Thoughts in the mind of a not yet fullt skilled engraver

A simple traditional design that is well-cut is much more beautiful than a miner successful advanced designs that are well-cut.

The key is to learn to design well!

Par,

I apologize for not putting the umlaut in your name but my keyboard doesn't have it.

I think your thread has been overlooked and you made a very important statement here. Classic or traditional scroll designs will always look good as is the case with any classic design clothing etc... From teaching I find that beginning engravers get caught up with all the fancy leaf structures they see and lose site of the overall flow of the design. I tell them not to worry about the leafs just draw the backbones so they flow and fill the space well. The rest is all fill in.

Often when a design is too complicated it's hard to follow it. It may be load and appear striking at first but the flow and subtleness is gone. It's also very important to work within a given space rather then draw a design and then try to fit it in a space.

It's very difficult sometimes to design for spaces on guns because of the odd outlines. Foe me a lot of time is spent trying to make a design work in the awkward places. A difficult shape to fill with a design well is a true triangle. Give it a try and one will soon realize it's not an easy task.

Thanks for your observation and comments they are well justified.

Sam W. you are so correct with your comment .

Chris

Thanks For the comments.

When I look back on my 17 years as an amateur engraver so I can say that my most frequently used tools are a pen of the brand Faber Castell 6H and an eraser of the best quality. If I've got it all wrong I do not know.

You DO have it right.

Unfortunately, most beginners start with " Oooh, I just got my new tools! Gotta cut something right now!"

And they keep right on going down that road, never bothering to learn to draw. (Too easy to just copy off google images or a Dover book)


Brian


Wouldn't happen to be some of you reading this, would it?

If so, and you are serious about hand engraving - start drawing!

Post the drawings. Get critiques. Go back and fix the drawings 'till you get less and less critiques... but don't let the "Atta boys" go to your head too early either!

Brian,You hit the nail right on the head,learning how to draw.If you don't learn how to draw you'll never be successfully as engraver,just look at the engravers that when out there way and when to art school Ken Hunt come to mind and we saw what Ken has achieved.J.J.

i agree with chris on this one. so many of the masterfully executed engravings just confuse the eye. even if propper flow is there, the eye loses sight of that. when my eye has difficulty separating figure from ground, then, to me, the most perfectly executed engraving just loses a bit of appeal. many of the old time engravers didn't have the technical expertise of the engravers today, but i like their designing much, much more. just an opinion of an old fart !

I agree also. Like a story without a beginning or end...what's the point!

Beautiful eclipse tonight!!

The Eclipse is amazing.

Pär: Bravo on your pencils and erasers! Drawing is obviously the key to successful hand engraving. Using pre-made designs will only get you so far. They're good for practice and help build confidence and many hobbyists are content with using them, but serious engravers know of their limitations.

Back when I was a beginner, there were no computers, transfers or kits or anything to expedite design, and engravers had to draw. This had its advantages of forcing everyone to use a pencil as opposed to a can of acetone and a laser transfer. We've all seen too many of today's beginners get stuck in the transfer rut.

We also see a lot of compliments on poorly (or mediocre) designed work, and pretty soon those engraving it start to believe it's something that it's not.

Thanks

Thanks Sam and Chris and the rest of you, then I have, after all, is not misunderstood everything a pencil and an eraser of good quality is still one of the most important tools to become a good engraver. I continue to work on.