Chiaroscuro on Chocolate Block

Chiaroscuro is an Italian word that means light and dark. Da Vinci pioneered the use of chiaroscuro to create the illusion of relief on a two dimensional surface. I practiced the style copying the masters on canvas before but now I came up with the idea of applying it on an 11 pound block of Belgian chocolate to make it look like a fresco that came off the wall. I chose one of Da Vinci's angels for the distinctive smile like the popular one in the Louvre. This will be my second piece. This is a special request from friends who enjoyed the first one. They came away with a piece of the Belgian chocolate happy and still talk about it now and then. They somehow intimated that they want to see it again so I am going to surprise them with another one. This is for the Christmas party. It is made with just 3 ingredients, white and dark chocolate and saffron. The picture weighed about 12 pounds when it was finished with all the additional decorations. A no-bake dessert, just melting, glueing, dabbing and scraping. I used my index finger to dab on the image and some homemade tools. Here's how.

I started of with 2 blocks of Belgian chocolate, white and dark. Melted some of the dark and white in 2 separate melters, about a cup each. When melted I put the dial to warm to always be ready to use. This time I did not use my chocolate tempering machine because there wasn't a lot to melt.

Glued the molding at the top with melted chocolate, of course and carved some design and simulated cracks and wear to make it look like marble. Dabbed some dark chocolate on parts I wanted to be visible. The brush was for clearing the shavings.

Then I started copying the angel from a huge book cover. I dabbed with index finger mostly dark chocolate on white and middle finger with saffron for the yellow hue. The saffron was ground with a few drops of hot water. Scrapped the excess chocolate now an then to get the light and dark effect.

I was careful in making the face and not so much with the rest of the picture for after all it came off the wall with a bit of damage.

The peculiar smile was the hardest to copy for me. I kept scraping and dabbing a lot.

When I finally got the far away look of the angel, I let it stay the same and not try to improve it anymore.

I declared it finished and put it on an easel otherwise I will not stop retouching it! She's now ready to welcome the guests.