Buck folder for critique

Just finished this stainless folder for practice.
Wanted to get some experts opinions on design and I always have trouble with where to shade. I've had no lessons yet but have learned from Sam's DVD's and this forum. Thanks for looking and for any pointers!

I'm no expert but I think it looks great, it's a nice layout, flows well, some nice elements that I'll be borrowing. Looks like all the shading is in the right places.

Thanks Dave for taking the time to reply I really appreciate it. Wish I had a better picture but was best I could do with iPhone.

fwiw, looks great to me. for a serious critique , a better, close up shot would be nice. esp to see your shading.

Okay, you asked for constructive critique. Attaboys get you nowhere and neither does someone with little or no experience telling you that it has nice flow and elements. You'll go away thinking what you've done is great and fall into the trap of repeating mistakes and building on them so, here's some serious criticism.

First off, the flow isn't bad and your cutting is quite good but there are some serious flaws if you wish to improve. The first thing that hits me is the scroll growing from your starter scroll is smaller than the scrolls that are growing from it. Think "tree". A branch NEVER grows from a twig and so it is with scrolls which are a stylised form of plant. Larger scrolls should not grow from smaller ones generally speaking.

Getting into the details well, you have several clashing elements or styles going on which looks like a messy mismatch. At 1, that 'banana/finger' leaf is just horrible. It adds nothing to your design and, thank goodness, repeats nowhere else in the design. With this type of scroll think 'tendril & leaf'; 4 tendrils on the bounce doesn't work.

At 2, That leaf shape with that long hook is not nice at all and neither is the leaf it is curling around. This is out of proportion with the rest of your leaves as is the big double leaf filler at 3. You are mixing foliate and semi-English large scroll styles. Better to have used another scroll there with leaves either side, in my opinion.

At 4, you have started growing outside-work from the smaller scroll too early. This has led to a clash of elements growing against one another instead of flowing nicely. The scroll should've been much larger and should've touched the larger one to avoid leaving an awkward space that needs filling with something.

At 5 there is a horrible 'claw' leaf that you've used as a filler that is not only ugly but growing incorrectly. You have a nice flow heading towards the bolster and this thing suddenly comes out of nowhere growing against the flow. Not good design I'm afraid.

At 6 you have incorporated an element that looks art nouveau-esque. It's quite nicely done but bears no relationship to the rest of the overall design (apart from maybe the finger leaf at 1) so it just looks odd. Far better to have carried through the same style of leaf at 3 than switching to something else; even though I criticised that element before at least it would have followed a theme.

At 7 you have another weird leaf/tendril thing. There's nothing wrong with incorporating a kind of ribbon flow to some scrolls occasionally but you really need to know what you're doing to make it look good and I'm afraid this doesn't.

Finally, at 8 you decide to miniaturise your scroll and outside work. Even though scrolls do progressively get smaller the inside and outside work needs to remain in proportion with the rest of the design. This is an easy mistake to make as a beginner.

I know this critique may sound harsh and it's meant to be. Why, you might ask? My answer is, because your cutting isn't half bad. You have a good, strong technique which, with guidance and practice, could produce some very good work in the future. It's your design which is off but if you get that right I think you have a lot of potential. But blowing smoke up your back side and saying what you've produced is great (when it's not) isn't going to help you to improve. I'm being hard because I can see you improving especially if you're at this stage having just learned from watching Sam's DVDs.

If you want a little bit of advice, take a step back for a short while. Learn medium/large English scroll. It's a bit boring but done well can look really lovely. It will teach you balance and regularity of design above everything else. Then, when you've got that under your belt start to add 2 split and 3 split leaves to the tendrils in the design instead of just the simple tendril & leaf. The shading will only require 3 - 5 cuts max and you'll learn how these add life to the scrolls. Then, when you progress to the foliate stuff your shapes and balance will be second nature and shading will occur naturally. But if you try the other route of jumping straight in to fancy scrolls you'll have no idea of growth and balance let alone no where to start your shading. Learn to walk first and you'll be up and running in no time.

Marcus thanks so much for taking the time to point these areas out, I really appreciate it. I knew the design was flawed just didn’t know where to begin. I needed the harsh critique and will certainly heed your advice, pick up a pencil and work on the areas you pointed out and some English scroll. Again I can’t thank you enough for taking your time to help, and to this great forum and it’s members!