practice 12 guage

[shonn]

my first shotgun
Well here is my most recent project a 12 gauge single shotgun that my father had laying around in his car garage it was very rusty and pitted with rust took me some time to just sand it down and get it fairly smooth to even start the process. After doing my smoke pull I started drawing out my design (by hand) but I have learned that I should use my computer more my lines are not as even as I would have liked them to be. Even though this is my first shot gun I have ever engraved on, with the different curves and fun obstacles I really did learn a lot on what next I need to do when I do my next gun,
For one thing I cut my outlines way too deep and that caused problems later on when I removed the back ground my outlines where either to thick or to thin, and I think my scroll heads are too thick and I will need to make adjustments next time I draw them out, I plan on using my adobe illustrator more for the lines to be more even. I did like the shading and I got much better at it on the second side (the side without the name “sears on itâ€￾) here is some pics of the process that I went through, the only problem is I didn’t take pitchers of it when it was very rusty to show you what had to be done to get it ½ way shiny.
I added some gun blueing at the end to give it more of a old look and it kinda took some of the luster away from it I don’t know if I like it with the blueing or not( I can always take it off later I suppose) and with my pitchers I can see more of my shading mistakes but practice like this will only help to improve the skills .

this was very fun to do. maybe after 10 more years of doing it the work i am turning out will be more like yours.

or i can think of it this way for all you new people to engraving this will make you feel better it is hard to compare work with others that have been doing engraving for most all of there life.
sorry for all the pitchers i just wanted to share how i do things if you see any thing i should change in my design or lay out or advice please feel free to share i am allways learning and need to learn

thank you for you time
shonnpaul
__________________

 

[shonn]

more photo

 

[Haraga.com]

You are well on your way to success. Keep going!

 

[JJ Roberts]

Shonn..I agree with Haraga. Keep up the good work.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA
www.angelire.com/va2/engraver

 

[pilkguns]

Your shading looks very good, nice and tight and gradually coming together. The scroll execution and rotundity is Okay, certainly I don’t see anything terrible, and that you probably don’t see already. Using an old gun like this for a full project is great way to learn, and something I highly recommend to get people off practice plates. Your design at this stage is the weakest link. At first glance it looks good, at second glance many things start to look off a bit.

Lets do the numbers
2-3 is your main starter scroll. It also can be 2-8. First off, the stretch between 2 and 11 is too straight. It would be have been much nicer looking scroll, and used a unsightly pin , if you had used the pin at 1 as the origination point instead of below at 2.

You also have separate self-originating scrolls with 6-7 and 4-5. Nothing wrong numerous self originating scrolls, my problem with what you have drawn is the awkwardness where they are all crossing, that they don’t do it fast enough so that there is not enough visual distinction or separation from each other. Look at the line between 5-6, the line that is there almost looks like it should be one scroll, but really it is a combination three scrolls, 6-7, 4-5 and the main one 2-3

Because they overlay each other so much its hard to tell which is which and you get flow problems. Look above the 1 in the 10 you have two dofferent leaves meeting each other and it appears they are the same, but they come from two different scrolls and are going two different directions. 9 also, is that the origination point of a new scroll that goes 9-11-8, or is a backward scroll coming off the 2-11-10-5-3 scroll? Its hard to say. 13 appears to be an origination point of a scroll going towards 12, as most of the leaves indicate, but when you get to 12, it is a mirror image of 13, looking it is another origination scroll with the flow going opposite of the folllowing leaves.

I would also say that in addition to using the pin at 1 as part of the overall design. , I would have also used the pin between 3 and 5 as part of the design, as the end ball of 5 or 3 rather than having that pin mess up the design of two seperate scrolls. Or at least it would have been better to have left it alone in the background as just a circle rather than having that pin mess up the design of two seperate scrolls. Although you did shade nicely around it to give it the shadow effect.

best
Scott

 

[shonn]

pilkguns thanks

Pilkguns thanks for the input.

I can see what you are saying, I found things when I was done engraving that I could see in my original design had lots of flaws,( i even forgot to finish one of my scrolls on the other side but allready took off the backgrond right above the "s" in sears ) but when I was drawing it out I could not see it. But I know the next one will go better.

Question when you start the side of a gun do you normaly start the scroll work from the barrel back? Or from the stock forward?

And thank you again for the time of explaining and the( #s) pitchers

 

[beegee]

Pilk, This is the kind of stuff I wanted to learn in the scroll design class I took but they didn't discuss. I printed out the picture and the comments so I can study them. Thanks for the lesson!

 

[joseph engraver]

Your work shows very good attention to detail,your matting is good and even with no bright spots.Nice movement in your cuts. Not afraid to try intricate designs.Find a simmilar,less rusted gun and follow Scotts advice.

 

[pilkguns]

thanks for the kind words folks. Below are some links to other similar threads that are equally instructive. I also did a scroll DVD available through FEGA that I think is quite good, and have heard so from others.

http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=969

http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=701

http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=554

 

[pilkguns]

Question when you start the side of a gun do you normaly start the scroll work from the barrel back? Or from the stock forward?

I would say there is no general rule for where you should start a scroll. There are design criteria present in some objects, that suggest a scroll movement from one end to the other, which of course dictates where the scroll should start from, but thats going to have be assessed on case by case basis. The FEGA video (which has a link in my bio below), has a number of shapes discussed with various possible layouts suggested by the outlline of the piece.

 

[NevadaBlue]

Thanks for posting, Shonn, and thanks for the followups. I sure wish I was where you are with engraving.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Shonn...You might consider Ron Smith's book on Advanced Drawing of Scrolls..I highly recommend this book to all my students..can be gotten thru GRS..the price is $65.00 includes postage and is well worth it. Keep up the good work.

Yours truly,
JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA

 

[shonn]

thank you all

thank you all for your advice and new perspective's
i will keep working on the designs.

and i got the book Advanced Drawing of Scrolls i read it i am just in need of practice to apply what i have learned but i will do it !
i have a positive outlook on this and just trying to understand in my head how things work once i can "see it" or get the sense of what i am too look for i can draw it and cut it.
i am Patience if any one is patience you can Concur any problem or situation