Well, this one went off of the rails, but darn if I didn't enjoy drawing it. I learned a lot from this, and see some things that I will have to do better next time. Advice and tips welcome.
Thanks Wade
the overall design has potential, but it illustrates the pitfalls of drawing at a scale much larger than the actual item. assuming the bolster in question really isn't 5" long, you'll have a heck of a time cutting all that microscopic detail- then shading it- when it's reduced to actual size. i prefer to design at 2x (an allowance for pencils being a cruder tool than gravers), while keeping a 1x tracing at hand to constantly check that what i'm drawing will work ok at normal scale.
Right Mitch that's the point. This is the first complete drawing that I have made. I usually work at 1:1 scale and have been studying the way the parts work together. So when I made a small sketch of this design I thought, What if I worked at say 10X and see how much stuff I could fit in, and that's where it got out of hand. It went from a workable sketch to an art project. There is no way that I could cut this design right now, I am just not there yet. However If I hadn't continued this design I wouldn't have learned as much as I did. As you can see there are plenty of sour notes in this drawing, but that's okay, I have to rework it to make it practical. I would like to say that I feel like I really learned some good tips by going through older posts on this site, and I thank everyone who takes the time to help out their fellow artisans.
So when I made a small sketch of this design I thought, What if I worked at say 10X and see how much stuff I could fit in, and that's where it got out of hand. It went from a workable sketch to an art project.