Arnaud Van Tilburgh
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
I think it is wise to start this tread because too many newbies who start engraving and scroll design, have the same problems.
Yes, there are so many books, DVD’s and castings that many starters can’t see the trees in the wood.
I started with Ron Smith books, during that time you all advised this one as the best to start with.
Now we have Sams DVD, we have Lee Griffith’s book and DVD, Marcus just released his book and DVD and we have the older books, we have PDF books, FEGA is selling castings and so on.
And still, most newbies keep struggling with the same problems. So I was wondering why?
To me the answer is that all these books, even when they start with the fundamentals , they are too complex to understand the basics.
The castings that FEGA sells and who are an advice to start studying, they only show advanced engravings from Masters best work.
In my opinion, an beginner just has to learn 1 scroll and 1 or 2 basic leave structures.
No interweaving, no folds.
As that probably is more than enough to start with and making a nice engraving. Designs like that are easy to understand.
Shading is probably the most hard skill to learn, ask Willem and Caty, so if you start shading that one basic leaf and scroll, once one masters that he/she is ready for the next step.
So my point is, there is much too much excellent information, but not the information where to start with.
arnaud
Yes, there are so many books, DVD’s and castings that many starters can’t see the trees in the wood.
I started with Ron Smith books, during that time you all advised this one as the best to start with.
Now we have Sams DVD, we have Lee Griffith’s book and DVD, Marcus just released his book and DVD and we have the older books, we have PDF books, FEGA is selling castings and so on.
And still, most newbies keep struggling with the same problems. So I was wondering why?
To me the answer is that all these books, even when they start with the fundamentals , they are too complex to understand the basics.
The castings that FEGA sells and who are an advice to start studying, they only show advanced engravings from Masters best work.
In my opinion, an beginner just has to learn 1 scroll and 1 or 2 basic leave structures.
No interweaving, no folds.
As that probably is more than enough to start with and making a nice engraving. Designs like that are easy to understand.
Shading is probably the most hard skill to learn, ask Willem and Caty, so if you start shading that one basic leaf and scroll, once one masters that he/she is ready for the next step.
So my point is, there is much too much excellent information, but not the information where to start with.
arnaud