Still not much but I am feeling better about my tools and how to use them. I am kind of torn on if I like the claw marks or not, I did them to hid my slip scratches.
being able to hide mistakes can sometimes drive one nuts. looks to me like your background treatment was pretty effective. your first goal here, as i see it, is to have fun with what you're doing. this work can get very tedious, but that can still allow you to enjoy what it is you're doing. practice drawing til it becomes a part of you, for the entire engraving result rests totally on good design.
There's not a whole lot to critique here, DiamondCactus. Your cuts are simple and there's no detail in the scrolls. I would say that you should hone your skills at laying out and cutting perfectly proportioned scroll backbones. Some of these are kind of egg shaped. I might approach the design a bit differently by placing something circular or diamond shaped in the center and then scrolling out from that shape as opposed to the S-shaped scroll you have there. The florentine finish looks like it's doing its job