Critique Request Bollywood Elephant meets Scroll Engraving

This is a 4x6 Half Hard Brass practice plate I engraved today, I would appreciate your comments!

Mike,Looks like your off to a good start,keep chipping. J.J.

oh, lord ! another soul lost to the world of art. actually , i think it's a neat, well executed design.

Off to a fantastic start. You seem to have control of the tools and much of what you are doing here works.
Since you asked for a critique, I'll point out the one thing that stands right out. Your scrolls have only a single line as a backbone. Leaves almost never start attached to the line of the backbone rather a bit to the inside of it to give the appearance of a solid vine or stem rather than just a line. The backbone should have width. You are in some sense trying to re-create nature and make your work appear 3 dimensional. The last section of scroll near the head, you have left some space between the leaves and the backbone. At that spot it starts to look like a natural thing. So, picture a vine with leaves attached. The vine is not a thin line with leaves coming off of it. The vine could be drawn on paper using a double line with leaves coming off of it.
If you can picture that , then the next thing to think about is to not bring your leaves off at right angles. They should flow off of the backbone. And lastly, the backbone of the scroll is the most important part of the design. It should be perfect with no flat spots or elbows.
Sorry I'm not more eloquent. I've never been a wordsmith. I"m telling you all this because you obviously have talent if you can cut at this level. But as I learned the hard way, cutting is the easiest part. You are close to getting it right. If you spend some time with any one of the wonderful scroll design books available, and pay close attention to the fundamentals of scroll design, your work will take a massive leap to the next level and you won't have to look back a year from now and say "what was I thinking?". Take it from someone who has said that many times over before I figured out where I was going wrong.
Keep it up and you'll get there in no time.

Southern Custom... Thanks for the time you took to examine and comment, I really appreciate it!

I can see what you're saying, and yeah, it makes complete sense, and there has been this "mechanical" sense I get from looking at my scrolls, and you shed the light on what I'm seeing.

THIS scroll work is much better than my last ones because I'm getting better at shading, which was helped immensely by buying Shawn Didyoungs book and videos, and he mentions specifically not going to the backbone line, and I basically forgot that in this execution, I have to pay closer attention.

Monk, I'm not lost to the world of Art... I prefer to call it "whimsical"... OK you're right... I'm lost to the world of art. I don't have the courage to cut up any of my firearms... yet... but My Rolex is a sitting duck.

J.J Roberts, thanks for the encouragement... in fact, thank you to ALL of you for your generous comments.

Did you do that hand push or pneumatic? I'm a fan of both and hope to step up to a GraverMax eventually. Either way, it is light years away from what I'm able to do right now. It's actually nice to see work that is beyond the beginner stuff but not quite at the master level yet... Gives us new guys a glimpse of what hard work and plain old perseverance can do. It's also an opportunity to get the feedback of folks who really ARE masters too, which is amazing to me. Most folks really don't (or won't) take the time. Thanks for sharing it!

Bluetickhound said:

Did you do that hand push or pneumatic? I'm a fan of both and hope to step up to a GraverMax eventually. Either way, it is light years away from what I'm able to do right now. It's actually nice to see work that is beyond the beginner stuff but not quite at the master level yet... Gives us new guys a glimpse of what hard work and plain old perseverance can do. It's also an opportunity to get the feedback of folks who really ARE masters too, which is amazing to me. Most folks really don't (or won't) take the time. Thanks for sharing it!

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Hey, I'm a new guy myself!

To answer your question, I'm using a Lindsay Palm Control Classic.

I know what you mean about not seeing work that falls between "just getting started" and "How the hell does Sam Alfano even DO that, and what planet is Phil Coggan from?"

I cut my first practice plate in early spring, and I'm here on the forum every day, cramming in all the information I can muster... this is such an awesome resource and I still can't believe that the Masters will even take the time to help those of us that are just getting started. Amazing.

Hopefully my learning curve will be as short as yours!

The sketches in this knife thread show a perfect example of what I was trying to convey. The inner line is drawn but not cut until the leaves are laid in.
http://www.engraverscafe.com/showthread.php?21479-New-knife-in-the-works.

Southern Custom said:

The sketches in this knife thread show a perfect example of what I was trying to convey. The inner line is drawn but not cut until the leaves are laid in.
http://www.engraverscafe.com/showthread.php?21479-New-knife-in-the-works.

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It makes complete sense! Thanks for pointing that out.

Just wanna say that the design is sweet!

canadianwuff said:

Just wanna say that the design is sweet!

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Thanks so much... I can't take complete credit for it... It's based on a elephant I found in a coloring book! I did modify it quite a bit, but I can't say it's entirely of my design.

Mike_Morgan said:

Southern Custom... Thanks for the time you took to examine and comment, I really appreciate it!

I can see what you're saying, and yeah, it makes complete sense, and there has been this "mechanical" sense I get from looking at my scrolls, and you shed the light on what I'm seeing.

THIS scroll work is much better than my last ones because I'm getting better at shading, which was helped immensely by buying Shawn Didyoungs book and videos, and he mentions specifically not going to the backbone line, and I basically forgot that in this execution, I have to pay closer attention.

Monk, I'm not lost to the world of Art... I prefer to call it "whimsical"... OK you're right... I'm lost to the world of art. I don't have the courage to cut up any of my firearms... yet... but My Rolex is a sitting duck.

J.J Roberts, thanks for the encouragement... in fact, thank you to ALL of you for your generous comments.

Click to expand...

i like to see experimental design such as you did. nothin wrong with scroll, but a refreshing new design now & then, is nice to see.