Chapter IV: Bas Relief

And now, seeing that we have gone through a fair number of outline studies, preparatory for the more important part of filling in, we will commence with what we may call—

SKETCHES IN BAS RELIEF.

Here we have to study the anatomy of whatever we intend to portray in a more intensified form than hitherto, as, within the finest of outlines, while yet wet, the body has to be “squeezed” with light pressure for comparatively flat parts and heavier pressure for the more prominent or muscular parts. The glacé Royal must not be so stiff for this purpose as you would have it for string work on a wedding cake, neither must it be “sloppy,” but just so that it will settle down nicely.

To make a start, we will take a spaniel dog and pheasant, which will be an appropriate design for almost any sporting function, or, indeed, a Christmas cake, as, during the festive season, there are plenty of purchasers who have sporting proclivities. Though the outline of a dog has been given before, it was of a different type and position; so to make a repetition of it would be useless. For this purpose moreover, we want it looking the reverse way, and for the purposes of earlier stages of Bas Relief we had better still commence fine outlines, filling the body in afterwards. Pipe the head looking upwards and the ears rather inclined forward, and after the body line and legs are completed you may commence to fill in. Although we have a good indication of the ear at this stage, it will be as well to leave its final touches till the whole picture is dry or nearly so, as, considering the rather soft state of the glacé Royal it will not do to overload it, or it might break bounds and spread too far each way. Having so far completed the dog by filling in those parts which constitute the shoulders, ribs, hind quarters, &c., as in illustration, the pheasant may now be put in. It is not flying in the same direction as those previously depicted, and, as it is going from left to right, it will be slightly more difficult of manipulation. When the head, body, and tail are finished, it will be as well to let them dry before adding the wings, for the same reasons mentioned in connection with the dog’s ears; and while they are drying, the blades of grass, fern leaves, trunk of tree and branches may be added. For some of these, a small quantity of the glacé Royal may be separated and a little more sugar added in order to make it stiffer, for some of the blades of grass and stems of fern leaves require to be rather fine to give it a natural effect.

Care should be taken as much as possible to get the relative proportions of dogs and birds or horses and men, when grouped together, especially where represented in the foreground, as it tends to make a distinction in breed and size: for instance, if the dog represented above was intended to be a retriever, he would have to be made larger, while the pheasant would remain the same.

It is not usual to introduce the comic element in cake decoration, but at Christmas time, when happiness and merriment are rife, and good wishes to that end are plentiful enough, a few subjects bordering on the comic are admissible. So I introduce one here, which will explain itself; it should be piped on a dark ground—chocolate for preference—either in medallion form—or chocolate icing run in an oval or a circle on the top of the cake. The mule may be piped first, on the same principle as mentioned previously, and the men afterwards and if the icing is rather soft it will be as well to let their bodies dry before adding the arms. The reason for this is obvious, for whereas the muscles of a horse or dog are blended in, so to speak, with the surrounding flesh, the arms of a man are “hung on” as it were, and, therefore, stand out from the body; therefore, they should be piped on after the body is dry to give the high relief that is necessary. Care should be taken in getting the correct distances of the men from the animal, otherwise the general idea of “pushing” and “pulling” will be lost.

Another design with a sporting title might be here introduced. It is an incident which might be seen in any country district where rabbits abound, and it might as well figure in a piping sketch as in any other form of illustration. It is almost needless to relate the circumstances, but briefly the rabbit has been surprised in his feeding ground by a fox terrier, and a terrible race for life has been the result; but although a good distance had to be covered, and a fence negotiated between “bunny” and his burrow, he has succeeded at the finish and “Won by a Length.”

In piping small subjects, there are times when you may venture to “squeeze” out the miniature animals without going over the perfect outline first, and this fox terrier, with body and legs extended, may be treated in that way. The head and neck may be done first, a little extra pressure for depth of shoulder and thickness of barrel, finer round the loins, and then the thigh with the hind leg extended. The posts and rails will form a short lesson in perspective piping—for we have to make them fairly substantial in the foreground—and gradually lessen or melt away to the distance. In order to do this, we must get the first post high and solid in comparison with the rest, and keep shortening them, and making them thinner as they recede. It is necessary to manage the horizontal rails, too, in a similar way. The intervening span between the fence and burrows may be piped in a series of irregular curved lines, for we want it to appear like a ditch; the grasses and ferns in the bank on the left should be piped in with icing which has been made a little stiffer than that used for the animals, and the branches of the tree will require the same medium.

Yet another “serio comic” subject may be introduced, in which again the popular fox terrier is in evidence, in which, too, his arch enemy the domestic cat has to use her climbing powers to get out of his way. It will serve as a companion picture to the foregoing; moreover, it will make a variation in the attitude of dogs under different conditions. I think in this group it is as well to finish the tree first, and then introduce the cat on the branch, this being the main object in the picture. The right-hand dog can then be piped, especial care being taken in the head, as he is supposed to be looking intently upwards, and his ears may be placed rather forward so as to convey the impression that the whole of his attention is “focussed” on the one spot. As in the case of the preceding terrier, the body may be piped without the assistance of a complete outline, or with it, according to the advance the student may have made, and the method adopted above will answer equally well for this. The dog on the left, which is partly hidden by the trunk of the tree, may now be piped, care being taken to get the head well elevated, as also with his companion on the other side. The irregular strokes, which represent the ground, will by this time cause little difficulty to the student, always bearing in mind the bold strokes for the foreground and the fine ones for the background. Here is introduced a small stream at the foot of the tree; it serves to break up the continuity of the ground, and slightly adds to the rustic appearance of the scene. Very faint outlines of a cottage in the distance may be lightly added, when the subject, as a piping sketch, may be considered complete.

Before advancing towards more extended designs, one more minor subject may be given—bordering as it is, on the comic side. Mr. Phil May has given us many ludicrous types of men under the heading “Songs and their Singers”; but this little snow scene is not intended in any way to clash or “pirate” his creations, but simply to stand or fall on its own merits or demerits, as a freak of fancy. It has appeared many times on Christmas and other cakes, and, in the eyes of a certain section of buyers, it is held just as “taking” for the festive season as the more prosaic “Robin on the twig.” The method of doing this subject is fairly simple, the man with the heavy stick being piped in first, after which a heavy ground may be done, and before this is allowed to dry, a few rather long indentations may be made to represent the “Footsteps in the Snow”; the leafless trees in the background may be added, and numerous small flaky dots distributed all over the surface, which will give it a rather realistic effect.

Coming to a more complicated, and therefore a more ambitious, subject altogether, it will be advisable for the pupil to provide himself with a fairly large surface of some kind to practice on—such as the back of an ordinary black tea-tray. The subject itself is not exactly taken from life, but is mainly drawn from the imagination, as a result of reading descriptions in the sporting press of this class of shooting. We have had, in the preceding sketches, dogs in various attitudes on land: this last design will serve if only to illustrate them for an aquatic purpose, and by grouping these and several other “items” together make up a picture in sugar which will tell its own tale. This is a subject which may be started anywhere almost, but perhaps, the boat and its occupants should receive our attention first, as we can then “draw” up to it from the left afterwards. Proceed, then, to pipe the boat first and the man who is shooting next, to be followed by the man who is seated, also the dog; the reeds may then be added, and the best method of doing these is to start at the base of the stem, and, with a graceful sweep, bring them to a point—the majority of them bending to the breeze in one direction. The stems at the base should be kept fairly level, as they have to be represented as growing in water; and, to give this effect, rather irregular horizontal lines have to be piped, longer, and fairly thick, in the foreground, and fewer and less numerous as they recede. The dog swimming with a bird in his mouth can be piped in now, also the small reedy island with the water spaniel on it. I have omitted to state the cloudy effect has been obtained simply by rubbing some fine dry icing sugar on the ground work with the forefinger, and it is as well to do this really before any piping is put on at all, or it can be left out entirely—just as a matter of taste. The flock of wild fowl, which we may imagine have been driven from their hiding place by the dogs, will be now introduced, and one or two of them must bear unmistakable evidence of having been “hard hit” by the gunner, and, therefore, should be depicted well in the line of fire from the fowling-piece.