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That's awesome Bob. What are some of the other characteristics of the Northwest style?

That's awesome Bob. What are some of the other characteristics of the Northwest style?

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the compliment. The biggest differences you will see is how you shade the leaves and flower petals. In the Sheridan style, you always use the thumbprint / shader so there is a little ridge between the edge of the leaf or flower petal and where the thumbprint shades it. In the Northwest style, you actually have the thumbprint extend over the edge of the leaf or petal. The particular flower on this notebook isn't the best example, but it you look at the leaves you'll see I take the thumbprint right over the edge of the leaf. The other big difference is more use of leaves in the design and less of the circular pattern flow you typically see in Sheridan style. Notice how the pattern in this uses many leaves, and those leaves aren't contained inside a circle like you would typically see in Sheridan. The leaves are a bigger part of the overall pattern, and to me it looks a little more like a growing vine with lots of growth.

Also, in NW style the pattern flow is more of a S curve than the circular flow that Sheridan uses. This is a pretty subtle difference (and at the things I've looked at it's hard for me to tell the difference) but again I think it's more representative of lush vine growth. I think in general the NW style is trying to be closer to how the plants growing in the wet Pacific NW look versus the more stylized plants in Sheridan style. That's just how I see it though.

Another couple of differences. I am told (haven't actually seen examples) that it is or was traditional in NW style to background with a fine checkered matter as opposed to bargrounding. I happen to like bargrounding so I stick to that. Also, I have noted several makers who use a thin wiggly line veiner (I think it's called a wiggler) in place of the decorative cuts on the vine work. It might have been just a way to avoid doing decorative cuts, but I've seen quite a few examples of this and I'm going to try it on a project. I might like it.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense!

Bob

Gorgeous, i love your work!