Critique Request First completed practice plate (Phil Coggan design)

[James Ashley]

Hi guys this is my first ever practice plate I have completed except for cutting straight, curved and shade lines over and over. This design was taken from a thread a few years ago from Phil Coggan who posted a design for people to use as a practice plate. Phil is my fav engraver so naturally I wanted to do this

The design is 50mm high or roughly 2 inches as was discussed in the thread and was a fantastic exercise.

So in the interest of self critique I am going to list some of my issues but feel free to expand on them or list anymore I miss

Backbones to main scrolls not perfect in fact some are shockers!

I think I cut too deep (probably from stone setting where lots of deeper plunge cuts etc are used to carve the settings out).

From 17 yrs as a jeweller I managed to forget a golden rule that your finish is only as good as your surface prep! Mine was bad on this as I didn't realise it would show up as much as it did later on.:no:

I changed graver geometry while shading as I was not getting fine enough lines ( you can probably see where). Managed to fix it by changing to a heel free graver which worked much better for me when shading.

When elements crossed one another I think I cut way too deep and rolled my graver on inside elements not just outside lines.

Obviously I also need to work on my shade line tapers and also placement when shading elements but I tried to do it myself and only fell back on Phils picture when I was completely stumped on what to do.

Cheers for looking :biggrin:

 

[Marcelo]

So beautiful and is just beginning. Congratulations.

 

[atexascowboy2011]

Excellent first OR 100th practice plate! Your backbones will come in time. The hard part for most, myself included, is shading and you, primarily from memory, are doing excellent.
Was the pattern free handed or transferred ?
How did you achieve the background ?
You're off to a great start, either way.

 

[Mrfinks]

If this is your first completed engraving then you should be very very proud. Take a look at mine its on my profile, you are miles ahead.

Keep up the good work. At this rate you will be one of the greats in no time.

 

[gcleaker]

great work. you have set the bar high for the rest of us beginers.

 

[Beathard]

It appears that your setting career has given you some fine graver control.

 

[monk]

i'll point out all the bad spots when i get a round tuit !

 

[James Ashley]

Excellent first OR 100th practice plate! Your backbones will come in time. The hard part for most, myself included, is shading and you, primarily from memory, are doing excellent.
Was the pattern free handed or transferred ?
How did you achieve the background ?
You're off to a great start, either way.

Pattern was transferred Background was simply stippled but i feel as if i should of lowered it slightly before stipple to get even better contrast when inked. Part of the contrast issues may be the lightbox i used at work for pics. Its meant for jewellery so lighting is incredibly flat.

 

[James Ashley]

i'll point out all the bad spots when i get a round tuit !

Sounds serious

 

[RDP]

Very nice work James,


Richard.

 

[Phil Coggan]

That is excellent James for a first time, it is better than the work I have seen by "some" engravers that have been engraving for many years!

Just one thing, check out the cross hatching on the leaf shading.

Phil

 

[James Ashley]

That is excellent James for a first time, it is better than the work I have seen by "some" engravers that have been engraving for many years!

Just one thing, check out the cross hatching on the leaf shading.

Phil

Thanks for the kind words Phil :biggrin:

My only concern was I didn't want it all to end up too dark which is why I didn't go too far and only crosshatched some areas where I really needed the contrast. I will take it all on board though and use it to improve my next one.

Don't have anymore practice plates do you Phil?

I know you don't do castings but another plate be awesome

 

[James Ashley]

Anyone else offer any advice?

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Yes..........keep at it. You're doing just fine

Cheers
Andrew

 

[James Ashley]

Yes..........keep at it. You're doing just fine

Cheers
Andrew

Thanks Andrew

Always nice to get some feedback from respected professionals.

 

[Jim P]

I have a question fir you. When u said u weren't happy with the shading lines untill u went to a heel free graver and got the results u wanted. Could u explain what u meant by heel free? Im not happy with the control im getting and would like to try something else but so far I haven't found what I'm looking for. It would probably help if I turned the tv off? Difficult to watch the World Series and shade at the same time. Guess muilt tasking take practice to.
Thanks, Jim

 

[Dani Girl]

Number 1

I prefer shading to curve with the flow of the leaf, these two areas with shading going off in straight lines v'd... bugs me a little.

Number 2

That lump on that leaf I would have left as a leaf segment of the one that it's coming off, quicker, easier to shade, easier on the eye.

Number 3

I would usually put the shading on the other part like you have done on the one right next to it (that said nice shading) The one on the left that I like is going upside down for me. Like seeing a tree growing upside down on a tree, catches the eye.

Number 4

This one looks like a fold over but it's not cut enough to show the fold over, it comes accross as an odd huge dip in the leaf.

Number 5

I try to keep track of where leaves are meant to be coming from when they come up from 'nowhere'... which is fine, just check the direction of travel to where it would have gone.

Number 6

Slip?

Number 7

I would have allowed this leaf to get thicker sooner, less background, bit more leaf.

(I hope you were hoping someone would try to pick everything they could. I've been at this for 5 years or so... that's all I can find that's worth mentioning.)

FANTASTIC FANTASTIC JOB.

I can see what you mean about changing gravers half way through the shading, some is finer than others. For shading my heels are usually really really small. Couple of swips on your finest stone.

Your shading is FANTASTIC. I think it's time to show us your sketches too?

Thank you for sharing... I hope my comments come accross constructive, don't mean to put the dampener on a job very well done.

Keen to see the next thing you post.

 

[Phil Coggan]

I wish my first practice places looked like that James! You have done a good job!

Just some suggestions....you know where you went wrong so I won't comment there, but make sure your transfer lines are not too thick, the thinner the better as with wide lines, if you start cutting on the outside of a line and you cross over to the other side of the line the result can be disastrous! The other think, if you find yourself starting to wander off the line, stop dead, go back and correct the cut, the bad line can be worked on later.

Stippling onto a surface which is not cut back is ok but if the piece is going to handled the black will wear and will end up grey or even white, so the next step is to practice cutting down the background.

Phil

 

[Dani Girl]

I'll second what Phil said, the downside with computer transfers, the ones i've done, the lines are too thick really to work with, when you want to be accurate you have to scribe through them all, wipe that off, cut that and transfer from the cuts to the other side for the best results. (I'M STILL LEARNING)

Great job again, keep your work rolling in.

Regards

Danae.

 

[SamW]

"............. but make sure your transfer lines are not too thick, the thinner the better as with wide lines, if you start cutting on the outside of a line and you cross over to the other side of the line the result can be disastrous."

I suffered this problem in my early days and switched to drawing the pattern/scene onto the metal with a fine scribe. The metal must be well polished and the scribed line very fine. With good lighting this can be easily seen, can be easily burnished for corrections and provides a very thin line to follow with the graver. If not well polished and lightly scribed, the lines will be very hard to burnish out for corrections. Other engravers have developed their own methods that work well for them...this is just my way. When I do use transfers they are only for proper location of design elements as I then redraw as above using a smoke pull as a guide and then get a very good duplicate of the design and when cut it will have the same balance of background...it reverts back to drawing...which is the key to getting it right in the first place!