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A process for making pictures in relief from planar photographs on thin or thinned out paper, consisting in tracing on the back of the picture made of thin paper, the lines and areas to be raised and those to remain despressed, in placing the picture face downward on a work plate and in applying a molding composition in an easily moldable state which is capable of hardening, in molding the back surface so as to roughly reproduce the raised and depressed areas of the picture, by covering the raised portions of the picture with a thicker layer of molding material than the depressed portions, the difference corresponding approximately to that to be obtained in the finished picture, in applying an adhesive paste on the entire surface covered with moldable material, in placing the paper picture carrying on its back the molding composition covered with the adhesive paste face up on a plaque, so that the adhesive adheres to the plaque, in bringing the depressed portions manually into contact with the plaque so that the entire back surface now lies in the plan of the plaque, thus producing depressions and raised areas on the thin paper sheet, in manually shaping the fine features of the picture by applying a tool on the front, in pressing the edges of the paper carrying the picture on the plaque so that they adhere to the same around the entire contour, in applying a layer of shellac, and further applying a layer of varnish covering the entire surface including the edges and also including adjacent parts and in drying the relief at room temperature.

2. A process for making partly non-glossy relief pictures as claimed in claim 1, wherein the varnish is removed from the non-glossy portions immediately after application of the varnish.

ODETTE M. VARNER.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 153,048 Chin July 14, 1874 576,047 Fairchild Jan. 26, 1897 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 13,434 Great Britain of

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