school days

[Frank P]

here s a drawing we got back in the days at Leon Mignon Engraving School Liège ..
if i m not wrong..it was the examen at the end of the first year !? seems so long time ago.. original size 40 x 50 mm
oh yes... any transferring was absolutely forbidden .. mirror polish the rough plate,draw, complete and engrave... :hammer:
thought it would be a good exercise or even an inspiration..
have a nice holiday

Frank

 

[bram ramon]

Hey Frank,

Cool you have been a student at Leon Mignon too! I'm a student at Leon Mignon now, we still have the same plate. It was our 5th plate we did we did not have it as an exam. And indeed no transferring, mirror polish the rough plate,draw, complete and engrave...The hard old school way! Here is the plate i did..Rubbish when i look at it now..

 

[mdengraver]

Doesn't look like rubbish to me! But what do I know?

 

[JJ Roberts]

good trianing under a good taacher

Ken,mdengraver,This is what I've been telling you,our fellow engravers in Eurpope go though a four year apprenticeship no nonsense,they start out when teenagers and are master engravers by the time there twenty.So when you see there work remember the time they put in,and all with :hammer:J.J.

 

[thughes]

I'm gonna show my ignorance again. What is evil about transferring. Now I'm clearly no real engraver or anything, but what difference does it make if you draw something with your own hand, then transfer it? I am sure it's a lot harder to draw it so small, etc. but what difference does it make. I know I'm opening myself up for a beating here, but I'm curious.

 

[Doc Mark]

"What is evil about transferring."

Absolutely nothing! That's the plain, simple answer but your going to hear a bunch of "unequivocal reasons" why it's not the best way to learn. And yes, I have done direct drawing many times, but for extremely detailed scroll work, I prefer to transfer my major backbones and sometimes certain leaf pattern designs to the metal.

 

[Haraga.com]

Why? Can you not draw?

 

[Andrew Biggs]

There's nothing evil about transferring and I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. It's as old as dirt. Engravers have used various methods for a very long time. Acetate, cameras, tracing paper, carbon paper, etc etc.

The thing is if you are a student in a school situation for 3 years (or whatever it is) then you have the luxury of training people to draw directly onto the surface. And that makes a lot of sense because it is a valuable discipline and skill that is acquired through time and practice. There are a lot of advantages in doing so. Speed is one of them.

Computers are a double edged sword. On one hand you can have the benefit of modern technology to make some tasks easier like taking a photo off the internet, outline, scale down and transfer. Or do a quick and dirty laser transfer.................On the other hand you have to pay for that technology and learn how to use it which to some people is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.

But like everything it is a case of each to his own and it entirely depends on the job in front of you. Neither method is an absolute. It all depends on training, skill, time and what you are comfortable doing.

The big thing is that there is no rights or wrongs in any of this. There is no "better" way..................all that matters is the end result. How you reach that end result becomes irrelevant.

Frank and Bram...............thanks for the insight of the school in Liege. I read somewhere that in one gun engraving factory in Italy, the students start off with a 1/2" thick steel plate and after a project they file it off and reuse the plate till it is only a 1/8" thick by the time they have finished their apprenticeship.The first year is spent on drawing before they pick up a cutting tool........great stuff

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Ed Westerly]

Not that anyone asked, but I started out transfering and didn't like it at all! It always seemed to be just a scoash out of alinement and I would have to do it over and over and over :no:. Now the only thing I tranfer is lettering, because my handwritting is atrocious, and I want to be perfect!