Precise layout?

Mike_Morgan

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Possibly, but the point is, he doesnt let anything slide, he notices and corrects. He is honest with himself about what he sees.

I'm pretty honest with myself about what I see when I engrave as well, I hack the poor metal into submission, realize I can't correct it, and into the recycle bin it goes... I've yet to produce anything that has any actual monetary value beyond the scrap that I manage to produce... BUT... with each passing day I get closer to making the lines that I actually intend to make, instead of being tempted to say: "Close Enough".

However, the experience I'm getting from being horrible at this has value far beyond money. I've always found that the most successful people in ANY given discipline had the courage to be really really bad at it first. It's easy to say, "Yep, I'm not good at it" and move on. Staying with it day after day and week after week... actually finding the will to sit down and be awful at something isn't being a glutton for punishment, it's the first step in being able to excel!

I envy the people that excel from the start, but they are all too frequently the same people that never evolve very far beyond their starting point.

I can clearly notice my numerous errors both in layout and cutting... I look forward to the day when I can do the next step, and correct them!
 

Martin Strolz

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This is an interesting thread. I think engravers and opinions differ widely especially in this regard. I never was very precise when I draw a layout. I know that other engravers could not cut what I drew. Clearly, the better you know your design elements, the longer you have studied them, the more often you have drawn them, the better your layout idea is, the more loosely you can draw on your piece. But the rule clearly must be: Use just enough effort to reach the goal!! Of course the goal can be quality work or outstanding design or a low numbers of working hours for a given job etc.
Young engravers I would always and strongly encourage to draw clear and nicely. The reason is that one can check the layout, the flow of stems, the placement of background areas etc. really well.

I like to think and work in steps. From a pencil sketch to the raw and then finer layout on steel, from the scribed layout to the engraved lines there must always be a step towards perfection of shapes and forms of single elements. Take your camera, shoot a few pictures of your first layout and watch them on the screen. Most people will see a lot more than looking on the metal piece. The use of a microscope in the early steps of an engraving can also be problematic, I believe.

The necessary amount of precision also has a lot to do with the style of the engraving and the engraving technique itself. English Fine Scroll for example never allows sloppy layout work. Also it has to be executed with an engraving technique that is very unforgiving.

Winston´s layout is proper and good, I think. Why do I think so? If compared to the finished work, one can see that almost everything can be seen in the pencil drawing already. Plus it is a layout for a relief engraving. During this process one can adjust and modify the shapes and detail to some degree.

At the end I want to show a sample of really minimalistic layout. But be warned: If you try to copy this way of working you very likely will not end up with a similar engraving that I got.
I drew right on the steel plate and used an ornamental design with some interwoven floral elements.
My main focus was on the biggest scrolls, the way they started and how they are connected. You can also see that it is scribed already and I marked the places where I wanted to leave the cuts open during engraving the scrolls. So later I could add branches crossing the scroll elements. The floral parts needed space so I left enough open background areas for them. I looked to get a nice space for the scene and took care that the framing is somewhat symmetric by using similar scrolls that look to be flipped.
The engraving of the scrolls was done with an onglette graver and hand pushing. It was very quickly done. After that leaves and branches were added, background punched and the ornament shaded.
A minimal effort during the design and layout stage lead to an acceptable engraving. The oryx antelope is a silver inlay on a relief chased background.
 

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JMiller

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Thanks for the pictures Sam & Martin.... I always like seeing how others work through their process. Looking at Martins plate I would have thought you would have made a detailed drawing first, I just happen to have that casting and having some explanation and seeing the progress pictures like yours & Churchill's is educational to say the least.
 

bcnew

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Jul 1, 2016
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While I am thinking about it, it seems like as engravers we should be drawing like we engrave, meaning put a tunrtable under the drawing paper and form the scrolls or whatever...we cut that way I presume so why not draw that way?
 

Sam

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Martin: Many thanks for your well written comments. It's always great to hear from such a great engraver and teacher, and you never disappoint.

The plate with the oryx is what I would consider a rough layout (in its pencil stage). Like Winston, that's enough for you to render a magnificent engraving without requiring perfection in the drawing. Actually the perfection is in the design itself, with proper balance and perfect scroll shapes, but you don't require every detail and I'm sure many emerge as you're working. FWIW, Damien Connolly draws everything down to the last detail. I suspect he sticks with the design as he's cutting with the exception of small changes on the fly like most of us make. Maybe he can comment if he's following this thread.

Your photos 3 and 5 are especially important because they show the depth and character of your outline cutting. Once the work is completed it's not as easy to see as it is in this stage (just outlines...no shading or background). So many engravers overlook the importance of character in the cuts which you do exceptionally well. I'm curious if you emphasize this to your students like I do. Some get it and some do not, but I mention it so much I think they get tired of hearing it :) Without it, the cutting can be as boring as elevator music.
 

SamW

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I've always followed Frank Hendrick's philosophy of draw what you want to cut and cut what you draw. Corrections and additions on the fly are always needed. I have posted this photo before but it shows my way of approach.

When doing transfers for mirror images I use the transfer only to position elements of the design properly. I then make a smoke pull of the first cut design, place that on another piece of tape so it can be viewed from the opposite side, and proceed to redraw to match as closely as possible.

We all seem to do things a bit differently but we also "dance around the same process".
 

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