My First Try at a "Real Person" on a Hobo

[Jon C. Dake]

I have been told by people who certainly know a whole lot more about coin carving than I am likely to ever know that I needed to get away from the "not traditional" hobo nickel carving that I was doing and do either a traditional hobo (man with a hat) or a real person. I have opted for what I believe is probably the more difficult of the two. Here is my first attempt at a "real person" on a hobo. The subject of this hobo is supposed to be Charles Lindbergh. The original photo that I modeled this coin after had Lindbergh looking the other direction, and I exercised a bit of "artistic license" and flipped him over. God only knows if that is a no -no. The actual coin, for some reason, actually more closely resembles the photo than the photo of the coin. Your constructive criticism, especially from the coin carvers will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dave London]

Jon
Great job excellent likeness, good finish, Dave

 

[Daniel Houwer]

You asked for constructive criticism, now I am far from being a coin engraver and will probably never be, but I do have some remarks.
The likeness is great!
Just the detail on the gogles and slightly beneath them could be more profound.
Thats just a non coin engraver's opinion
Hopefully soon I'll be posting my (first) engraving attempts for you to judge!

Keep up the good work!

Daniel

 

[Keith]

I think it looks fantastic. You did a Great job..
You will find when you carve the coin and look at the details at different angles it will look different to you.
Keep carving.Have fun it gets addictive Most of the collectors want the traditional man with hat and beard.
Keith

www.keithpedersen.com

 

[Billzach]

Jon
Very nice carving, by carving a famous person like Lindbergh on a coin you have added collectors of aviation items, famous people items, etc, as well as hobo nickel collectors as buyers to you recarved coin...

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Jon

Well done, the modelling/sculpting is looking good........There's a steady improvement in your work everytime you post somthing. Keep it up!!!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Ray Cover]

Jon,

Nice coin. I do have one constructive thing.

The shape of the face, the nose the mouth all are close enough to make the likeness. But watch the shape and size of the eyes.

Ray

 

[Jon C. Dake]

Thank you all for your kind comments and sound advice. Daniel, I agree about the goggles and yes Ray, I did pick up on the eyes, but alas I had already made the fateful cut. I will be paying better attention the next time. Practice makes perfect. I must say that doing the nose was the most difficult and challenging part of the sculpting.

 

[chris]

hi
jon
you have done fantastic but you will find in doing faces if you get the eyes right everething wlll fall in place the eyes are probably the most importent part of the hole engraveing well it is in most other arts painting an such lets here from the coin carvers
thank you chris

 

[coincutter]

Jon

This one is looking great.

I want to see it when it's done.

It's about halfway there on the major details.

Don't worry about the fatal cut. You can always redo the eyes and take everything back a level to regain the modeling. Take a hard look at the bridge of that guys nose compared to the photo. See anything wrong there? Point being you have to really get nit pickin when doing real people. The human face is one thing that people see the most of and they will subconsciously know if something is not right and the bids wont come or the price will drop. So take each area of the face and check it closely against the coin.
Turn both upside down and do the same, again sideways. It has to look real from all directions or in essence it's not there.

Click me

Working with a stock photo is tough - learning to use an embossing filter in a graphics program will give you a better visual to work with and simplify finding your mistakes as you progress through the work.
your eyes will always fool you - the computer will not
SO now yoou can actually see where the plans are off. readjust. I am not saying a major over haul here - just tweaking till you get the hang of it.

Start working in the seams and folds of the leather items, the modeling of the headstraps etc. You want them to look curly and have some character like in the photo. Undercut where necessary get additional depth or to pull up the metal. Smash bash and carve where necessary to move things back. Put in the stitching lines.

Texture the differnt areas of the coin to look like the materials they are made out of - leather vs fuzzy sheep/fur lining of the jacket vs skin glass etc etc.

lay the coin on the photo and look at the way the planes line up relative to each. Adjust the coin so everything looks "normal" perspective wise. Then when all this is done go back and retouch any small details you may have hammered.

Cut some lenses for the goggles out of copper or gold and drop them in.
Put your name on it and call this one a winner.

See ya on Skype. (Bet that will teach you to ask for suggestions huh

 

[monk]

i'm new to the coins, but have painted quite a few portraits in oil. the cutter is right. you start foolin with a face and it draws immediate attention . and if you do a known public figure, man you got to be brave. i can do decent oil portraiture, but have yet to acquire the courage to try it under the scope.

 

[coincutter]

Monk.
It's not so much an issue of courage as much as it is an issue of careful planning.

Doing decent oil painting portraits under the scope is not difficult if you shorten the brush handles to the length necessary to keep from scratching up the lowest lens. But keep in mind you have to be careful that the lights don't catch the painting on fire, otherwise your lens will fog up and your vise will melt down.

 

[Daniel Houwer]

http://www.igraver.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1624

Wauw, mister Coincutter,
Could you tell me/us how and in which program you turned this picture?
I am member of a Historical Metal group and i have to make a coin stamp of a roman coin and I would love to know how to flip the immage of the coin into something that will make it easyer for me to reproduce in hardenable steel.
I'm very busy right now, but in a few weeks I'll try to set up a good question with pictures.

What a great forum this is!

P.S. I use led lights to eluminate my work. Very dry non reflecting light and cold! A litle bleu though.

 

[coincutter]

That was photoexplosion

The gimp will do it and its free
put a pick of the coin up here
we'll see what we can do with it

 

[Daniel Houwer]

Thanks Coincutter,
Can I get back on that in a while?
Probably Apple or not? Must be something in photoshop that does something similar.

Thanks so far

Daniel

 

[coincutter]

emboss filter in PS

 

[Daniel Houwer]

Hello Coincutter,

This is a simular coin. The face is almost the same, only in the time of my coin it should be 15 years of reign by Domitianus.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d51/danielhouwer123/domitianus_01.jpg
Hopefully you can follow this link and give instructions about how to invert the image.
Thanks a lot so far!

 

[Gargoyle]

Look at the line of the eyebrows- in the photo it's pretty straight, even turns up a bit. Yours are very arched, semi-circular. You still have enough metal, take the middle of the eyebrows down and that will flatten the line.

Also, his left cheek (right side of the coin) looks swollen, like he was punched- you have the metal there to take it down and soften it a bit.

(well, you wanted constructive criticism!)

 

[coincutter]

easier for me to do it than you to screw around with it - will take about two seconds

do you want to cut a die for it and then press dupes or what is the desired end product.
let me know

if you are going to carve it positive or negative relief the process ir pretty much the same
with the exception of lighting on the vise to invert your work visually

another option
i can put you in touch with someone who makes these things so you cant even tell they are remakes
and in gold to boot
he is out of the us so there would be postage plus labor
but chances are he already has a slew of them


coincutter@comcast.net

 

[Steve Adams]

This is a good first attempt at a historical person. I have two suggestions. One; keep in mind that the outline as a whole and the placement of each feature has to be as close as possible to the original. Two; Break down each feature and really study howthey are shaped, and how each feature ties into the other. On a personal note, I always make an actual size transparency from a line drawing to hold over my portraits, this lets me know if anything is out of place. If one thing isn't right, it throws the rest off too. Consider the transparency a map for the face. Once I know where everything starts and stops, it then is a matter of shaping a tweaking over and over. Anyone who can do such a nice job early on can look forward to better and better things. Steve Adams