Another new belt buckle with a different scroll style I'm trying to develop.

Just finished this one, making progress, learning a lot. The scroll style I just made up, I just freehanded elements I've use for underlining names in tattooing onto the wriggled backbone. I'd intended to make up an economical scroll style but it's just as time consuming as classic scrolls. I think it works but it still needs some development.

The center image is based on an old tattoo design we had on the Pike. The motto over his head is Y Que, Spanish, literally "and what",,, street slang for "...what about it?".

I'm learning through taking pictures too, the camera provides a different view than what is seen through a magnavisor,, I see about 5 more minutes on this one.

Thanks for looking, all comments and advice welcome.

Draw everything you plan to engrave - don't just draw the basics and then fill in "off the cuff" while you're cutting. Also, as a basic design rule, draw your "backbone" scrolls so they actually touch the borders that confine them.
The leaves along the border should be 2 squares long, which will give them a more natural look, not so square.

Thanks Eric, I've read about bringing the backbone to the edge and I usually fall short. I know about engravers who do a lot of things freehand and they are generally about 75% more experienced and educated in engraving than me. I did intend for the leaf shapes to extend at the top and toward the center, the outsides would have looked better touching. I just kept adding the "leaf type things" till all was full. It does need more development, maybe someone else will refine something from it.

I never considered why the border leaves look so static, that will soon change and teach me to use my proportional dividers.

Thanks again Eric for a view from a different set of eyes.

PS, I can't help admiring engravers that do so much fine work "off the cuff", it rarely works for me but I've always liked spontaneous art.

i always did the fine detailing on the fly as some say. at first, i would do a complete drawing on the object. then engrave the design. i soon found i could do shading far finer than engraving over the drawn lines. this became much easier when using magnification.

The spontaneity of which you speak is an illusion.
All of those effortlessly free-flowing, graceful designs we drool over are actually very carefully laid out in advance, following a set of rules.
Usually a design is not perfect on the first try. Drawing is the real work; engraving is the next stage to make the drawing permanent.
Don't engrave it until you've drawn it, love it, and would have it tattooed on your _______. (Mother's backside).

After years of practice, some people make it look easy. Keep practicing!

Eric Olson said:

All of those effortlessly free-flowing, graceful designs we drool over are actually very carefully laid out in advance,

Click to expand...

speaking solely for myself (if i may be so immodest as to assume some of my work is among that so admired), no, they ain't. i always lay out the main construction lines, but often cut much of the detail- and always ALL of the shading*, on the fly. AND i often make changes and adjustments to the main construction lines on the fly, too. some of this is simply due to the relative inaccuracy of a burnished pencil line on metal, so rather than kill myself trying to make an exact drawing, i just fine tune it as the graver is going along. sometimes i just decide to change/extend/shorten/reverse leaves, etc., where elements overlap/interact, etc., as the mood strikes. i actually wing quite a bit of it on some projects. so, it would depend a great deal what you mean by "designs" & "very carefully laid out in advance" as to how true that is (for me, anyway)...

*even though i never draw virtually any of my shade lines, i already have a very strong idea/vision of where they'll go. experienced engravers design their scrolls, leaves, and other ornamentation with the shading already pretty much figured out in our heads. it's not even a separate step in the process, it's all done more or less simultaneously.

Thanks Monk and Mitch, I've seen plenty of fine work done on the fly displayed by Brian Marshall and associates while taking classes there as well in popular videos. Through my art career I've developed a decent process to know where shading belongs. If I need to make a 1/4 " lines between two established points, I don't need to follow a pre-drawn 1/4" line. I've seen sign painters that can freehand corporate logos w/o layout, check you tube. I average about 3 hrs. of drawing time for these and they're looking as intended. I see my shortcomings as a product of my limited experience and education so I read and practice. I can't agree that spontaneous detailing is an illusion, I do appreciate and consider all opinions, that's how I learn. Thanks again.

your preferred way to work will evolve. it will do so right along with your experience and practice. you will likely develop and use techniques in the future that are very different from those that you use now.

Thanks monk, I'm trying for a maximum amount of effects done with a minimum of tools, forums like this are soooo helpful.