lighter in progress

[John Cole]

Here is a shot of the lighter that I've been working on. I finished with the shading and I'm working on doing the background.

thanks for looking,
John

 

[Chriso]

Hi John, Being a Beginer myself, it is great to see how you did the layout and recived the feedback from the forum.and then the processes that you are going through. I will be following your project with intrest. and haveing a go at a zippo myself regards Chriso

 

[oiseau metal arts]

oh no! don't let zippo find out! *rolls eyes



seriously though... fine job.

 

[John Cole]

oh no! don't let zippo find out! *rolls eyes



seriously though... fine job.

thanks!
I'm not too worried, this fella won't see Ebay anytime soon. lol

John

 

[John Cole]

finished

aaaaand this project is finished.

Thanks to everyone for their input and thoughts. I'm going to be laying out the next project soon, and will be making changes and tweeks for the next go round.

thanks for looking, and as always all input is greatly appreciated!
John

 

[John Cole]

So, I didn't look at any of this project for the last 24 hours, and then came back and looked at it again.
I've come to a couple of thoughts, and would like some input from y'all.

First. My shading sucks.... I can tell it's close to what I'm supposed to do, but I'm guessing that this is mainly a practice, practice, practice type issue. It also seems that the shading that I do for practice with pencil and paper looks much better than with the graver, again, I'm guessing that we're in the practice zone.

Second. While the shading was the same in both shots, the first shot with the background only partially finished looks much better to me than the second shot. Is this because the back grounding makes the shading stand out so much more, or rather the difference between a natural light "quick shot" vs. a planned shot with a soft box for lighting?

thanks for any input,
John

 

[GTJC460]

Don't be so hard on yourself. You've done a decent job. The cuts are where they are supposed to be. It takes lots of practice to develop the level of graver control to be able to make your shading look like shading vs just lines.

The idea is to make the cuts form a gradation of color. This happens when the cuts have a nice taper from barely there to converging with the cut next to it.

 

[Marrinan]

John, Bert is right. There a are several places where I might have added a cut or two in the shading. There are are some areas that I might have added cross hatching but in both cases that is my cutting not yours. I carry one of these brass lighter all the time. Have cut probably ten of them. The fine and supper fine shading does not hold up if the lighter is used. Yours is nice and bold in the cutting and should be very serviceable, with a handsome design for several years of steady use. The hinge will get sloppy before your engraving suffers much wear. I would make a comment about the wear on this job and that will be that you will loose some of the backgrounds contrast with shallow background. Good Job all the way. Fred