tony the tiger

Hello all...
With some help from Jason Marchiafava I've given this bulino tiger a shot. Jason did the layout and the left eye and left the rest to me. Bulino seems to be very tedious and time consuming, but the results are wonderful...

Comments are welcome.
Jeff

Hi Jeff, a very good attempt but what you've ended up with is a stylized as opposed to realistic tiger. I don't know if this was the effect you were after or not?

You obviously have excellent graver control but now you are entering a new arena which calls for a totally different approach. It appears that you've tried for a dotted as opposed to line type bulino and this has resulted in a short haired cat where as if you look at the attached photo the short hair on the nose gives way to longer hair around the head. Your cuts need to replicate the hairs and it's by varying the direction (in line with the hair growth) that gives shape and definition to the musculature of the head. All your dots seem to go in the same direction and that's why it looks a bit flat.

The whiskers also are out of proportion and, whilst they need to be defined in a similar way to the technique you've used, they need to be much finer.

Whenever working on a particular animal it always pays to have several pictures of different angles to help one understand the anatomy and form. One of the things I always try to stress when teaching scrollwork is to train yourself to actually see what's there and replicate that with your cutting; the same applies when rendering birds and animals. Unfortunately, the brain often interprets what it thinks it sees and the results are nothing like what you are trying to replicate. (This applies to artists as well and it's often what sorts out a good artist from an amateur.) So when attempting a bulino it's important to be able to see the bird/animal and interpret and render that creature, as it is, with fine cuts. Sometimes to make things work better you may even have to add some shading or use artistic license to make something look right but this comes with experience.

You are on the right track Jeff, and with your graver skills it's just a case of developing those skills in the right direction. You have done exceedingly well so far so don't be disheartened with this critique. It hopefully will give you the impetus to improve (which, judging by the way your going, won't be long).

Your scrolls surrounding the head look great by the way. Super shading, well done!

You're getting some good control with your greys and blacks, Jeff. The results are smooth and this is good. In my opinion the drawing is poor and rather cartoon-like. The eyes look more like human eyes than cat's eyes, the whiskers are too thick, and the chin area needs more work. I think you did well with the cutting, and had it been a better drawing it could be on its way to being a really killer piece of work. I'd like to see you do another one with a good drawing because you're showing that you have really good potential for this style of work. / ~Sam