Critique Request Bulino knife engraving, feeling a little sheepish.

Dani Girl

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,110
Location
NSW, Australia.
This knife has been sitting in my drawer for about 6 years and I decided I would finally actually do something with it.

Critique away... what's wrong, what would you like to see to finish it off...etc. (critique with a sense of humor please, shouldn't be too hard, you've got plenty to work with) :cool: This one's just a fun project.

May I also ask what do you think I need to pick up my game on to be equal to 'master engraver' ?
 

mitch

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
2,635
the horns are all wonky. for quartering views of various species of bighorn rams, the outline of the horns will lie fairly closely within a pair of overlapping circles, with the near eye in the overlapping segment. (like an odd Venn diagram, marked 'left horn' & 'right horn', with the near eye being the common factor). try it, it works pretty accurately. i once pointed that out to a famous wildlife artist friend (who could beautifully freehand draw most any animal from memory starting with a blank page) and he was surprised he'd never noticed that trick.

also, the viewer would not see that much of the far side eye at that angle. you'd just see the orbital mound, not any part of the eyeball itself.
 

DKanger

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
1,054
Location
West TN
I like the expression on his face. Makes you wonder what that devilish goat has on his mind.
 

Dani Girl

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,110
Location
NSW, Australia.




Ok, short of sanding it off entirely I don't know how to improve that from there.

I apologize for his anatomy, I think he spent some time travelling near Chernobyl
 

JJ Roberts

:::Pledge Member:::
::::Pledge Member::::
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
3,456
Location
Manassas, VA
Dani,What did you have to go by for an picture of the ram? I have files on all the critters in the world. J.J.
 

Big-Un

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
1,370
Location
Eden, NC
I spent some time in Ukraine, about 40 miles from Chernobyl, in a village built to house those displaced by the meltdown, and the surrounding area is still bare and almost nonproductive. Great people there, but I didn't see any wildlife to speak of, mostly birds. The cows were doing well and I had the best raw milk I've ever tasted from them; they are fed native grasses and apples. It is their custom to keep your plate or glass filled, unlike America where I was taught to clean my plate, so don't empty them unless you intend to keep eating!

Bill
 

Chujybear

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 3, 2011
Messages
1,079
Location
Haida Gwaii
I spent some time in Ukraine, about 40 miles from Chernobyl, in a village built to house those displaced by the meltdown, and the surrounding area is still bare and almost nonproductive. Great people there, but I didn't see any wildlife to speak of, mostly birds. The cows were doing well and I had the best raw milk I've ever tasted from them; they are fed native grasses and apples. It is their custom to keep your plate or glass filled, unlike America where I was taught to clean my plate, so don't empty them unless you intend to keep eating!

Bill

seen a show where the wolves in chernoble were doing pretty good.. sure all kinds of radiation-related sicknesses, but still not as harmful to their health as living near humans
 

Roger Bleile

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
2,988
Location
Northern Kentucky
Here is an example of a bulino ram by Winston G. Churchill. This level of work is something to aspire to.
 

Attachments

  • 31-Churchill-ram's head knife-crop-flip.jpg
    31-Churchill-ram's head knife-crop-flip.jpg
    202.3 KB · Views: 295

Dani Girl

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,110
Location
NSW, Australia.
Thank you Roger. I haven't seen anything by Winston that isn't worth aspiring to. Do you know of anywhere online where one can find larger quantities of his work. A Google search inevitably takes you to the prime minister.

What I worked off... I hope it's ok by Martin Stoltz as this was a 6 year old project and if he would prefer I am happy to make it a Christmas present not something to sell.... was a casting. Pictured. The right most sheep.

For best results would one be best to draw straight onto the piece with transfer wax. I have heard talc powder can be used.

I regret not having left a white space faded into the scene so there would be some breathing space between scrolls and bulino
 

Sam

Chief Administrator & Benevolent Dictator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 6, 2006
Messages
10,489
Location
Covington, Louisiana
Winston is very protective of his photos and there's very little out there except in books.

Your scrolls are excellent but the sheep is the weak point as others have noted. No doubt you will overcome this. You're an excellent engraver.
 

Roger Bleile

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
2,988
Location
Northern Kentucky
Dani,

The picture I attached is from my book American Engravers-The 21st Century. That book and the one before it have just about every project that Winston engraved. You will not find much, if any, of his work on the internet. I flipped the image so it was in the same orientation as your ram.
 

JJ Roberts

:::Pledge Member:::
::::Pledge Member::::
Joined
Nov 10, 2006
Messages
3,456
Location
Manassas, VA
Always admired Winston's beautiful engraving I purchased a book from GRS The Churchill-Easton Colt .45 it's about Winston working with Joe Fugger at Griffin & Howe and a step by step engraving tutorial of the Colt for Mr.Easton. J.J.
 

Brian Marshall

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
3,112
Location
Stockton, California & Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico
Got the same book J.J.

Always wondered about that inlay technique... never seen one like it.

Tested it on piece of scrap and pulled the inlay out to see whether it actually keyed into the "checkerboard/crisscross" field.

Wasn't happy with what I saw. Continued doing it the more traditional ways.


B.
 

Martin Strolz

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
339
Location
Steyr, Austria
Danae,
Layout: Not as good as the other nice engravings you did.

You could have left the oval blank and engrave the polished area in fine bulino. Why those inner scrolls? They take away so much space. And: It is not correct to let scrolls grow out of a just cut. That is the second unpleasant effect of these inner scrolls- otherwise you would have a nice oval to work on. You could have engraved a bordering line around the oval which would make it even better or let one horn overlap the oval and reach out ino the scrolls. No proper idea or sufficient planning.
The casting you refer to was done in order to explain the relief chasing technique. The left part shows the precut design. The next part is an animal and the background around it is chiselled away. The centre animal is then shaped in relief and the surface and background worked with punches. The right part shows the finished effect with shading etc.

This technique relies on the combined effects of relief, texture and shading. The shading overlaps the structures of the punches etc. If you copy it in relief, it should look good, but is not a proper example for a bulino piece.
Please note the pictures, you see that the shading is quite simple, but gives a sufficient result. More shading would mean that the animal would get too dark and it would melt in with the background.

For bulino, you must employ other shading techniques! These will involve much more lines and dots compared to my sample chasing.
And: Bulino you do always with conventional gravers!!! Those heavy handpieces are completely unuseable for bulino and there is no power needed for tiny cuts and dots!
If your engraved area is small (as in your sample), you must worke more finely, if it is bigger you can work more coarse and deeper for better effect.

Greetings,
Martin
 

Attachments

  • 2 animals precut.jpg
    2 animals precut.jpg
    99.3 KB · Views: 108
  • Finished plate.jpg
    Finished plate.jpg
    72.2 KB · Views: 108
  • partially.jpg
    partially.jpg
    109.7 KB · Views: 108
Last edited:

Dani Girl

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,110
Location
NSW, Australia.
Wow, thank you Martin. That was fantastic feedback and I appreciate it very much.

I agree it would have been worth planning the project out more thoroughly instead of hoping it would grow 'correctly' as I went along. I could have given this piece more care. I always seem to do better work on things for other people. I did do quite a bit of power cutting on the animal especially in the darker areas and it's pretty clearly been outlined and is therefore a little cartoon like.

Your idea for just putting another line and letting the sheep have the whole oval with some breathing space would have been much better. I regretted the last inner scrolls after I added them.

Can you tell me any more what you mean by the first picture is the pre cut desgin? Do you have a favored way of starting the work and design? I always make the error of my first cuts being way too heavy and I don't notice I'm doing that until I've cleaned the metal and tried to detail it only to find big cuts I can't hide.
 

Martin Strolz

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
339
Location
Steyr, Austria
Danae,
The „pre-cut“ is an important step. In the first picture (in the other post) you can see the outlines of the animals and some main details, body shapes, a little highlighted with some burnishing. This is the composition and I am in full control of it during this step. I strive for making good use of the available space/shape and place the most important pieces of the composition into correct spot in proper size. Then I evaluate. There is always the possibility to change the posture a bit, or correct the pose regarding the legs etc. Then I can add the framework and the scenery and draw and precut that.
After that step I have what you can see in the second picture at the left side. It seems complicated and there is some temptation to shorten the process, -especially because in the finished piece the precut work is completely gone. After pre-cut I have the picture of it and I take a print for reference during this job and for further work. But the most important thing is the imagination of the finished scene which I gain and develop during drawing!

I reworked your picture a bit and made two layout samples. I have numerous pictures of the game animals and I choose and pick the most suitable. You notice that I make a nice outline drawing of the sheep for transfer. There is also some important detail in the design, often in dotted lines. It is easy to create this representation in PS. I mainly used the layer technique, the “eraser” and the “transform” function. You can scan your drawing and place it on a picture of the knife´s bolster in PS- or better draw it with a pencil.

The first sample shows a simple and clean composition. So nothing wrong with that - the downside is that the animal is very small. It is an often overlooked fact that a simple layout often looks better, because the number of possible mistakes is smaller! This makes it more compelling.

The second variation would need more planning. After drawing the borders around the bolster shape, you should start to draw and transfer the animal and the oval. Then engrave a hard (but not too deep) outline around the oval and all animal parts that are outside the oval. The animal transfer can be “secured” with little dots. Don’t use a scriber and don’t engrave real lines. (As you mentioned)
Then you would do the scroll, shade it and continue with the fine bulino on the remaining polished surface.
This way you cannot fail. You have a clear imagination what you strive for, you have drawn the animal, you have placed it correct, and you employ proper engraving techniques. More on that later, maybe...

Cheers,
Martin
 

Attachments

  • Danae Version 1.jpg
    Danae Version 1.jpg
    255.5 KB · Views: 83
  • Danae Version 2.jpg
    Danae Version 2.jpg
    249.3 KB · Views: 81
Last edited:

John B.

Lifetime Pledge Member
::::Pledge Member::::
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
3,950
Location
Los Angeles area, California.
Always a pleasure to see your posts Martin.
Thank you for taking the time to post such a concise explanation and pictures of your methods.
You are indeed a world class instructor.
Best regards.
 

Latest posts

Sponsors

Top