Critique Request Practice plate design

[Thierry Duguet]

Hummm.... I do not care for the overly heavy leaves, and your drawing seems to get heavier as is it get further from its base. I think that a sens of movement can be attain by giving a general direction to the pattern.

 

[James Ashley]

This is awesome feedback guys! Thankyou all for your comments and pointers. I have actually already started cutting this plate for something to do, other than straight lines and curved line practice plates . Once finished I will post a pic and get some feedback on that. In the mean time I will do some more drawings and submit for some critique

Thankyou once again and if anyone else has anything to add please do.

James

 

[monk]

No engraving experience but seen and had contractors do a lot for me over the years. My stone setting experience helps as far as graver prep goes and chopping soft metal for pave work. And well the designing is part of my job as a jeweller

the big hurdle for most is drawing and designing. you're obviously past that. only thing left is a little practice getting to know the gravers/geometries & there you go !

 

[Andrew Biggs]

I have actually already started cutting this plate for something to do, other than straight lines and curved line practice plates

Yes, at some stage you actually have to cut something. If you keep waiting for the perfect drawing then you'll never cut anything for years!!!!

If you keep your practice to a 50/50 mix of drawing and cutting then you will learn a lot. One helps the other..........what looks okay on paper doesn't always work out when cutting the design.

You'll find that what you are doing is as much about trial and error more than anything else........we can tell you what to do and offer some basic guidance, but the reality is that it is your own efforts, making mistakes and careful observation that will take you where you want to go. Learn to tell the difference between good and bad engraving/design and what makes good engraving/design good. If you can do that one thing, then your mind, eye and hand will eventually catch up.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes....just make sure that you learn from them.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

Here is a re-work. When designing scroll work draw out your backbone, spend as much time as needed to make sure they are all concentric, feed off smoothly and touch your borders, no gaps. All scrolls feeding off of main scroll should be at least a bit smaller. Draw through when overlapping to maintain concentricity in the scroll, you can erase once you think you have this part as good as you want it. Then add force lines for proper flow of leaves. Add what ever leaves you want, but remember they will look good only if you have done the previous steps correctly. Also leaves always flow the same direction of the scroll and get smaller and less fanciful as they converge to the scroll head. If doing a leaf head on a scroll in many cases you won't need to swirl the scroll as far.

Hopefully some of that makes sense. Good start though, keep at it and you will just keep getting better.

 

[James Ashley]

WOW!
First up thanks to EVERYONE for your replies! All of them have helped.
In Particular I want to thank Brian for going above and beyond with this rework. Means a lot that someone takes time out of the day to do something like this for a stranger on the net. This is how a forum should work and its a refreshing change to see it happening.
I promise when I can I will pay it forward

James