practice

[T.G.III]

The difference in the plate shown on Feb 23 and today is amazing. Got a ways to go but the progress you are showing is an indication of increased understanding of the flow of the design and shading. One of the common mistakes that some beginner engravers make ( I was guilty of this 45 years ago ) is going too fast to see what its going to look like at the end. I kind of think that may be the case here.

The opening scroll is not right. You have missed a cut where the start of the C scroll passes over the leaf. You have combined the two into a whole. Then you have shading that looks like tire tracks following neither the leaf or the C scroll. They are just hanging around looking for direction. About two thirds of the way up you have a scroll going in a straight line. There are other places where the lines were not cut as well as they should have been.

I think what you should consider is to slow the process way down. You have a transfer to work from. When the transfer is applied to the plate take a pencil and use it to follow the scroll from the beginning to the end and just the scroll backbones and not the shading. Get some idea of how the scroll is growing. Its like studying the anatomy of the plant your transfer put on the plate.

Just cut the scroll backbone lines with out caring about the shading. If your mind is on the shading your backbone cuts will be off the mark. Its a very simple idea but a hard one to learn. You will do best at the beginning to go as slow as possible.

When you have the scroll backbone finished wipe off the transfer and take a photo of the engraving. I do this all the time and for some reason it gives me a better idea of how it looks that actually looking at it with my eyeballs.

After that do another transfer, lay it over the backbone engraving, matching the previous transfer cuts and burnish it in. Before starting to cut the shading see if the transfer is off in some spots. This will tell you how accurately you cut the backbones. The start the shading. One line at a time. One line at a time. Focus on one line at a time. Don't worry about the next line until you finish the line you are working on.

You're off to a great start in a short amount of time, keep with it.

Allan

There are several very important suggestions in Allan's post above, they are in bold Italics, just trying to be helpful as this truly is a 10,000 hour apprenticeship requiring focused practice.

Enjoy the process.

 

[Gunsmith]

A few more practice plates trying to get the chip to pop out with the English scroll plate,if anyone has a picture of the amount of taper needed on the tool would be greatly appreciated,the scrolls are a bit wonky and one leaf growing the wrong way, just another million hours practice and I may improve.

 

[Crowman80]

I admire all
Of you who can cut large scrolls, it’s something I really, really struggle with.

For your enjoyment

For your enjoyment

 

[papart1]

wonderful

 

[Gunsmith]

 

[Gunsmith]

Another go feeling reasonably happy with this one bit more shading to finish it off

 

[T.G.III]

Looks like it's starting to come together for you