Announcement: Cutting & Shading Practice - Acanthus/arabesque scroll

Sam · Jan 11, 2014

I promised back in November that I'd post another cutting & shading practice. I think this is a good one as it's a departure from conventional scrollwork and lends itself well to plenty of highly detailed shading. It also shows where I would vary the cut's thickness. As a rule, I bevel all cuts to the inside of each element I'm engraving.

The zip file contains an .EPS and .PDF file. If you print the PDF, be sure print as actual size so it will fit a 2" practice plate.

As always, it's fascinating to see how different engravers approach shading, and this should be no exception. Have fun and post your results!!

NOTE: This is a practice design for my students, forum members, and engraver friends. It's not for you to engrave and sell. Please use it as a learning tool only. Thanks!

-- DOWNLOAD HERE --

rayf24 · Jan 11, 2014

Thanks Sam this is going to be an excellent opportunity to see what other can do with it I shall get a plate ready.
Thanks again
Ray

rmgreen · Jan 11, 2014

Sam,

Thanks for this opportunity. As I also work through Photoshop and Illustrator CS2. I understand and work with .pdf reasonably well. However, when you and some others posted their "practice plates" in the file extension .eps I had difficulty downloading and saving. Is there some advantage to this file extension? I use a pc and run windows 7 which did not recognize this file extension. Again many thanks for this opportunity.

Roger

dlilazteca · Jan 11, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT04nMHfzjY&feature=youtube_gdata_playerRmgreen

Eps files can be resized larger or smaller and they will not lose quality, no distorted or pixelized edges.
Look at minute 6:30 in the video will help you understand what a vector/eps file does.

Carlos De La O III

Sam · Jan 11, 2014

Roger: EPS ver 8 is probably the most universally compatible graphics file type, and as Carlos pointed out, is infinity scalable without loss of quality/sharpness. You should be able to open it in most graphics softwares.

RDP · Jan 11, 2014

Forgive my ignorance Sam,

and I appreciate your time and effort you put into this to help us newbies get ahead in this wonderful art, but one thing that I noticed is the outside leaf at 9o'clock just doesn't look right to me coming straight out , I am the least qualified person to critique , but it seems to go against everything I have learned so far, it's probably the lack of knowledge and experience on my part, and would not even know were to start the shading, but that would make it even more difficult for me, if is just me that doesn't understand the design?,

I apologize in advance, and please help me understand it, thank you.

Richard.

Sam · Jan 11, 2014

It's a different design for sure Roger, and you do occasionally see elements growing out of places like this in acanthus and arabesque designs. If you prefer to change it you're welcome to and I'm certainly not offended

RDP · Jan 11, 2014

Thank you Sam, I have seen designs of a similar nature before and I thought the were wrong , thanks for clarifying it, I fail to see how me changing it will make it look better :biggrin:,

Richard.

Caty Blom · Jan 11, 2014

Richard for me it's the same problem, I feel the blade is also against the rules, but as Sam says there are always exceptions to the rules. 'm Going to try it, thank you Sam for sharing.Greetings Caty.

tkelch · Jan 11, 2014

Sam I like the design it's much different than what I have been doing. I also am at a lose in were to start at with the shading but will give it a try tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hora · Jan 12, 2014

My finishing of Sam's scroll

As I am without tools here in the jungle my pencil has to do. This is my finishing of Sam's scroll. Please comment if you think I can improve on this.
I slightly rolled it over to have a maximum size print and I made the picture with my iPhone in the standard mono mode.

tkelch · Jan 12, 2014

Here is my attempt

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Beladran · Jan 12, 2014

= ( grs has my machine right now.. i wanna play!

Sam · Jan 13, 2014

Hora said:
As I am without tools here in the jungle my pencil has to do. This is my finishing of Sam's scroll. Please comment if you think I can improve on this.
I slightly rolled it over to have a maximum size print and I made the picture with my iPhone in the standard mono mode.

Hora, you did an excellent job of the shading. You really have good instincts as to how to shade. Fantastic, and I can't want to see you engrave it! :clapping: :thumbsup:

Sam · Jan 13, 2014

tkelch said:
Here is my attempt

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good job tkelch! Some things to consider: watch the startup of your shade lines and strive for an extremely thin taper. That'll improve the transition from white to black. You're getting some good darkness where the lines converge :thumbsup:

Also, don't forget to roll the graver to add character to the outline cuts.

You're definitely on the right track, and a very good effort.

Jared Eason · Jan 13, 2014

http://m.engraversstudio.com/site/w...ww.engraversstudio.com/index.htm&dm_package=2

http://m.engraversstudio.com/site/w...ww.engraversstudio.com/index.htm&dm_package=2

http://m.engraversstudio.com/site/w...ww.engraversstudio.com/index.htm&dm_package=2

http://m.engraversstudio.com/site/w...ww.engraversstudio.com/index.htm&dm_package=2

This is the best explained shading I have come across. Chris really knows how to teach. I hope this helps some of you . Just start with the first Link find the first video on shading and go from there. The shading starts on page 10 and goes to page 7

rmgreen · Jan 13, 2014

Thanks Sam and Carlos - Opened the .eps file in Illustrator with no problems.

Roger

billrice@charter.net · Jan 14, 2014

My Practice plate first try.

OK Sam here is my cut of this Practice Drawing. Thanks again for providing these exercises

Sam · Jan 14, 2014

Good job Bill! When you do your crosshatching, the very first lines need to be extremely faint in order to get a gradual fade-out. How long did it take you to cut this?

Sam · Jan 14, 2014

DAK4442 said:
Sam, here is my go at it? I used my optivisor and I outlined with a 120 degree with parallel heel and shaded with a 90 degree conventional. I did not blacken it. The complexity of the design scared me off a bit since I've not tried this type of shading before but I just took each cut one at a time. Are there things I should have cut differently...absolutely...but I'm pleased with the effort. I couldn't even have come close to this without having the ability to study your work and that of many others on the forum. Thanks so much for the opportunities to learn. Dan

Great job Dan! You have proven that you have no reason to be intimidated by a complex design. You handled this very well and your outlines have really nice character. Kudos to you! :thumbsup:

Announcement: Cutting & Shading Practice - Acanthus/arabesque scroll

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