Practice

Silberschweif

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
183
So inspired from the shading Threat i´ve tryed to shade the leaf design from Shawn and Chris and I want to show you. The Plates are V2A That are the first trys on that material. I think it´s easyer to cut cause the graver control is higher as on silver. Next time i will try mild steel maybe if I find some. Ok have a look and i hope you will enjoy
Chris
first try
Scroll.jpg
second try
1.jpg
 

didyoung

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
2,253
Location
Laurel, Montana, United States
Try starting with a thin and light shade line and as you progresses toward the end of your cut get deeper and wider.
the shade lines converge together at the bottom of most of these leaves.
 

Southern Custom

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
1,026
Location
Baton Rouge
As well, keep in mind learning where not to shade is as important as where you should shade. Pay attention that all shade lines follow the curve and flow of the leaves and backbones. Odd angles and bent lines stick out and the eye goes right to them. As Shawn said, quality of shade lines can all the difference
 

Dani Girl

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,110
Location
NSW, Australia.
Your tool control will come with time... don't stress... you did a nice job with light and dark on try 1. Good work.
 

Silberschweif

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
183
Thanks a lot
yes there is a lot of work and fun in the future. Its not very easy for me to cut soft lines I have to adjust the footpedal it only works on full power fixin it at grs is about 300$ +300$ shipping and thats no option, but i think there will be somewhere a Lindsay Classic for me in the future ...
maybe if life dont eat the save money for that
but on the other side not the graver makes the artist the artist does
I will spend a lot of time with practice and hope i get better and better with the time. also with my drawing skills i hope shawns book will arive in the next weeks
ok have a nice day
Chris
 

Sam

Chief Administrator & Benevolent Dictator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 6, 2006
Messages
10,490
Location
Covington, Louisiana
At this point in your shading career you'd do better with less lines and striving for a long taper at the startup of each line. When you can get that holy grail tapered shade line, you'll then be better prepared to add more lines where it's called for. Remember that it's not only what you shade, but also what you don't shade that can add volume and shape to your leaves. Churchill is the master of this.

Finger-on-the-top users sometimes find it difficult to get the tapered startup because of the downward pressure of the index finger on the graver. If you hold your handpiece in that manner, strive for a light grip and no more downward pressure than necessary. If you hold the graver in the traditional way (thumb on the side) then you'll have less downward pressure and it's usually easier to get a micro-tapered startup to shade lines.

Also, tapered shade lines will render very smooth transitions in tones from light to grey to dark. Without a tapered startup the results will mostly be dark.

You're doing well and you're very close!
 

Silberschweif

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
183
oh thx sam i did that with finger on top the handpiece and graver is longer than the normal gravers i used before with Handpush. I feels more comfortable with finger on top but thats maybe a beginner misstake.

@Addertooth I started with goldsmithing 4 Years ago that was about health problems in my old job as Mashine Mechanik maybe 2 1/2 Years ago i´ve seen first time beautifull engravings from sam and other great artists I fall in love with that beautifull art and want to learn.
so i read a lot of stuff about engraving and I ordered one year ago my first Hammer and Chissel set from Lindsay
The Gravermate i got a little bit more than one month ago.
 

KCSteve

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
2,882
Location
Kansas City, MO
A good practice on shading lines is to draw a line on a plate and cut shading lines perpendicular to it. I do this every now and then. I strive to have them touching at the drawn line and work to get them starting as fine as possible and a ways away from it. When I get it right I get a nice rectangle that goes from nearly white at one end to dead black at the other. When I get it really right it's a nice, clean black line at the end as all of the shade line ends merge together.
 
Top