Critique Request My practice plates.

Josephnmora · Jun 6, 2015

Hello.
I have a three practice pieces to share. Attempted a few engraving techniques and gold, copper inlay and Gem setting. Engravers CafÃ© and You Tube and a couple of classes from Les and Samâ€™s Videos have great help! Now More & more practice plates.
Going to work on upload my practice pieces.
Tips, suggestion and comments appreciated.
Thank you, Joe

Dani Girl · Jun 7, 2015

I like your funny faces, stone inlays, and the trees at the top of the last plate.
Your wiggling looks pretty good but it's a little lop sided, you seem to favor or push harder on one side than the other... try to be more even, big wide rocking motion and even pressure. The backbone on your big scroll is pretty good, no big flat spots or anything. Practice drawing the shading on paper a little more until you get it a bit better in theory. Keep practicing your cutting to get fine lines by starting really really low so that it's just sliding on the metal making scratches not cutting, then lift your hand as you go until it starts cutting and make it a little deeper then flick it out... that's how to do shading.

Keep it up.

Danae.

Josephnmora · Jun 7, 2015

Danae, Appreciate the pointer! Use a transfer for the that I got from Les.
Thank you, Joe

Sam · Jun 7, 2015

You obviously have a lot of time and cutting into these plates, and that's good because it shows you're not afraid of practice. But I would encourage you to hone your skills on cutting simple lines and shapes of consistent width and depth, and then move onto more complex shapes later. You're definitely not ready for the designs you're doing. Proceed slowly and with care and precision and practice simple cuts until they are perfect.

monk · Jun 7, 2015

you're obviously serious about the art. i would urge you to practice cutting shade lines, and generally practice cutting all the elements (lines) that you have in the work shown here. lack of graver control is very evident in what you show here. practice will, no doubt, bring improvements. look at the work posted on the forum. look at the individual lines, not the entire work. if you do this, you will see consistent line width/depth in the cuts. this consistency is the result of graver control. thanks for sharing your fotos, and keep at it !

Thierry Duguet · Jun 7, 2015

I am sure that you are tired to read it but you need to learn to walk before to run. Mastering the basic of engraving would help you going faster further, as it is, you are just frustrating yourself as what you see in front of your eyes is not the image you have in your mind (I hope). It is like learning to fly a jet liner before to learn on a small training air plane, you may eventually succeed but it will have taken you ten time as long. It is not about "paying your due" it is about efficiency.
Your choice!

don hicks · Jun 8, 2015

Hi Joe,
Thanks for posting. You have gotten some sage advice. I'm a lot like you, I think. There is nothing more difficult than sitting down and cutting a plate full of the same lines. The gratification is way down the road, I guess that is why |I like the wood lathe, stick a piece of wood in it and start cutting. In a short time you have a finished product. Errors in cutting just require a change in design. Unfortunately, you don't get that luxury when metal engraving. One bad cut and it affects everything.
Somewhere in the cob webs of my mind, I recall that there were sample transfer of practice plates to cut. They were straight lines and curved lines etc. I have tried to find them , but to no avail. Perhaps someone might recall and bring them to the top again. Would be an asset to all newbies.
Keep in mind what a pistol coach once told me." Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect".
Keep on cutting and posting.
Cheers
Don

Dani Girl · Jun 8, 2015

Another plus, nice work on the background removal, doesn't look like you ran into your scrolls at all. Do you use a rotary tool much? Or did you chisel it out then stipple it? Posting pics of your drawings as well as your actual engravings on here is a good idea to pick up helpful tips. Hope we've encouraged you more than anything

Keep at it

Josephnmora · Jun 8, 2015

Sam,
Appreciate the comments and tips.
Thank you, Joe

Josephnmora · Jun 8, 2015

Thank you for the pointer and suggestions!

Josephnmora · Jun 8, 2015

Dani,
Everyone have offer great tips & pointer that I need to hear. Feed back will help me focus my practice on. I use a Foredom to grind, but I loose control. Then I used engraver, with a center punch. Next I saw a post on making a background tool for stippling..Not sure who to credit. All the forums have been Great! I did not use drawing. I used Mike Dubber & Les Schowe Practice Engraver Transfers. And the other stuff, I sure you figured I made up as I go.
The hints, tips and suggestion and encouragement is what I needed and thank everyone for taking the time to give me the feed back. I order Sam's online DVD for drawing schools....but that a ways off!

Thank you, Joe

mtlctr · Jun 10, 2015

to me it looks like the graver/ chisel is hogging (taking out more than it should per pass) perhaps because its dull, it looks like its been forced through the work. make sure the chisel is sharp for clean cuts. if using a hammer perhaps lighter / more taps or even a lighter hammer. I'm saying this because my first attempts looked alot like yours or maybe not that good. didn't have this forum when I started.:hammer:

mdengraver · Jun 10, 2015

GRS probably carries the practice plates.

Dani Girl · Jun 11, 2015

My first plates looked a lot worse than those

Josephnmora · Jun 12, 2015

mtlcr, Good point. thank you!

Josephnmora · Jun 12, 2015

Just order some from GRS . Going to practice , practice and sharpen!

FerrousOxide · Jun 13, 2015

There has been plenty of good advice here... I'll drop in my 2 cents based on what I've picked up during my learning curve process.

Spend time sketching and working on your design layouts. Draw draw draw. Go through books and find things you like and practice drawing different styles. Getting the shapes, proportions and details takes a lot of time. Simplify designs and build towards more complicated layouts.

The advice to work on cutting the simple things first is spot on. Fill up those practice plates with a variety of lines/curves/circles/wavy lines etc. The Meeks engraving book has a good example of a practice plate layout in it.

Make your practice plates a lesson in design and layout, not just cutting wherever you decide to plop something on it. Scribe borders and cut the straight lines, practice different border designs... cut the whole border on the plate, not just a bit here or there. Lay out your scrolls, leaves, etc and cut your design. Minimize the amount of background (if that's the look you want). Finish the whole plate and keep track of your time. The more you cut, the more you will improve.

Take a class or work with someone with more knowledge than you. Learn the tips and tricks and fill up your toolbox with useful techniques.
Get DVD's and watch them, pause, rewind, and watch the techniques over and over. I've probably watched Sam's scroll cutting DVD 30 times and am just now feeling like I "get it" when I watch it. I think your brain needs to absorb it and link what you see to what you feel in your hand as you cut. Nothing but time and doing can make that happen.

Good luck with the process!

Rob

Josephnmora · Jun 15, 2015

Rob, Thank you for sharing what you experienced. Good point about the backgrounds work.I have order two DVD of Sams. one on drawing scrolls and the other on using Corel Draw, But I am using Photoshop software. yes...practice and I watch a lot of youTube!
I have taken a couple of class here with Les Schowe and that was after a year of OJT or watching You Tube. I be contemplating taking a weeks class at GRS in Kansas. Maybe in August or September or when there openings in their schedule.
Thank you, Joe

pietraz · Jul 21, 2015

Hi Joe,
I took my basic engraving course approximately 6 years ago and still consider myself a beginner. First, Sam's solid advice about not moving beyond simple lines until you have mastered them is key. But what really made the difference for me as a beginner and my work literally improved by 50% within a couple of weeks was to absolutely make sure that after your graver starts moving forward through the metal by dropping your wrist gradually and slowly, (in other words hitting the sweet spot) that you keep that graver hand stationary so as not to have thick, then thin, then deep to shallow depths all in the same engraved line. The hand that rotates your vice is the hand that is doing all the moving by turning the lines of your design into the graver. This way, you will have much more uniformity and consistency in depth and width of your cut lines. Practicing bevel cutting comes after you get the straight line uniform in width and depth. Secondly, after you are comfortable with moving to scrollwork and other like designs, it was critical for me to be reminded how important centering your work is. Your scrolls will suffer with corners instead of smooth curved lines. Let your vice do its job making perfect arcs and scrolls with your graver hand stationary in the sweet spot.
Hope this helps you!!
pietraz

Josephnmora · Jul 21, 2015

Pietraz,
Thank you, Joe

Critique Request My practice plates.

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