HELP ME BRING THIS DANCER ALIVE

[jimb]

Hello to all !!

I am looking for some guidance on my project. I am very NEW to leather crafting and the skill sets needed to have a successful finished project. The reason i got into this craft was to replace torn leather on a set of bar stools I have. I have been educating myself, practicing the skill sets and have been doing fairly good at picking them up. The last thing to get under my belt is transferring a picture and tooling it. I have been doing alright in this craft until this part of my project. So i am now looking for some help, guidance and tips to ensure success of the focal point of my project.I got the picture transferred fine but it is the cut in and  beveling where I am confused and stuck. I have attached some samples of what I am trying to accomplish and it may too bold at this point of my skill set but love to be able to pull it off with some help and guidance form this forum.

Thanks for your help and time !!    Jim

BEVELED.pdf CUT.pdf DANCER.pdf

[DoogMeister]

Looks better than my early work.  Practice smoothing out your beveling - such as around the dancer's head.  Take smaller steps when moving the beveler and work at holding it absolutely vertical.  You may want to obtain several bevelers in different sizes.  Than has helped me, especially in tight corners.  Also keep the beveling a more consistent depth.  Compare the lower side of the dancer's arms with the top of her shoulders and around the back of her dress.  You can re-case the leather and go over these areas, so nothing lost except for time spent, and you learn something while doing that. 

Practice on scraps.  Above all, keep going and don't get discouraged.

[RidgebackCustoms]

Not bad.  You're off to a good start.  Some suggestions:

• The boundary between the hair and shoulder is probably the only thing I would tweak on the image you showed.  Picture shows the shoulder in the foreground, but the beveled image follows the perimeter of the figure and has the hair and shoulder in the same plane.  Push the hair to the background.
• If you're not going to add color, recommend running smooth bevelers and checked bevelers.  The checked bevelers go where there is background and provide a sharper contrast on what is background and what is figure.  This is a gross oversimplification
• Would also recommend backgrounding if not adding color.  It's an easy way to get the eye to see what is figure and what is background.  If you're running background, no need for checked bevelers.
• The fringe/hands could be cut in with a swivel knife to try and duplicate the effect and then blend that into some background matting.  This is probably the most difficult part of the design from a skill perspective.
• For a design like this, pear shaders are your friend.  A set in several sizes, smooth will show the flow of the blanket she's holding as well as the dress.  A set of modeling tools would be good too, but one or the other would suffice.
• The ruffles on the dress I would separate the layers with an undercut technique if you have that tool (pro petal tool or undercut modeling tool)

Keep going!  A design like this doesn't come alive until after pear shading and then you really start to see it.

[jimb]

On 4/5/2024 at 1:42 PM, DoogMeister said:

Looks better than my early work.  Practice smoothing out your beveling - such as around the dancer's head.  Take smaller steps when moving the beveler and work at holding it absolutely vertical.  You may want to obtain several bevelers in different sizes.  Than has helped me, especially in tight corners.  Also keep the beveling a more consistent depth.  Compare the lower side of the dancer's arms with the top of her shoulders and around the back of her dress.  You can re-case the leather and go over these areas, so nothing lost except for time spent, and you learn something while doing that. 

Practice on scraps.  Above all, keep going and don't get discouraged.

Thanks for your help and time!!! ya, my beveling skill set sucks for sure right now. I agree I need to tool up with some smaller bevelers for tighter areas.Suggestions for tool part # and brand?. I did just get some modeler tools which should help me. I just added a couple more samples of which one of them I beveled and the other I tried using spoons only. Example "A" is with spoons and "B" is beveler. I also am thinking to use a seeder for flowers on her head as an alternative.  Also I numbered the cut lines on my examples  so I know exactly where direction is being given by the group for identification. I get confused easy :-) I also added my test piece for the front of my bar stool for critique and suggestions.

[jimb]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:45 PM, RidgebackCustoms said:

Not bad.  You're off to a good start.  Some suggestions:

• The boundary between the hair and shoulder is probably the only thing I would tweak on the image you showed.  Picture shows the shoulder in the foreground, but the beveled image follows the perimeter of the figure and has the hair and shoulder in the same plane.  Push the hair to the background.
• If you're not going to add color, recommend running smooth bevelers and checked bevelers.  The checked bevelers go where there is background and provide a sharper contrast on what is background and what is figure.  This is a gross oversimplification
• Would also recommend backgrounding if not adding color.  It's an easy way to get the eye to see what is figure and what is background.  If you're running background, no need for checked bevelers.
• The fringe/hands could be cut in with a swivel knife to try and duplicate the effect and then blend that into some background matting.  This is probably the most difficult part of the design from a skill perspective.
• For a design like this, pear shaders are your friend.  A set in several sizes, smooth will show the flow of the blanket she's holding as well as the dress.  A set of modeling tools would be good too, but one or the other would suffice.
• The ruffles on the dress I would separate the layers with an undercut technique if you have that tool (pro petal tool or undercut modeling tool)

Keep going!  A design like this doesn't come alive until after pear shading and then you really start to see it.

Thanks for your help and time!!! I am going to break this piece down in sections and practice so i don't get overwhelmed.  I just added a couple more samples of which one of them I beveled and the other I tried using spoons only.( before I read your post ) Example "A" is with spoons and "B" is beveler. I also am thinking to use a seeder for flowers on her head as an alternative.  Also I numbered the cut lines on my examples so I know exactly where direction is being given by the group for identification. Can you please give me direction by line # in my example? Thanks!! I get confused easy :-) I don't know if my skill set will let me yet but I plan on trying to painting this image on the leather. I also added my test piece for the front of my bar stool for critique and suggestions. Thanks for your help and time !!

[RidgebackCustoms]

On 4/11/2024 at 2:48 PM, jimb said:

Also I numbered the cut lines on my examples so I know exactly where direction is being given by the group for identification.

With my first bullet point, I was saying that the line that goes from 1 to 3 transitions from foreground to background along the line which is a little more difficult.  I'll try and find some time this weekend to sketch it out.

[RidgebackCustoms]

On 4/11/2024 at 2:48 PM, jimb said:

Thanks for your help and time!!!

Quick break down on how I would progress through this drawing.  Rushed the pear shading and hair work, but hopefully this is helpful.