Critique Request Bulino work

[KeelingCustoms]

Hey all, I’m halfway finished with this Spyderco and thought I’d share my progress.
I’m starting to feel comfortable with my bulino lines but I’m still struggling with bulino dots.
I feel that’s it’s very difficult to get them to blend smoothly and consistently without it getting too dark and clumpy.
I’m using a 70 degree graver on the Lindsay bulino template without a heel for the dots and a 116 graver on the Lindsay template with a very short heel for the lines.
If you have advice on getting bulino dots smoother, finer, and more consistent please let me know what works for you!
I’ve found for my lines that using a “dull” graver seems to work well for achieving very light “grey” lines, and then going back in with a sharper graver to deepen and darken the higher contrast areas.
Any advice or constructive criticism is always welcome.
Thanks!

 

[FANCYGUN]

very nicely done. Perhaps a few more darker lines on the left side of the jaw in the hair to brink it out the jaw a bit more like you have on the right side. Do as you feel it and not try to make a photo.

 

[John B.]

Well done!
Probably the best pair of engraved animal eyes I have seen in a long while!

 

[Adder]

Hey all, I’m halfway finished with this Spyderco and thought I’d share my progress.
I’m starting to feel comfortable with my bulino lines but I’m still struggling with bulino dots.
I feel that’s it’s very difficult to get them to blend smoothly and consistently without it getting too dark and clumpy.
I’m using a 70 degree graver on the Lindsay bulino template without a heel for the dots and a 116 graver on the Lindsay template with a very short heel for the lines.
If you have advice on getting bulino dots smoother, finer, and more consistent please let me know what works for you!
I’ve found for my lines that using a “dull” graver seems to work well for achieving very light “grey” lines, and then going back in with a sharper graver to deepen and darken the higher contrast areas.
Any advice or constructive criticism is always welcome.
Thanks!

Don`t have any advice for you, but I really like it. Very nicely done !!

Jørn-Ove

 

[DaveAtWeirs]

First off, phenomenal work. the shading work in the teeth in particular is so good! that subtle highlight on the back of the tooth from the light coming in the side of it's mouth is just ... damn.

anyways, I don't use it for bullino but at a larger scale I use an onglet with a rounded bottom, kinda like those rounded hand-push gravers but smaller. I've found that with a bit of practice you can get it to kinda click out little inverted domes like the rounded gravers, makes for filling in spaces/adding shading on a signet or the like much quicker that stippling. obviously try it on a bit of scrap or whatever first but maybe a 70 degree with a slightly rounded bottom might work for doing tiny dots?

 

[KeelingCustoms]

First off, phenomenal work. the shading work in the teeth in particular is so good! that subtle highlight on the back of the tooth from the light coming in the side of it's mouth is just ... damn.

anyways, I don't use it for bullino but at a larger scale I use an onglet with a rounded bottom, kinda like those rounded hand-push gravers but smaller. I've found that with a bit of practice you can get it to kinda click out little inverted domes like the rounded gravers, makes for filling in spaces/adding shading on a signet or the like much quicker that stippling. obviously try it on a bit of scrap or whatever first but maybe a 70 degree with a slightly rounded bottom might work for doing tiny dots?

Thanks for the advice! I’ll give it a try!

 

[KeelingCustoms]

Well done!
Probably the best pair of engraved animal eyes I have seen in a long while!

Thanks John!

 

[KeelingCustoms]

very nicely done. Perhaps a few more darker lines on the left side of the jaw in the hair to brink it out the jaw a bit more like you have on the right side. Do as you feel it and not try to make a photo.

Thanks Marty, I’ll give it some more attention!

 

[Davesobel]

Very nice work! I was admiring this on IG the other day. I haven’t tried my hand at bulino yet, but I did a bunch of pen and ink stippled drawings years ago, and I think the technique is probably similar. I’d do my dark edges and deep shadows first, and then the get the mid and light tones, I’d make my dots as random as possible and spaced as far apart as I could then gradually make them closer together in the areas that needed darkening until I got the tone I wanted.