Critique Request Another Bulino Critique Please!

[williamph]

Hi, so here is my latest attempt at bulino, i got the chris decamillis dvd and it put me light years ahead of where i was before.

So anyway heres my go at a wolf, its about the size of a quarter done with a 90* graver using only lines and few dots. Took about 4 hours from layout to what looks pretty complete to me.

Looking for constructive criticisms, be gentle this only my second go at bulino

EDIT: dont know why the pic posted sideways but also dont know how to fix it, sorry!

 

[gcleaker]

Impressive work how long have you been engraving?

 

[williamph]

Impressive work how long have you been engraving?

thanks for the kind words! probably about 6 months or so? i try to be a quick study haha

 

[sinan]

fix the view.

 

[williamph]

haha thanks! couldnt figure that part out...

 

[monk]

i'm just nit picking, not criticizing-- i think it would be a tad better if the lower jaw was to stand out just a bit from the neck. i never did bulino, but you're bound to get better. i guess it's all about light/dark or highlight/shadow. and of course, all the shades between. thanks for showing. how did you do the layout for this ?

 

[williamph]

i'm just nit picking, not criticizing-- i think it would be a tad better if the lower jaw was to stand out just a bit from the neck. i never did bulino, but you're bound to get better. i guess it's all about light/dark or highlight/shadow. and of course, all the shades between. thanks for showing. how did you do the layout for this ?

Thanks monk! Now that you mention it I totally see what your saying.

I scribed the outline then cut that in followed by the eyes and nose and all the dark spots then "built" from the dark blacks out to the lighter greys then went back and re-cut spots as needed for more black

 

[rayf24]

Nice start as Monk said if neck was a little bit back on lower jaw line another minor point if the eye had a small high spot to indicate a light it would make it pop more just me thinking out loud but well done.
Ray

 

[williamph]

Nice start as Monk said if neck was a little bit back on lower jaw line another minor point if the eye had a small high spot to indicate a light it would make it pop more just me thinking out loud but well done.
Ray

Thanks! I intended on having a white spot in the eye however my inexperience got the best of me and it didn't work out that way haha, thanks again for the kind words

 

[Thierry Duguet]

I think there are different school of thought about bollino technique, I am part of the one which try to create a realistic rendering of the subject, you might not be and it is perfectly acceptable. Instead of criticizing I will just ask question, please keep in mind I am from the realistic school of thought.
1) Does your work look like the picture you used?
2) At this scale what would you actually see of the wolf?
If you use a large picture as model, reduce that picture to the size of the engraving you execute it will give you a better idea of what you would see at that particular scale.
3) At this scale would you see individual hair or would you see shadows?

One last thing, I do not think that pneumatic engraver is adequate for that type of work, if you are working with strait lines they are often just a few millimeters long and a few microns deep, from my point a view individual lines should be invisible, the contrast is created by the accumulation of lines crisscrossing.

 

[sinan]

I am not expert about bulino and trying to learn it. These are mentioned below which I have learned from the forum and by myself. Maybe some of them wrong or missing. I'll be appreciate if do the bulino masters to correct the wrongs and add missing.


1- Learn picture drawing rules (perspective drawing, drawing from reference photo, drawing what you see, anatomy of the object what will you draw and many others) and practice pencil drawing.
2- Don't transfer whole picture. Transfer only the silhouette. It is difficult to work with whole transferred image under the mag. I usually transfer very little amount of the picture and I do the rest of it by see the reference photo.
3- Always keep graver in sharpest to ensure that all the dots and lines keep the same depth and thickness and use graver geometry of like Phil Coggan, Dario Cortini's.
4- Use magnification as microscope (3,5 – 22,5) or two or three loupes (10x , 6x, 3x) You can't realize the borders of where are you engraving if you continuously engraving under higher magnification and need to look at it often by lower mags. and naked eyes.
5- Engrave dots and lines only visible under magnification. Every single dot or line should not be visible or barely visible by naked eye. Use graver point to gently touch the metal and do not make deep dots or heavy deep lines thus your bulino engraving no need the sanding or inking after finish and view close to photorealistic by naked eye.
6- Watch pen and ink drawing close up photos and videos and learn pen and ink drawing techniques which consist of lines and dots. You will be learning the creating tone with cross hatching and stipple by this techniques which will be easily adapt to bulino engraving.

 

[monk]

tyvm, william

 

[williamph]

Thanks for the advice and the things mentioned to think about I'll keen them in mind