Constructive Criticism Please

[Dwight]

An elderly lady needed a cover for her Bible, and I decided to do a bit of decorating.

I'm kinda happy with this, but I know there are things that would have made the end product even better.

Please share your thoughts on it.

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

[Ferg]

An elderly lady needed a cover for her Bible, and I decided to do a bit of decorating.

I'm kinda happy with this, but I know there are things that would have made the end product even better.

Please share your thoughts on it.

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

The main thing I notice is your background. You need to have an even touch with your mallet or whatever you are using.

Look for yourself and see the uneven impressions. Practice your "walking" the beveler around the outside edges in particular.

Nice design.

ferg

[JLSleather]

This may help ...

Green arrows: Bevel these lines on out. They should fade gradually.

Red arrows: Fade these impressions. It looks like a shader tool was smacked right there, though it should look like a depresson in a 3D flower. This is common, so don't let it drive on you - just to be aware.

This is the same "type" of carving ... admittedly "down and dirty" for the purpose of this conversation. One side shows it tooled only, you can see how the impressions gradually fade out. The right side is hurriedly painted, just to maybe make it easier to see. The PAINT fades out, too. I threw "stops" in there where the stem sections meet, but I usually wouldn't. Just giving you another idea ...

[Bob Blea]

Hi Dwight,

A couple of things I noticed: 1) Where you have the veiner on the leaves, make sure the point is right up against the stem. It supposed to represent the actual vein in the leaf and that would connect directly to the stem on a real leaf. it looks a little odd when it's separated a bit from the stem. 2) The mule feet should fade out and become less pronounced on the stem. This was a mistake I made until someone pointed out to me what I was doing. Try making the first strike of the mules foot with the tool straight up and down, then tilting the tool a bit for each successive strike and hitting it a little less hard, so it fades and becomes smaller. 3) I noticed the same thing about the pear shader. I try to walk it with a lighter stroke toward the stem, sometimes curving the track a bit to look more like a leaf would.

Just some suggestions, but I think you are on the right track. It's a nice design.

Bob

[Dwight]

I just wanted to say thank you all three for your comments, . . . artistic "stuff" has never been a long suit for me. I can cut, sand, drill, turn, burn, weld, with all sorts of confidence and capability, . . . but the "sweet touch" I never was able to cultivate.

I'm just now beginning to try and get into more of the decorative touches in my leather work, photography, etc., . . . so it really helps when I can get this kind of help.

The design is almost a direct copy off a Tandy leatherworking book.

May God bless,

Dwight

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Dwight, the guys pretty much covered it. One thing I will add, get to know your modeling spoon. As you fade your lines out, use the spoon. Also don't be afraid to use it to double bevel your edges. In other words, use it to break the edge of the flower and stems inward, just like you would "break" the sharp edges on a piece of metal that you just cut, or machined. Take that sharp edge away, and your work will come to life. The spoon is your friend. You can do an awful lot with it, it takes practice. Don't be afraid to take a piece of scrap, and play around with it. There isn't a piece of scrap in my shop that doesn't have either designs, cuts, or doodling on it. I noticed that in most of the really good guys shops, and have taken to doing it myself.

Good Luck

Bob