practice

[Phoneman]

I have been working on drawing scrolls for the past few weeks. These are three of what I think are the best. Please take a look and tell me what you think, how I could improve on them.
Thanks, Peter

 

[KSnyder]

Peter, the first on appears to be fighting itself, no clear direction for the flow of the scroll. number 2 is better I think in the flow of the design and number 3 is ok but some elements look out of place such as the leaf in the top right seems to go in the wrong direction. The drawing needs some refinement as well by cleaning up the backbones of the scrolls and eliminating the elbows.
I think your drawing shows promise just needs to polished up a bit. Keep in mind when you lay on the design & begin to cut it the fairness of the lines will make all the difference in the finished product.
my 2 cents,
Kent

 

[pilkguns]

Very good assessment Kent

 

[Gargoyle]

Think of the movement. That means, think of how the flow, growth of the leaves, etc. moves through the drawing. Each leaf should grow out of the stems, and the stems should move in a natural, graceful flow.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Peter

I think you are on the right track and as Kent said, they just need polishing up a bit. It's important that you don't have any flat spots in your scroll or lumps and bumps. It's supposed to be one contiuous flowing line.

One thing that maybe of help is the plastic templates that NGraver and GRS sells. Draw your scrolls freehand first so you know where you want them and then go over them with the stencil to tidy them up. After a while you'll start using the stencil less and less. The scrolls are the "backbone" of your work and if they're not right then everything else dosn't really work either.

The leaves. You're nearly there with them. Ron Smiths book would come in handy here. They need to flow a bit better and look a little more graceful.

Your doing well. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[AllanFink1960]

Small suggestion: Use a sharper pencil, like maybe a .3mm mechanical. Also use layout bond, or tracing paper so you can retrace them and tidy them up. I am finding the thinner and cleaner the drawing lines, the more its like the fine point of the graver. Its good to work loose and sketchy in the early stages but as you get closer and closer to being "done", thin clear lines seem to look better. I know a lot of engravers work with some pretty rough scroll sketches when they engrave, but I am finding in my own pracitice drawings, I want the lines as sharp as possible. But then I am kind of anal that way.

 

[Phoneman]

Thanks for the feed back, I have Ron Smith's first book it is great. I have also gotten the templates from GRS but have not uses them much. I never thought of using them to go back over what I had done.
thanks again Peter

 

[Darren]

You have been given some good advice. I would like to add a couple things.
As a beginner, keep it simple and brake it down in to simple elements.
Learn to draw nice symmetrical scrolls, don't worry about filling them with a bunch
of leaves. get some lined paper and just draw scrolls until you can with out flat spots or dog legs.
Draw one to the left then the next to the right, when you have got that down then start drawing simple leaves. and then combine the two. but spend allot of time on scrolls and keep everything very simple and easy until it is second nature,
Darren

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Peter

If you think Ron Smiths first book is great then you'll love his "Advanced Drawing of Scrolls" book. I think it's around $60 and available at FEGA www.fega.com and GRS www.grstools.com/

Ron goes into a lot more depth on the whole subject and is a "must have book" that's worth every cent.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[msar24]

Peter,

I got some advice directly from Ron on how to use the advanced book. He said to use it like a work book. Read a section, digest it and then draw everything in that section. Move on to the next section adn do it again. I've got a whole pad with every drawing from the book. It's a great way to develop the drawing skills and understand how the desgins are done. Once you get the last drawing done go back and look at your first drawing from the book. You'll be amazed how much better the last one looks.

Kevin

 

[Marcus Hunt]

The Ron Smith book gives a great insight into scroll construction. Read it and digest it and experiment.

The main thing I can see that's wrong with your designs are a) a lack of smoothness to the scrolls: they should flow and not have any kinks or elbows in them and b) The spiral of the scroll's back should be parallel throughout i.e. it should wind in with no norrowing or widening of the negative space (think of how a spring coils) and there should be no sudden 'hooking' in at the end.

Over all your designs aren't too bad (although I'm not sure what the central stem is doing in picture #1? I'd leave that out as it's over stretching things), they just need to be tidied up. If you can do this now at the drawing stage it will pay dividends later in the cutting stage.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Phoneman,
Very good advice from my fellow engravers. Do get Ron's Smith's latest book on scroll design..it is well written. Keep practising every chance you get..with enough persistance it will all fall together for you. I had a nice talk with Ron Smith at the last Blade Show, and complimented him on his book, and told him I hope his new book will get people away from relying on a computer and get them to start drawing. Keep up the good work everybody.

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

 

[en2siastic]

Drawing

Hello Phoneman,
Here is a way to draw. It is not perfect, but if you take it step by step it is easier. In fact this is a construction. Each step has to be as good as possible, then you go to next level, from structure (scrolls) to finition (shading).
Best regards.
Francis.

 

[John B.]

en2siastic, that's a great little tutorial and should help many members.
Thank you for taking the time to post it.
John B.

 

[JJ Roberts]

en2siastic..I have to agree with John that is a great lesson that you drew. I am curious about the engraving school at the Liege in Belgium..can you tell us about the school itself. Did you start off drawing and for how long, what was next practice plates, how long was the course, did you get a diploma or a certificate at the end of the course????..any information would be interesting to know.

JJ Roberts
School of Artistic Engraving
Manassas, VA
www.angelfire.com/va2/engraver