Eliptical scroll practice

Trying something different (for me anyway) with some scrolls. Borrowed 'gingerbread' from every source I know, some European fairground sign painter stuff and a lot of "Engraver's Cafe"
I'm kinda diggin' it, any comments please?

i have done a share of this. although not to the extreme you have done here. such is not the accepted "norm", but if somebody wants it- well i'll do it. some of the "things" i see there-- are they supposed to be leaves-- what ? inconsistent cutting width/depth. one good thing here-- at least you're doing something !

Thanks Monk, I do realize the cutting isn't my best here, I was basically just test cutting this buckle and decided to play around a bit. I'm really not sure if a lot of this stuff is supposed to be leaves or what either. Mainly looking for design feedback.

If you do something like this, you really need to do it really well. I see far too many flat spots and irregularities and kinks. Also your leaves and tendrils spring off your main in a very unnatural way. An ellipse is a gradual elongation on a circle. The tendrils and leaves should mimic the same gradual elegant flow of the oval.

I like the idea, but there is a difference in an elipse and an elbow... work on more gradual rounded ends for the elipses. If it changes angle to fast it becomes a distraction.

Round these a little and the overall look will improve greatly.

I'm with Beathard - a very interesting idea but not quite there on execution. Probably should try a few sketches before the next cutting session, although I often find myself drawing better on metal than on paper for some things.

For some reason it's in my head that you'd get the right look if you took normal (non-elliptical) scrolls and distorted them into ellipses. Either using a computer to pull the drawing off of round or maybe just holding a drawing at an oblique angle and either photographing or copying the way it looks. Just thinking as I go here. I'll bet you could get an interesting 3D effect on a flat plate by simulating the way the look of scrolls distorts as you look down upon a curved piece. Start with some shots of say, a fore-end with scroll on all three sides and see if you can get the same look on a flat plate. I'll bet Andrew or Sam are good enough to draw a design like that (I know I'm not).

Beathard said:

Round these a little and the overall look will improve greatly.

Click to expand...

beathard: how do you superimpose the drawing corrections like you did ? curious as heck to know how to do this.

Hi Dave

Yeah, I’m kind of diggin it as well. It has a funky look and if done properly could look good. (The Italians have been doing this for a long time)

Unfortunately, the trouble is, that it hasn’t been done properly……..but good on you for trying

Drawing is a skill that is enhanced with discipline. The discipline being that you start with the basics and work your way upward. After you have grasped the basics and fully understand the concepts………then you start playing with it and manipulating and bending the design.

Learn to draw one good scroll with good inside and outside leaves. It doesn’t have to be spectacular. If you look at a lot of the older style gun engraving it is fairly basic but still looks great. Just get the basics right so that everything is in proportion. The positive and negative space are balanced and that it is free from lumps and bumps………………Then, join another scroll onto the first. and then another and another and so on.

Once you get that under your belt, then start manipulating and bending the design. It’s certainly a fun thing to do.

Balance this with your cutting. A 50 ~ 50 mix of cutting and drawing is about right. Learning to control the tooling is paramount. Following a line or being able to adjust things on the fly is skill that takes time.

Ron Smiths book about advanced scroll design is the best there is. Use it like a work manual and sit down and start drawing the scrolls and leaves and learn to put them together. You don’t even need to read the text if you don’t want to. Just follow the diagrams and copy what he is showing you. But more importantly try to understand what he is showing you. That one simple thing will enhance your drawing ability by about 1000%

Cheers
Andrew

One thing I will add……….when drawing, get your main lines, scroll, curves ovals or whatever, correct. This is the foundation of everything that will follow and what the eye picks up the most. A wonky leaf can be disguised by shading or simply because it vanishes in the overall design. But main lines are what attract the eye and they stick out like dogs balls.

If you try to draw your main lines as a slid line right from the beginning you are making hard work of it.

Try drawing your main lines, very lightly, in a series of short dashes. This is what I do. You can then go back and correct them easily enough. Turn the work around and you will see all the lumps and bumps. Work hard to correct them and don’t go on until they are as perfect as you can get.

Follow the golden rule……….if it looks wrong, then it is.

Cheers
Andrew