help! guidance needed.

[JohnC]

Well I spent the day on this image.

As an analog guy living an digital world, I learned one good thing and a couple of not so good things.

1G) If your printer isn't capable of reversing the image, you can copy the image onto a sheet of transparency film. This transparency can be flipped over to reverse the image.

1B) If you look at the plate you'll see I had real trouble with faces. Any guidance will be appreciated short of give -up. I have retired now, I have the time and I am determined to learn more and get better.

 

[dcurrie911]

Hi John. 1st and foremost, never give up....

I’m not exactly sure what help your asking about and not sure of your other pieces look like. Have you done any scroll work? Are you push engraving or using power assist? Without knowing about your background I will just talk to a few items.

1) your cuts look pretty good. With exception of the right side of the boat your cuts are pretty consistent Indicating good graver control.

2) regarding the images they could use a little improvement. Be careful not to over exaggerate the facial expressions like the smile. Both are out of proportion and too large. The man’s back is too hunched over and his hand is gripping the pole is wrong.

no matter what you are cutting there is one basic rule, if you can’t draw it you can’t cut it. I attached a picture of a leopard that I plan to engrave. the top is an early version and the lower is after many many hours of tweaking. I could have cut the top drawing perfectly and it still would have looked goofy. Every change I made on paper (or Procreate) helped me to learn and was much cheaper and easier than erasing metal. if you spend more time drawing than cutting in your early years it will pay off later.

Dan

 

[JohnC]

My drawing skills are weak , for the most part I favor line drawing. I may never be an artist but I what to be a craftsman. If I can cut drawings found on the internet I will get better. My wife grins when thinking of my artistic ability. I doubt I will ever be able to draw a cat like the example you attached, but sooner or later I want to be able to cut a reasonable good one.
I used an Andu graver with 3/32 round blank. I also used 2.0 cheater glasses. My John Shippers calls my main practice scroll a Rococo scroll. My hammer and chisel cutting is usually deep cut. I may try cutting the design with the hammer and chisel just to see the difference. In any event more practice is better.

This effort was a distraction from my regular practice. I should be getting close to 100 hours between instruction and practice. I just purchased Chris DeCamillis Bulino video. My GRS 90 degree graver may be part of the problem Chris shows how to sharpen a 50 degree graver. I'll keep working at it Every thing I really wanted to do I learned by experience. Programming Access data bases, Managing a Fortune 500 fleet operation then a Municipal Fleet operation. All of those took a lot of time and effort. Watching videos and reading books have been my initiation to engraving for 10 years while I was still working. Now I am retired and my new big challenge is to become skillful with the hammer and chisel and power assisted graver.

Submitting photos of my work should give others satisfaction of their accomplishments and aid and encourage me to better skills and workmanship too.

Thank you Dan.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. Your comments have helped me to see the work better. The faces I still have a lot of work to improve, but the poor guys hands I could have done better.

 

[dcurrie911]

Your welcome. Seems as though you are on the right path. I started with Chris’s videos too. BTW, I am a retired engineer and never an artist, don’t underestimate what you can do with time, practice and determination.

 

[monk]

jmho--- there's no skill more important than that of drawing. if you get serious about this line of work, youll eventually try transfers onto compound curves. really challenging to do. why not try drawing basic scroll shapes without the more complicated internal details ? in any event, much drawing practice should be on your list of things to do. who knows, maybe there's an artist living in you just waiting to come out of the closet !

 

[Chujybear]

Personally, I love it.

Some times the soul gets lost in the perfection

 

[papart1]

it wonders some times also

 

[monk]

i'll also add, the scale (size) of the figures in the boat would be quite difficult to do in the form of a line drawing. for that matter, it would be rather tricky to do in bulino. the smaller the figure, you'll have far less meaningful control over detail. if you look at certain oil paintings by the old masters, smallish human figures tend to be more of an illusion, rather than an anatomically correct image. many resemble a blob of paint, with no detail. your brain simply tells you what it is you're looking at, and supplies "detail that is not there"

 

[Dave London]

As far as actual engraving putting chip on the floor, it takes a lot of practice boring practice, did I say boring. Scribe lines on a practice plate and when you can cut straight lines equal in depth and width, start curves the same practice. Have to walk before you run, also when you start on round and concave items it is like starting all over from the beginning.
Take your time and have fun MTC