Critique Request Self Criticism – Celtic Tendril

Crossbolt

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Jun 22, 2016
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San Francisco Bay Area, California
No this isn’t part of the Chinese Communist party plenary session :)

Part of trying to improve my engraving is trying to improve my self critique skills since I putter around on my own on a hobby basis. I thought I’d post an annotated example in case anyone sees anything I’m missing that they care to comment on. Hopefully it shows up large enough to see. I also thought it might be something of a comparison point for fellow beginners out there.

It’s basically my first attempt on a practice plate to experiment at how to cut Celtic Tendril. It’s probably overly ambitious but more fun than just cutting lines etc. Clearly I’ve got a way to go but I can already see how to improve on the next go.
Most of the cuts are far too irregular and some of the scale elements are wrong. I experimented with different backgrounding – which was informative but a failure. The better work (not that it’s good) is when I started consciously cutting shallower and “ringing” the inside scrolls out before going back and detailing them inside work. I’ve left bits incomplete so folks can see how I’m going about it and offer any criticism.

Overall, as to the cutting I need to improve consistency and move to slightly smaller forms. The inside work is too “fat” compared to what it should be and I’m not getting a sufficiently pronounced “knob tipped” slender inner tendrils. In the big picture the layout isn't quite "uniform" enough either - too much variation in large tendril form and spacing. I need to spend more time sketching overall layouts to improve that I think.

As a comparison to what Celtic Tendril “should be” , I’ve included a few examples from what I’ve tracking down to study. The inner detail work is a little like English fine scroll but not quite; the tendrils of the inside work tend to have a distinct knob which requires slightly different cutting that I clearly have not yet got the hang of. One example, which is, I think the better executed variation, is the Alexander Henry hammergun from Tate’s book. The second and third are from the more common form as applied to guns engraved for W.R. Pape in Newcastle. The “inside” work of the latter is a little tricky to make out and in many examples seems almost random as far as I can make out. If anyone happens to have clearer examples or comments on that aspect of the design I’d welcome seeing them.

To sum up if anyone has any pointers, critique is encouraged; thanks and enjoy or laugh all you like :)

Jeremy
 

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