Newbie Post

Clay Stewart

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Joined
Feb 4, 2008
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4
Hello the Café!

I'm a fledgling engraver with more interest than talent, and wanted to share my first work with you. I became interested in engraving a couple of years ago after seeing some of the exceptional work done by my good friend Roger Bleile as well as the passion with which he approached the art. I was fortunate enough to work at the same company as Roger until his recent retirement and through that connection have formed a relationship that has allowed me to tap into the immense amounts of knowledge that Roger has on engraving, firearms, and life in general. His initial instructions on learning to engrave were to pick up pencil and paper and the exceptional works of Ron Smith and to draw, draw, draw. More specifically, to make certain that I can understand the composition of a scroll and how to recognize the components of an aesthetically pleasing design before ever thinking about putting graver to metal. After nearly a year or better of doing just that (when possible between raising a young family, work, activates, etc.), I'm just beginning to cut something resembling a scroll.

The practice plate below is my poor attempt at cutting a copy of one of Ron Smith's scroll patterns. It came about while re-reading Ron's first book on scroll where I ran across what I consider to be a great example of some amazing leaf structure. My thinking was that spending the time tracing Ron's design, scanning, resizing, printing, and transferring it onto metal (much thanks to Mike Cirelli and Powderhorn on the tips that lead me to finally be able to do that) would greatly help me understand the composition of the piece in a way far beyond anything else I could do with the pattern. My apologies to Ron up front for the poor copy of his great work, and if this causes any type of copyright or infringement concerns, please let me know and I'll remove this post immediately!

I've included a not so great pic of my practice plate, but hopefully you get the idea. I've also included a pencil drawing that I scratch together today using a similar leaf structures to the best of my memory. I appologize for the copy as it's in pencil and very light, but hopefully you get the idea. Please take a look and I'd love to hear your feedback on what I missed and where I went wrong.

I'd also like to take a quick second to thank you all for making up such an amazing forum, and for allowing me to participate. I've been on a lot of forums for a lot of topics over the past 15 years but none like this. It's amazing to me to see such masters in the field frequenting a forum and so readily sharing their knowledge and experience with everything from a newbie just beginning to scratch metal to someone making the transition to going full time in the trade. What you have here is special, and I hope you recognize that.


Thanks,

Clay Stewart
 

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mdengraver

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Thick and Thin

Your cutting looks real good. I'm no expert on scroll work but my immediate thought is if you vary your line weight thickness more your work will look more 3-dimensional and pleasing to the eye. If you roll your graver on the wider cuts that will also help.
 
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pilkguns

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Nov 14, 2006
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in the land of Scrolls,
It looks good to me, well formed scrolls and shading looks pretty even. The only advice I would give to you is to cut anotther one. You need just practice, practice practice to develop muscle memory and increase your skill. But I am sure you have'nt heard this from Roger :^)
 

Andrew Biggs

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Nov 10, 2006
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Hi Clay and welcome to the forum

I agree with Scott.............just keep practicing. You're doing all the right things and approaching the work in the right frame of mind. All you need to do at this stage is just keep at it.

Your next plate will be better and the one after that better again. Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day :)

Cheers
Andrew
 

joseph engraver

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Jul 31, 2007
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Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Clay.
You are going about this in exactly the right way.Your cuts are not full of confidence yet, but you are going in the right direction.Time and practice will get you there. I suspect that you will progress rapidly.A graver is nothing more than a steel pencil.
 

tengraver

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Oct 8, 2007
Messages
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Location
Stanley, NC
Hi Clay,

You're off to a great start! I wish some of my first efforts looked as good. I applaud you for the time you spent drawing - it looks to have really paid off. Make sure you save some of your first plates so you will have them to compare with later on - you'll be amazed!

Keep up the good work!
 

Tira

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Welcome Clay! We try very hard to make this a warm and inviting place. :) Your plate looks good. A couple of the leaves are very good. Try to make your circular leaves, spirals, etc. actually circular without kinks. As Mr. Pilkington said, practice, practice, practice. Keep posting so we can see your progress.
 

Ron Smith

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Clay, thanks for the complements. Welcome to the forum. Your scroll drawing is looking good. I see some balance problems but they are not blairing. Keep your background spaces reasonably equal throughout your composition. Keep your leaf masses equal also. Parallel lines create flow so on your tendrils, as they move toward termination, gradually move lines apart to keep them as parallel as possible. Of course there are a few things that indicate a style rather than a rule, but balance is imortant with any style.

Another good thing that will make flaws more visible is to black in the background areas. It will give you a whole new way to comprehend what you have done in your drawings. Flaws will emerge that you didn't see without the blackened background. Also it will show you what you need to do if you are going to be removing that background. There are some gaps that will need to be dealt with.

You will be amazed with the difference that a misplaced line will make as to the grace and flow of the work. Gradual seperation of lines merging and going away to form a leaf structure can mean the difference between grace and the confusion of that grace. if you deviate even very slightly from any line in the structure, you drawing won't look like what you are trying to duplicate.

Copy the structures just as you see them in the book or any structure you want to learn. Since any deviation of a line will make a difference, start with the main structure line of a leaf structure and memorize its shape, curve, length in relation to the other elements of the line. Once you have that line by memory, add another to it paying attention to its relationship to the line you already know. add that to your memory and so on and so forth. Once you have done this, you will know a good leaf structure by heart. Then it is just a matter of observing a few rules as to how to compose the composition. Then do the same with the spiral structure and spiral additions, being very observant and paing attention to doing it just as it is.

Now, not to diminish what you have learned, You are doing great and progressing nicely. You have the right attitude and are going about it the right way, so practice and study is the key until you get the intimacy you need to really be able to create on your own.

As for your drawing, taper the tendrils more gradually so the end of the tendril is not so bulky arising from a very small begining to a very large bulb on the end. Does this make sense?

Keep your leaf masses consistant and if you put two or three leafs together, you will crate a focal point. This means that you will have a mass of surface metal unequal to the other leaf masses in your design. When you background this (blacken the background) this will become more obvious. Squint your eyes and if you have something that catches your eye and holds it, you have a focal point. Places where leaves cross over is an "X" marks the spot situation that has to be dealt with accordingly, and where you cross over the only way to camoflage it is with shadng to seperate the two masses. See what I mean??

These are just points of finesse, so they are kind of nit-picky, but important to know.

Ron S
 

Roger Bleile

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Clay,

I'm glad to see you posted the pictures of your work and I'm very happy with the progress you've made in the limited time you have to practice. Bring your plate to my shop and we'll work on some refinements.

Roger

BTW folks, Clay does not have a microscope. His plate was done with a 90 degree tool in a Gravermeister and Optavisor.
 
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Clay Stewart

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Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
4
Thank you all so much for the encouraging word and the great advice. I'll post more as I get the opportunity. Much appreciated!
 

monk

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i cant speak for ron, but i'm sure he published the book to teach folks. so i'm guessin he aint fixin to sue you. id sooner think he would be happy that you did copy his drawings to improve you abilities. i don't think too many here would throw stones if you simply copied a bit of their style simply to learn scroll development i don't think anyone here on the forum stared from day one without looking at the work of someone who came before they did. don't forget, the chambered nautillis started it all !
 

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