joseph engraver
Elite Cafe Member
The engraving of this coin was a new experience for me. As an engraver I have the skills needed to do this work. They have taken years of dedicated practice. As an artist I need something more than a figure to copy on to metal. The painting that I used to derive my coin is of a very serine maiden standing in front of a glowing palm leaf. She is dressed in a jade green hooded robe that has luminescent spots on it. My paint brush is steel and my pallet is limited to what colors that can be coaxed from the light that passes across the coins surface.
To give the illusion of depth I must remove metal here and there. To give strength to the figure I must exaggerate some lines and weaken others to show space. I laid out the coin and the corresponding tracing of the Virgin. Then drew the shapes and line on the coin then cut away the nonrelated background, leveled and cleaned up those surfaces, then refined the drawing on the coin. At this point my mind could not visualize what this iconic girl would have looked like. Surely she could not look like the pale anemic face and slim bodied girl that I saw in the cheap reproduction print I had bought as a study from a tourist’s stand in Petlatan, Mexico.
I have engraved many portraits in my life. None have ever tested my skills like the Virgin of Guadalupe. At my first attempt, I threw the coin way in frustration and disgust. Then I redrew her once more on a fresh coin, and left her alone for a while.
I thought of her for several days while making up my mind if it was better to forget the idea and do something that did not rub against my personal religious beliefs.
I returned to my studio, ready to work and convinced that the only way I could see her, was to entice her to appear.
How could I do her portrait if she was invisible to me?
In order to help the situation I first asked her permission, and was immediately denied it. Her valid reason was that I did not believe, respect, or have any idea of her power; also I swore, drank, was unfaithful, lied, cheated, gambled and was an unclean person. And further more, I smelled bad... I was in her opinion unfit. How could I solve this dilemma? I explained to her from that minute on I did believe in her. For to think otherwise made me a lunatic. I then apologized for past errors in life. Still she would not consent and show me her face.
I redrew her figure for the fourth time .leaving space where her portrait was to be. I worked on the banana leaf until it was finished. I then started engraving her robe with its glowing lights.
Meanwhile I kept persisting that even though she felt nothing but disgust at the touch of my hands, I truly had come to respect her.
I asked†If you pity the millions of Mexicans that are no better than this wander. Could you not do the same for me?†and “What about the tattoo artists in prison for rape murder and every other crime thinkable. Had she not revealed her beauty to them?†She did not answer me.
I finished her robe and began to draw her hands. “Those are not my hands†I heard her voice inside my head say “I am Indio, I am strong, my hands were meant to raise corn, and my shoulders do not slump, my body is made to carry heavy water jugs.â€.
“What do you look like?†I wondered. “I shall not show you because you intend to profit by selling your coin when it is done. Do you not?†I answered, “ I am a man who holds material possessions to be of small value. My life’s work is to make beautiful things, then I sell them to people who see that beauty, and you are part of that beauty. But, if it pleases you, I will keep this coin and not sell it.â€
It was only then that she revealed her face to me.
Thank you all for reading and looking.
To give the illusion of depth I must remove metal here and there. To give strength to the figure I must exaggerate some lines and weaken others to show space. I laid out the coin and the corresponding tracing of the Virgin. Then drew the shapes and line on the coin then cut away the nonrelated background, leveled and cleaned up those surfaces, then refined the drawing on the coin. At this point my mind could not visualize what this iconic girl would have looked like. Surely she could not look like the pale anemic face and slim bodied girl that I saw in the cheap reproduction print I had bought as a study from a tourist’s stand in Petlatan, Mexico.
I have engraved many portraits in my life. None have ever tested my skills like the Virgin of Guadalupe. At my first attempt, I threw the coin way in frustration and disgust. Then I redrew her once more on a fresh coin, and left her alone for a while.
I thought of her for several days while making up my mind if it was better to forget the idea and do something that did not rub against my personal religious beliefs.
I returned to my studio, ready to work and convinced that the only way I could see her, was to entice her to appear.
How could I do her portrait if she was invisible to me?
In order to help the situation I first asked her permission, and was immediately denied it. Her valid reason was that I did not believe, respect, or have any idea of her power; also I swore, drank, was unfaithful, lied, cheated, gambled and was an unclean person. And further more, I smelled bad... I was in her opinion unfit. How could I solve this dilemma? I explained to her from that minute on I did believe in her. For to think otherwise made me a lunatic. I then apologized for past errors in life. Still she would not consent and show me her face.
I redrew her figure for the fourth time .leaving space where her portrait was to be. I worked on the banana leaf until it was finished. I then started engraving her robe with its glowing lights.
Meanwhile I kept persisting that even though she felt nothing but disgust at the touch of my hands, I truly had come to respect her.
I asked†If you pity the millions of Mexicans that are no better than this wander. Could you not do the same for me?†and “What about the tattoo artists in prison for rape murder and every other crime thinkable. Had she not revealed her beauty to them?†She did not answer me.
I finished her robe and began to draw her hands. “Those are not my hands†I heard her voice inside my head say “I am Indio, I am strong, my hands were meant to raise corn, and my shoulders do not slump, my body is made to carry heavy water jugs.â€.
“What do you look like?†I wondered. “I shall not show you because you intend to profit by selling your coin when it is done. Do you not?†I answered, “ I am a man who holds material possessions to be of small value. My life’s work is to make beautiful things, then I sell them to people who see that beauty, and you are part of that beauty. But, if it pleases you, I will keep this coin and not sell it.â€
It was only then that she revealed her face to me.
Thank you all for reading and looking.
Attachments
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best virgin).jpg
Dave
