Critique Request Progression of a P-Plate

Bunic

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I started this one by drawing the spine and leaves directly on the plate. I then cut the 1) spine & leaves, 2) did the shading, 3) cut the crosshatching, 4) stippled the background and 5) added the black paint.

I realized that I cut the shading and crosshatching too lightly as they virtually disappeared when I light-sanded it.

I only cut the background away on one small section and stippled it along with all the rest. I didn't see any difference in the blackness until I steel-wooled the paint off. Only the deep-set area where I had removed the background stayed really black. Lesson learned!

CC Welcomed.
 

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Marcus Hunt

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That's better Mike, sometimes you'll learn more from slowing down and going basic first. The scroll has good balance but I would seriously encourage you not to double spine the scroll, as you end up looking like you have a strange, detached motif in the centre. By all means grow your outside work from the back of the scroll but don't give it an elongated growth following the spine or, as I say, you'll end up with what looks like a double spine. I know this is Ron's style but I think it will hamper your progress if you want to develop another style in the future.

Well done, keep cutting and keep showing.
 

ron p. nott

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hi Marcus .. thanks for giving Mike some good advise on his engraving . Mike has been tryin hard to become a good engraver , I do see what you mean about the double spine and if I where to have seen it before Mike posted it I would not approved of it either when Mike attends class tonight I will correct him on it .. Ron p
 

KCSteve

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It always feels odd to me when I'm drawing leaves to go all the way to the spine on the outside while carefully staying free of it on the inside but when you think about it, it does make sense.

The spine of the scroll is the vine that the leaves are growing from. There's no real visible transition but by convention we assume we're looking into the scroll so the solid line that's the 'outside' of the scroll looks like it's touching the outer leaves but really they're just (presumably) coming off of the 'vine' sort of 'around the corner' from us so we get the visual of them touching while on the inside we have a good view of the smooth, clean merge (so no touching).
 

Arnaud Van Tilburgh

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Mike , indeed looks you made some progress.
If I may say so, your sequence of doing things as you say:
1) spine & leaves, 2) did the shading, 3) cut the crosshatching, 4) stippled the background and 5) added the black paint.

In my opinion stippling the background should be on 2, so before the shading and crosshatching.

arnaud
 

Bunic

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Marcus,
Ron called me to repentance last evening for this exact thing. My misunderstanding of the leaf growth is slowing changing. Tnx! for looking and commenting!

Ron,
Oh, Greaty One... Thou Art The Man!!!

Titian,
Tnx! I'm feeling much more comfortable with the graver in my hand, and the leaves are SLOWLY getting better.

Steve,
The proper construction of leaves has been hard for me to really grasp. No wonder there are many books on its construction and so many artifacts that have it as the only subject matter. Tnx!

Arnaud,
Tnx! I think I'd do the exact same shading before or after cutting out the background. But I'll give it a try and see. Tnx!
 

KCSteve

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Like Arnaud I leave my shading for after I've relieved and stippled the background.

That way if I mess up during those stages I can fix it without also messing up my shading.

The key concept someone pointed out a while back that's helped me is to remember that everything in a scroll ultimately grows from the same point so you should be able to trace a line back from anywhere. Practically speaking it's not worth tracing any line in a leaf back past where the leaf originated but you could. It's more important to make sure that the main thrust of the leaf flows smoothly out and that all of the lines in the leaf flow from its origin point. My leaves got a lot less mutant looking when I absorbed that lesson.
 
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