Marlyn

[Tezash]

Hello to cafe members!

The attached Hobo Nickel carving is Marlyn Monroe's figure. On the background her signature is engraved. I also attached the picture that I coppied to carve. As always your comments are appriciated. Tez.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Tez

The signature is a nice touch.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[joseph engraver]

Work on it some more;you are 3/4s there.Patience is a dicipline.

 

[Ron Smith]

Tez, the critical part of doing portraits is the eyes. I always get them right first, and I see a problem with the likeness due to this. You don't notice it so much up close, but one eye (Her right one) looks higher than the other at a distance. It is very good over all and the quality of work is good, but likenesses are very very hard to maintain and begin to fall apart if you don't get really serious about your transfer techniques. The width of a line can make a big difference, so get your transfer as fine lined as you can get it and still see it, and be very critical in your cutting. Sculpting is another matter and difficult, so you have done a very good job on this scale and working under the scope is a great advantage, but as you move away, the very slight, microscopic flaws become more visible.

Small portraits are very hard to do, so you have done it well, but maximising your transfer potential would help a little. Half a scribe line makes a difference this small and on this scale. I'm not sure I could do it much better, and sometimes when you have been looking at it for a very long time, you can't "see". I show portraits to my wife or someone else often before i make the leap or consider it finished, and turning the drawing over sometimes allows you to see relativity of lines. A mirror helps too, or flip it over on the computer, both the original and your work. this might help expose any flaws that you haven't caught.

Ron S

 

[sdcoxx]

Tez,
It has been awhile.... Good to see you are finding time to do a nickel...
The collectors will love your Marilyn, good subject...
Take Care,
Stephen

 

[Tezash]

Thank you all for your kind comments.
Andrew, thank you very much, I always encoraged with your comments. Your tutorial is invalueble lesson to me, it is very helpful.

Joseph: Thank you for your comment, if you comment me in what what area nees more, I will be glad.

Stephen: I was away for a while, my kids and house hold responsibility are taking my time. It may take me another two years before I get back my free time.

Ron Smith: Thank you for your time, I read your comment very carefuly. As you said, the right eye is high a little bit. I cannot see this under my microscope, I see only a part of it well magnified at a time, if I wanted to see the hole surface of the coin at one time, the magnification would be small, so it is a problem to compare relatively one part to onother. My other problem is the tools, the tools should be very small, I tried to minimize my tools, but still needs to be smaller. Also, as you mentioned, transfering is a problem, because the surface is rough, it is not smooth due to the erasure of the previous figure.
Again thank you for your comment and I will keep it handy for my next carving. BTW I enjoyed your new book, still I am learning.

Tez.