Drawings

[Miranda Hoffmann]

I'm not in a hurry, I'm just anxious! But you are all right, I will practice on the metal pieces I have until I feel comfortable with my work and can engrave a gun with confidence. I'll do some this week and post the pictures so you all can see them. Hopefully I can photograph them correctly...I don't have one of those nice white boxes to set it in yet.

I'd like to thank you all again, very much. I look forward to reading your comments every day and have been taking notes. I hope you all realize how grateful I am to you for your help. I couldn't do it without you! (Or at least, it would be ten times harder and would take me forever to figure out!!) Anyway, you guys are great.

-miranda

 

[Tom Curran]

Miranda, if you cut a hole in a plastic gallon milk jug, put your work inside and photo it through the hole. You can use desk lamps, clamp lamps, etc to illuminate. The plastic diffuses the light nicely without the expense.

tom

 

[Ron Smith]

The leaves at the top and bottom in picture No.1 look fine, but I would turn the one on the top to match the one on the bottom. Go over the leaf design at the bottom of your drawing, below the buffalo with a soft lead pencil. Place a piece of tracing paper over that and burnish it. Shift it to the location at the top of the design, turn it over, and burnish it there. You will get a very light representation of your original design, but good enough to see to improve on. This is one wayto get that same design accurate and duplicate.

I wouldn't background this design as you have a situation because of the mass of your background, that after backgrounding your scroll design would look enemic. Try that in practice and you will see what I mean, but I mean black it in with your soft lead pencil. This will reveal the shrinking phenominom that occurs that all engravers are familiar with.

You have a nice balanced design here, but I think it would benifit from a little shading in the stems of your scrolls. You can do that with a liner tool if you don't try to make drastic turns. It is a difficult tool to handle on small designs, but if you can handle it, it would improve the intensity of the design. Don't do however, what you feel you are incapable of doing. Stay within the limits of your skill level. Practice with the liner tool first and if it isn't working don't risk it. You could run a few parallel lines along the edges of the scrolls to give you some contrast, but that isn't totally necessary. It will just give you a little more intensity.

I don't know that you need to practie the whole design, but practice never hurts if you are not confident, so do what you have to to get comfortable that you can do it. That helps to defeat the anxiety you are feeling, and don't hesitate to ask guys on the forum for help. We don't mind and that is what the forum is for.......Best of luck, keep us posted, and go for it!........Ron S

 

[pilkguns]

Miranda, you have got some great advice from Ron and a few others. No offense to Bill T though, but you don't need any mechanical drawing devices. What you are doing is exactly what you need to be doing. Period. Drawing them by hand is faster, much more efficient, allows you to see the design in relation to the shape it is being put on, and will make you a better artist in the long run. What you have on paper looks good already, but can improved on more as noted in this read.

 

[ddushane]

Miranda, I like your drawings, I personally like the 4th one with the dog in it the best, the dog really looks good and the scrolls look to fit that style of gun better, but that's just me. I've been staying in the back ground because I'm not one that has any advise to give at this point in my engraving, I'm still new at this myself. There is a lot of good advise the pro's are giving you. One thing I will say, and you've already said you're going to, is practice on something else first, I find, being a beginner myself, that if after drawing and drawing and erasing and drawing, I'll finally print off several, say six transparencies, so I'll have some to practice with then put it on the project. I'll cut a practice piece or two and this will help me getting use to that particular drawing then when I cut in the project it seems to go smoother. Time is not as big a concern to me as it is for someone making a living off of it. Be sure to post your progress, wish I could get my daughters into engraving, got one that might later on. Hang in there and listen to all these other guys advise, Dwayne

 

[Miranda Hoffmann]

Thank you Tom for your advice on photographing my work...that sounds like a good plan until I get better equipment!

I'm working on a new design right now and should have something fairly finished by the end of the week if I have the time. I'm using everyone's advice (minus the French curves until I get the chance to check them out and see if I would be comfortable using them) while making these up so I hope they turn out better. I'm pleased that all in all most of you like my drawings for the most part and that I just need to make them more simple and improve on the quality. I can't say enough how grateful I am for all of your help and guidance. You're making this process much smoother for me and I feel that I'll be able to fulfill my dreams of becoming an impressive engraver like all of you someday. (Corny I know, but it's the truth...) I will be thankful to just bask in the glow of your greatness.... Okay, I'll stop now....

Miranda

 

[Ron Smith]

Miranda, I don't see any of us as any different. It is that spirit that gets you there anyway. Only a few years seperate us, and your character is your most important tool. Passion is the force behind it, and it determines your speed of advancement. Just keep chipping away, you will get there, and there is no lack of help these days, so your advancement will be swift compared to mine. Good luck to you...........Ron S

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Miranda

One thing that helped me a lot with scrolls is one of those plastic template sets. John B very kindly sent me them and you can buy them from GRS and N-Graver, they are very cheap to buy. A good way to use them is to draw your scroll lightly first and then lay the template over the top to check to see if it's right. It's quite a good way of doing it and at the very beginning can save a bit of frustration.

Like anything else it's an aid to designing scrolls and can be very helpful. After a while you find that you don't need them as such but they can still be useful in a lot of tricky areas. I've personally found them to be a very handy thing to have.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Big-Un]

May I suggest you read Sam's information on the "golden mean" for scrolls. I learned a lot about proportion and a scroll's symmetry from it and always remember to check it whenever I draw them now. I think knowing what to look for in design keeps you sharp and will keep your art properly symmetrical and balanced.

 

[ChrisB]

Miranda,
If You Would Like to Spend Some Time In Africa, Jacques and of Course Myself,!! Will Teach You Some African Themes To Use in Your Designs.!!
These Guyes have been Vary Helpfull, You must Take a Month or Two, to Absorb the Info, And Go With Your Own Gut Feel,
Picasso Haven't Sold A painting, Sorry One in his Lifetime!!
Go With Your Gut Girl, It Will Work Out.!!

 

[Miranda Hoffmann]

Thanks! I WISH I could go to Africa! That would be fun...

I did some practice engraving yesterday and came across one issue...while turning the vice to cut a scroll, at some point my knuckle hits the metal and I either have to lift my hand, which changes the angle in the cut and makes it too deep, or stop and hold the graver differently which is incorrect and the cuts don't come out nice and smooth. What do you all normally do when this happens?? Am I holding it wrong or could the fact the the graver might be a little too long make the difference?? I didn't seem to have this problem with the smaller practice plates, but I am with the bigger ones. Anyone have any advice or even know what I'm talking about??

 

[KCSteve]

Miranda

Are you hitting during the turn or what? One of the bits of advice I got from the GRS folks while playing around at BLADE was to stop the graver and reposition my turning hand just before I reached the end of what I could do without moving my fingers.

I'm trying to think - I've got the feeling that my hand pretty much rides over the vice / plate most of the time. But I've got hands like large rocks so I'm used to that sort of problem.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Miranda

I could be wrong here but it maybe worth trying..................

Raise your heel angle. I'm presuming that the heel angle you are useing at the moment is 15 degrees. Try 17.5 degrees to see if that makes a difference.

If you find that works but it causes wrist fatique then drop the angle back slightly.

There is no "correct" angle as it varies from person to person and the way you work and the surface you are working on. Sometimes you have to raise or lower your heel depending on the circumstance.

One or two degrees can make a big difference to your hand/wrist position.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Andrew

 

[ChrisB]

Miranda,
I had that problem in the Beginning, Especially engraving on knife bolsters and folder that has a Curved Surface, I then changed my heel angle to 17.5deg like andrew suggests, and it works like a Charm.!!

 

[Miranda Hoffmann]

Okay great! I'll change my heel angle tonight and let you know how it goes. Thanks!!!

 

[Miranda Hoffmann]

Hi everyone! I changed the heel from 15 degrees to 17.5 and you were right...it made all the difference in the world!!! Thank you so much for the tip! My cuts are deeper, smoother and much more brilliant...and I don't have much problem with my knuckles hitting anymore. Yet again, you all are wonderful!!!