Critique Request My latest victim

[glstrcowboy]

This shotgun is the latest victim of my tools. I tried to incorporate the helpful suggestions from my last post. I made background more uniform by leaving it alone. I tried to make sure the leaves touched the scrolls so the background was enclosed. The shading lines are still giving me trouble. I tried light strikes and shallow cuts, but the tool kept wanting to hop into the previous cut when the lines got close to converging. Not sure if the tool geometry is off or I need magnification so I can better see what's going on with the tip. I'm not happy with the ball ends of the scrolls. I keep watching the DVD, but it's not clicking. I printed out a couple of the shading practice sketches. I think I'll focus on cutting those and see if that helps. Any other tips, pointers or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Southern Custom]

Magnification would definitely help with the shading. The cuts must be precise for good shading and takes a steady hand and practice. Can't cut what you can't see. Also on future designs, try and make sure your ball ends on the basic scroll are larger than the backbone. On these there is a wide backbone terminating in an equal with end. Another suggestion would be to make sure you don't have too large of an element coming off of too thin a backbone. The structure of the scroll needs to support the larger leaf just as in nature.

 

[glstrcowboy]

The ball ends give me the most trouble; all of the lines that are supposed to converge there confuse me. Like I said it's just not clicking. Practice, practice. I see what you mean about the size difference though, I sketched that out and it makes sense. I'm not sure, however, which leaf element looks out of scale. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

 

[monk]

nice work-- keep at it.

 

[glstrcowboy]

At Southern Custom's suggestion of more magnification, I got an optivisor. I think that was a mistake. Not only does the work look that much worse, but I have a pain in my neck and a headache! Seriously though, it has helped on the current practice plate and I'll get used to using it eventually. Looking at my tool with it though, I wonder if my trouble with converging lines stems from a mis-sharpened tool. I use a 1200 grit diamond hone, and it sticks in my nail just fine, but i don't use a template. The face doesn't look quite flat under magnification. I'll break down and order a template this week, and probably a finer lap as well. Now if I could just order something to magically fix my artwork....