Neptune/Amphrite knife

Been pretty busy, trying to keep caught up with engraving, so I have not had much time for forums, or photoshopping pics together. But I did finally get this one put together. Thanks for looking -Brian


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Fantastic work as always - Thanks for takeing the time away from you busy schedule to share and inspire-Fred

WOW Brian

Fabulous work!!! It just keeps getting better and better!!!!

I really like your tasteful use of gold and the design is superb.

Fantastic

Cheers
Andrew

And wonderful photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Outstanding work Brian Wow!!!

Cheers

"VAN"

Bravo, very nice design and well executed

arnaud

That is some exquisite gold work and scrolls. You really have brought your engraving to a HIGH level Brian.

Thanks for posting it.

Outstanding work Brian! Thank you for posting it.

Yvan

Wow, Brian, Seeya in Hotlanta...
Hope you make the engrave-in...
Jerry

Brain,
Looks great as usual! A little different than saddles huh?
Thanks for showing.
Rex

Brian, this is totally awesome in every way but the hair on the mermaid is outstanding. The detail and shading is perfect! I love the little touch with the clams with the pearls. Keep up the fantastic work.

Dwayne

Excellent design, Bravo

I just noticed the bottom stone on the right-firey sea horse foreleg-Nice-Fred

this exquisite work kind of speaks for itself !

Brian, a lot of old time engravers are taking notice of your fantastic work. You're young and energetic and artistically talented, and the scary thing is how much you continually improve!

Thanks for keeping the pressure on and raising the benchmark.

Great job Brian. Hope we will see you in Atlanta.

Joe

Thanks for the atta boys.

I have been studying some of the close up photos in the Fracassi book, where it shows clearly there is no random dotting, which results in smooth and even grey tones and transitions. I have been working at that very thing, although, I usually have to go back in and make adjustments. It is not easy to gauge the tone needed correctly on the first pass, when you still have a lot of blank metal. Maybe after I have made as many dots as Mr. Fracassi has, I will get the hang of it.

Ok, gotta get back to work, still have two knives to finish for Blade. Thanks again -Brian

Now Lets all sing together ..............UNDER THE SEA

[Ariel, listen to me]
[The human world, it's a mess]
[Life under the sea]
[Is better than anything they got up there]

The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake

Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?

Under the sea, under the sea
Darlin' it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me.
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devoting full time to floating
Under the sea.

All joking aside that is really coooooool.

Tony

Your gold shading is particularly impressive and much more refined as well as dimensional.

Neptune sure is on some serious juice for an old guy.

Brian, I have been studying Fracassi's work since the early 80'. when I saw some of his guns at the Beinfeld Antique Arms Show they had with a knife show in February every year at the Sahara with Buster Warenski, who had a friend who let Buster take the Diana gun home and shoot pics of it under his 40x scope. Back then things looked quite different that his technique now but as you said. There was no dots put in just randomly, there was a definite pattern to them. Its like newspaper halftones. photos are all made up of dots in the black and white old newspaper shots. If you remember the dots were huge but because of the pattern that the rows of dots made if you squinted the photo was pretty clear. The dots lined up in 2 directions mainly45 degrees in both directions of left to right and right to left the other direction. So you combine that perfect pattern alignment and the super small dots and you can imagine the realistic detail you can get. Ii just cant imagine how he gets those rows so perfectly spaced because if you look the roows of dots line up perfectly in at least 2 directions, so how a man can do the freehand is totally amazing. Most of his backgrounds the dots were in vertical rows and different shapes. His technique has changed alot from way back then in several other ways too. Do you poke in the dot the pop off the tiny burr? Well he didnt back then.
he also had many different shaped cuts in the backgrounds also. Some were just a flat pushed in and the burr left there also in vertical rows for some backgrounds. Another weird shape he used was a cut the was fairly wide comparatively then the top was lik a very low pyramid. a center point raised up in the middle like a small pyramid. He had all kinds of weird cuts and things but still the most important thing was the alignment of those cuts. But in several areas they were just random looking. The girls faces looked to have no special pattern to the dots. The hair was very fine line work. I still have a bunch of those old photos as at the time Buster shot them all I worked in a commercial art studio with our own black&white photo lab so I made all the prints for Buster and myself a set. But in the new book all the wierd shapes of cuts are basically gone and he does do some lines too. It really interesting to compare his technique from 30 years apart. I would just love to have one of his tool now to see how it is shaped and sharpened and his lovely daughter who speaks english could teach me hot to use it Dream on Herman lol.

Brian what is the v angle and shape of your dottng tool you are using now? The reason I ask is because after looking at his work for 30 years now the actual shape of the dot doesnt reall mean much at all being that small unless you carry around a microscope with you lol. I have been using Phil Coggan's tool and he is right, it can do just about everything except short tight curls. Keep up the amazing work Brian. I wish I could make blade this year but it just didnt work out.

Brian~ What an amazing study!!! And to read the responses of the truely gifted artisans in this forum really speaks to your creative abilities...Nice...So very nice!

Greg