KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Hi everyone! I hope I'm not overwhelming you with new scrim. There's one more project yet to post after this one! ;-)
I have to tell you the story of how this project came to be, because I fully expect a few turned up noses over the fact that it's a kit knife. A friend of mine had been kicking around the idea of having me scrim a knife for his dad for a couple of years. His dad is a serious knife enthusiast, though perhaps not a diehard "collector." He finally decided on a subject matter and commissioned me to do the knife for Christmas this year. The subject was portraits of him, his dad, and his grandfather. Thus began the Generations Knife. I'll admit my initial reaction to people portraits was "eeek!" but it was really okay. I think the thing about drawing people is it's sort of psychologically challenging because everybody thinks it's really hard. It's not that bad. Lines, curves, lights and darks is all it is... in proportion and in the right place of course!
So, we got to talking about what knife would be good, and I helped him look, and we found a really stunning knife with wart hog ivory scales (that's why I asked about scrimming wart hog a couple months ago). But the more my friend thought about it, the more he wanted to be involved in the project, and he's pretty talented, so after making sure it would still be okay for me to work on, he made a kit knife with pre-ban elephant ivory scales. It was not a matter of budget, it was just that he wanted to take part in creating the finished piece, and it didn't change the work that he wanted me to do. And it's not like this is the sort of knife that's going to be out on the market, so "collector value" was not an issue, it's obviously going to stay in the family. So I was cool with that.
It did make the design immediately more challenging though, because instead of a knife smooth field of ivory, or a couple of unobtrusive little pins, there were now big ole screws to deal with.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I decided I'd have to incorporate the screws into the design. Once I got the reference material and sat down and really had a look at things, I knew I wanted to make it an old time style image with an oval border. It definitely needed to be contained somehow, and not just be floating heads! I asked if I could really go all out and put the guys in fancy old suits and really go for the old fashioned look, and he thought that sounded great! Designing the layout took a while...
The image is all dots, and it took a really really long time. This was pretty intense.
I'm thrilled with how it turned out. So is my friend. And so is his dad, who got the knife for Christmas! :big grin:
Here's another little progression for you!
Every now and then I remember to throw a penny in there for scale:
Here it is finished!!!
Thanks for looking!
-Katherine
I have to tell you the story of how this project came to be, because I fully expect a few turned up noses over the fact that it's a kit knife. A friend of mine had been kicking around the idea of having me scrim a knife for his dad for a couple of years. His dad is a serious knife enthusiast, though perhaps not a diehard "collector." He finally decided on a subject matter and commissioned me to do the knife for Christmas this year. The subject was portraits of him, his dad, and his grandfather. Thus began the Generations Knife. I'll admit my initial reaction to people portraits was "eeek!" but it was really okay. I think the thing about drawing people is it's sort of psychologically challenging because everybody thinks it's really hard. It's not that bad. Lines, curves, lights and darks is all it is... in proportion and in the right place of course!
So, we got to talking about what knife would be good, and I helped him look, and we found a really stunning knife with wart hog ivory scales (that's why I asked about scrimming wart hog a couple months ago). But the more my friend thought about it, the more he wanted to be involved in the project, and he's pretty talented, so after making sure it would still be okay for me to work on, he made a kit knife with pre-ban elephant ivory scales. It was not a matter of budget, it was just that he wanted to take part in creating the finished piece, and it didn't change the work that he wanted me to do. And it's not like this is the sort of knife that's going to be out on the market, so "collector value" was not an issue, it's obviously going to stay in the family. So I was cool with that.
It did make the design immediately more challenging though, because instead of a knife smooth field of ivory, or a couple of unobtrusive little pins, there were now big ole screws to deal with.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I decided I'd have to incorporate the screws into the design. Once I got the reference material and sat down and really had a look at things, I knew I wanted to make it an old time style image with an oval border. It definitely needed to be contained somehow, and not just be floating heads! I asked if I could really go all out and put the guys in fancy old suits and really go for the old fashioned look, and he thought that sounded great! Designing the layout took a while...
The image is all dots, and it took a really really long time. This was pretty intense.
I'm thrilled with how it turned out. So is my friend. And so is his dad, who got the knife for Christmas! :big grin:
Here's another little progression for you!
Every now and then I remember to throw a penny in there for scale:
Here it is finished!!!
Thanks for looking!
-Katherine