Critique Request First scroll

[T.G.III]

Running this by the group before I get much deeper into the process as this is my first attempt to fill a space with scroll, just curious if it's a design worthy of cutting.

Buck knife bolster

 

[Stratos21]

I like it

 

[pilkguns]

sure. cut it,
draw, cut, draw, cut, draw, cut.
each one will teach you how to do the other one better

 

[Matthew Evans]

To add some flare and interest, Change the leaf shape ever so slightly to emphasize the growth like one would see in nature. Adding a border is always a good option to give it a polished and framed look. Great start sir, and Mr. Pilkington is spot on as always.

 

[monk]

without a bit of a border, yer graver will go off into infinity. as previously mentioned, cut the design. then, and only then, will your design skills show their true nature.there's one substitute for practice: do more practice on odd shapes, even difficult, crazy shapes. this will enhance yer overall ability to effectively fill shapes in an artistic manner.

 

[T.G.III]

Thank you thank you thank you,

Appreciate the input on this, my main concern at this point is structure and weather or not I have acceptable design balance, the permanent black line is the design border.

Matt, not sure about changing the leaf shape, plan to shrink this down to size and look into adding some select fold overs etc. but want to see how much room I have to work with, this is my honest to goodness first attempt at a complete scroll to fit a given space.

Thanks again to all who replied and please do keep the input coming, I'll take all the critique you're willing to give.

 

[T.G.III]

cutting my way through the kinks in the design

 

[John B.]

Some nice cutting, TG.
Couple of things you might consider.
The scroll backbone gets very thin where it emerges from the originating loop.
Hard to visualize it supporting the large. following leaves.
And the big final leaf coming off the center bud defies nature.
Several smaller leaves would be more appropriate.

 

[T.G.III]

Some nice cutting, TG.
Couple of things you might consider.
The scroll backbone gets very thin where it emerges from the originating loop.
Hard to visualize it supporting the large. following leaves.
And the big final leaf coming off the center bud defies nature.
Several smaller leaves would be more appropriate.

Thank you John,

Some things you never know you cannot do until somebody tells you so, appreciate you giving your time and input on this, I did see how the backbone got ridiculously thin at the origination point, once you make that cut..... Think I'll go back to my original drawing posted above and cut it, Thanks again for taking the time to steer me back on course.

 

[John B.]

Thank you T. G.
Another option for that final leaf area would be some outside leaves off of the originating loop and maybe a smaller scroll from the outside of the large scroll backbone.
We have all looked back with regrets at some of our cutting, and that situation never ends.
Good plan to draw it first and give it some time and study your options before cutting.
Your original drawing, with a couple of tweaks, was pretty good.

 

[T.G.III]

Your original drawing, with a couple of tweaks, was pretty good.

John if you would care to expound upon this I would be most grateful.

Cutting the original drawing I have found that the backbone at the origination point is narrow again, looking at the design It shows a definite separation of the leaf element and backbone but when I cut it to scale that separation is lost and it looks as though the backbone is narrower than it is, that requires a design change to fix it.

Thanks Again.

 

[John B.]

Thank you T. G. You are well on your way.

In your original the backbone was too thin as it emerged from the first leaf. Change it
The backbone at the top of the scroll ran beyond the border. Change it.
Reduce the size of your design to fit within the area of the bolster.

All the backbones, where they return to meet all the leaves, become too thin. Change them.

You may like the big leaves as is, and with shading, nothing wrong.
They also offer a good canvas for some fold-overs if you like them.
Consider fold-overs if it's not above your present pay scale.

I like the way you relieved the background with multi single point cuts. Well done.
Do you intend to leave as-is or to punch, flat or stipple down?

Just my two-cents. You and others may have a different opinions.

 

[T.G.III]

Thank you T. G. You are well on your way.

In your original the backbone was too thin as it emerged from the first leaf. Change it
The backbone at the top of the scroll ran beyond the border. Change it.
Reduce the size of your design to fit within the area of the bolster.

All the backbones, where they return to meet all the leaves, becomes too thin. Change them.

You may like the big leaves as is, and with shading, nothing wrong.
They also offer a good canvas for some fold-overs if you like them.
Consider fold-overs if it's not above your present pay scale.

I like the way you relieved the background with multi single point cuts. Well done.
Do you intend to leave as-is or to punch, flat or stipple down?

Just my two-cents. You and others may have a different opinions.

Thank you John,

You are a treasure to this forum, already fixed the border over-runs, will work on the narrow backbones and add some weight to them, I am going to add leaf fold overs and the background will be relieved and stippled, the single point background treatment was done to show contrast and more importantly to practice graver control. This project has an unlimited budget, the pocket knife is one of a pair and belonged to my late father-in-law.

Thanks Again

 

[John B.]

Thank you T. G.
Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[Mike Bissell]

Try keeping your graver to the negative area side of your design instead of centering your graver on the design, which will end up making your design smaller or narrower. I hope I have explained this correctly.

 

[John B.]

Try keeping your graver to the negative area side of your design instead of centering your graver on the design, which will end up making your design smaller or narrower. I hope I have explained this correctly.

Mike makes a VERY important point that is easy to overlook.

 

[T.G.III]

Try keeping your graver to the negative area side of your design instead of centering your graver on the design, which will end up making your design smaller or narrower. I hope I have explained this correctly.

Mike,
Thank you for that, pencil drawings don't tell the whole story at all, generally I was pleased with the design and how it cuts, at the origination point of the scroll it looks good on paper but in practice the converging cuts don't contrast enough so the narrow backbone is lost and looks anemic at that point.

With design changes to resolve that issue as well as the thin backbones and the overall changes associated with that I should have better luck on the next go around, and will avoid those built in flaws all together on future projects.

Can see the wisdom in Scott's post above, so many helpful folks here.