The Color Of Traditional Woodcarving Board

Traditional woodcarving board is an important part of wooden sculpture. Color is a basic design element for woodcarving board in addition to decorative patterns and carving technique. This paper focuses on the color of traditional woodcarving board and investigated it from its developing history, color planning, and recovery of traditional color system used on woodcarving board.First of all, we introduced the categories of decorative patterns and the progression of color used on woodcarving board and divided the history of woodcarving board in China into six periods:the beginning period, growing period, developing period, developed period, declining period, and recovering period.Secondly, on the basis of the view of traditional Chinese five-color system that is red, yellow, cyan, white, and black, we analyzed color order in woodcarving board and its characteristics in different history period. In order to protect traditional woodcarving board scientifically, we demonstrated its color characteristics and compared different color match based on the methods of the Munsell color system and CIE. We evaluated typical woodcarving boards with Munsell system in H (hue), V (value), C (saturation) and CIE(The International Commission on Illumination) L* a* b* (1976) color space of L*, a*, b*, respectively. It is vital color data for the repair and protection of the traditional woodcarving boards.Finally, we explored the changing of wood color decorated with different methods by UV aging test. The results showed that the value had a decline trend and chromaticity index tend to red and yellow. After hundreds or even thousands of years exposed to natural environment, the surface sensation of traditional woodcarving board has changed greatly, especially its color. Although we cannot imagine the initial color of woodcarving boards hundred years ago, our research is meaningful for the repairing and reproducing of traditional woodcarving board.