Critique Request Tiffany money clip

[Matthew Evans]

Thanks for looking and taking time out of your day.

This is for a Tiffany makers mark money clip,and I am excited yet cautious to work on a higher quality item for a novice like myself. (Payed for myself, not a commission)

This design may be too busy, which is something I’m trying to ease up on, but I think I can still get clean lines for shading, only one way to tell though. I will transfer and cut on a sheet of sterling as a mock up for shading prior to, but wanted to hear yalls thoughts.

Side note...On a near future project I’d like to learn how to overlay gold spheres or beads if anyone can put in a tip or hint.

Any and all input is welcome and appreciated.
-Matthew Evans

 

[John B.]

Mathew, please rethink this design before cutting.
You have some interesting elements but two bud leaf elements in the first and last scroll that do not originate from the backbone and are just floating in space.
That is unless I'm misreading your design.

 

[Matthew Evans]

Mathew, please rethink this design before cutting.
You have some interesting elements but two bud leaf elements in the first and last scroll that do not originate from the backbone and are just floating in space.
That is unless I'm misreading your design.

Much obliged, I’ll fix it and repost.

 

[Matthew Evans]

Mathew, please rethink this design before cutting.
You have some interesting elements but two bud leaf elements in the first and last scroll that do not originate from the backbone and are just floating in space.
That is unless I'm misreading your design.

 

[John B.]

That looks a lot better Mathew,
Good job and thanks for the redo.

 

[TFACARVING]

That looks a lot better Mathew,
Good job and thanks for the redo.

I agree changing those parts from their floating state to connected as they are now was a great improvement. I like where this is going

 

[Crossbolt]

Nice. To my eye there seems to be a tad too much vacant space in the upper center and both lower left and right given that the rest of the design fills most space. Just a thought.

 

[Matthew Evans]

Nice. To my eye there seems to be a tad too much vacant space in the upper center and both lower left and right given that the rest of the design fills most space. Just a thought.

Thoughts and critiques are far better than attaboys. Thank you

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Are you going to remove and stipple/texture the background?

 

[Matthew Evans]

Are you going to remove and stipple/texture the background?

Yes, I’m going to remove the background and stipple. Would love to have the confidence to contrast it with a gold background (and open up the design), but that’ll come with time.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

What I would suggest is that you pencil in the background and reexamine your design. Your design will change considerably in appearance.

You have a lot of nice elements going on and I like the two flowers and the leaf elements. With a little extra work it could be quite something.

But…………You also have quite a few structural problems with the design as it is at the moment. Blackening the background will only emphasise these flaws. No amount of shading will hide structural flaws. Painting a house doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s crooked


Borders…..In another thread I talked about this. Ignore borders at your peril. I would highly recommend that you pull all the scrolls and flowers to touch the borders. Not just touch them, but intersect them so when you cut, there is no gap between the border and the design element. Scroll backbones should come out of the border, not below it otherwise you end up with a black gap.

Your left hand scroll is squashed so you may need to rework that and bang in an extra scroll or two.

Leaves………….You have quite a few large gaps between the leaves and the scroll head as it curves around. You need to extend some of those leaves and add a few more.

By penciling in the background you will see most of this yourself and it will become obvious.

Cutting………when you texture a background, make sure your main cuts are on the outside of the lines. Otherwise your design will become very thin and look weak.

You are well on your way and a bit of tinkering with the design will make it so much better

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Matthew Evans]

What I would suggest is that you pencil in the background and reexamine your design. Your design will change considerably in appearance.

You have a lot of nice elements going on and I like the two flowers and the leaf elements. With a little extra work it could be quite something.

But…………You also have quite a few structural problems with the design as it is at the moment. Blackening the background will only emphasise these flaws. No amount of shading will hide structural flaws. Painting a house doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s crooked


Borders…..In another thread I talked about this. Ignore borders at your peril. I would highly recommend that you pull all the scrolls and flowers to touch the borders. Not just touch them, but intersect them so when you cut, there is no gap between the border and the design element. Scroll backbones should come out of the border, not below it otherwise you end up with a black gap.

Your left hand scroll is squashed so you may need to rework that and bang in an extra scroll or two.

Leaves………….You have quite a few large gaps between the leaves and the scroll head as it curves around. You need to extend some of those leaves and add a few more.

By penciling in the background you will see most of this yourself and it will become obvious.

Cutting………when you texture a background, make sure your main cuts are on the outside of the lines. Otherwise your design will become very thin and look weak.

You are well on your way and a bit of tinkering with the design will make it so much better

Cheers
Andrew

I will rework and submit, thank you for taking the time. Joanne Ryall was the one to say act like every piece is for royalty to get better.
-Matthew Evans

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Very good advise, indeed.

 

[Matthew Evans]

I’ll continue to tweak it till it clicks. Thank you for all the help and guidance. Trying to have a personal style of scroll is not for the faint of heart.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Much better already.

You still need to pull those flowers to the border.

Your scroll head on the left hand side is still a bit squashed.

The start of the scrolls on the right hand side is also squashed.

The leaf on the middle scroll is out of proportion to the other leaves so it needs thickening.

They are small things that will make a big difference.

Personal style.............don't worry about that at the moment. That will naturally develop and come with time so don't force it. Just relax.

Get the foundations and fundamentals right and everything else will fall into place.

You're doing well.

I'm off the network for a few days and look forward to seeing the finished result next week.

 

[Matthew Evans]

Much better already.

You still need to pull those flowers to the border.

Your scroll head on the left hand side is still a bit squashed.

The start of the scrolls on the right hand side is also squashed.

The leaf on the middle scroll is out of proportion to the other leaves so it needs thickening.

They are small things that will make a big difference.

Personal style.............don't worry about that at the moment. That will naturally develop and come with time so don't force it. Just relax.

Get the foundations and fundamentals right and everything else will fall into place.

You're doing well.

I'm off the network for a few days and look forward to seeing the finished result next week.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

I don't know how far you want to take this or how much you want to keep redrawing.

So here are my thoughts about your latest revision.

You still have a few problem areas that need fixing. I've given you a very rough drawing to look at as it may save a thousand words

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Matthew Evans]

I don't know how far you want to take this or how much you want to keep redrawing.

So here are my thoughts about your latest revision.

You still have a few problem areas that need fixing. I've given you a very rough drawing to look at as it may save a thousand words

Cheers
Andrew

I’ll work it till it works. I had looked at those with some hesitancy but you said it all for me. I’ll rework and show when I feel like it can’t be fixed any longer. =). Better to learn it right the first time no matter how much time it takes. And for the record, even the fill in the background comment makes all the difference in my future workflow. As a rookie, you don’t know what you don’t know. Thanks again.
-Matthew Evans

 

[Matthew Evans]

This has all been helpful and I feel like I’m getting somewhere, thank you for the insights and help.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

You’re doing really well and the design is taking shape but you still have a few problem areas. Basically all you need now is a little finesse. Just look at where you started and where you are now. A little tinkering will pull it all together.

There are a couple of things in an engraving design that you can’t get away with………. Wonky scrolls and big black areas that look out of place.

Scrolls………These are the framework of your design. When you start drawing always get your scrolls correct before you do anything else. Always spend as much time on this as you need to get them looking right. Look at them from all angles and turn your design in all directions to see where the adjustments need making. Don’t just look at them from one angle…..This just comes with time and practice. The more you do it the better you become.

Leaves are a bit more forgiving but not much……….Leaves need to be evenly placed. Bigger leaves can be broken down by adding curls in the leaf along the side and tops as you have done. Think of a hurricane or tornado with everything swirling toward the centre.

Background……the background is as important as your foreground. It needs to be balanced with th foreground with no large black areas dominating the design. There are exceptions to this but not with this type of design.

Shading…….You need to think about this as you are drawing. On a seperate layer in Procreate pencil them in to see where leaf adjustments need to be made (I think you are using Procreate??)

The Tiffany clip is a reasonable sized canvas and your design is big and bold which is great as it gives you plenty of space to get creative with the shading.

So I have given you something to think about.

The red lines are where you need to correct your scrolls.

The blue lines are you need to extend your leaves

The pink is folds in the leaves……rough as guts and I’m sure you can draw better

All of these are suggestions for you to improve upon. The lines I have drawn are there to guide you only.

Design is the hardest part of engraving. Cutting is the easy part.

Cheers
Andrew