Drawing Sheridan Patterns

[RiverCity]

I need help with drawing Sheridan. I found the thread about it and have been trying to understand and draw Sheridan before I try to carve it.

Please look at my first attempt and tell me if I'm close or if its just a floral pattern lol

Thanks

Chuck

[Northmount]

Contact Bob Park. He has an excellent booklet on Sheridan Design. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showuser=7682

Tom

[Bob Blea]

Hi Chuck,

I'll second Tom's recommendation of the Bob Park book. He goes into great detail about how to lay out a pattern, more than I could possibly do here. Plus, I'm a novice at pattern design myself. I do see a couple of things that would help you out though. First, the stem for the flower in the center seems to come from the vine around the flower in the lower right hand corner. The vines around that center flower don't look connected to the vines below it, so even though the stem comes from the vines below the rest of the vines and flower lose their flow at that point. One thing you are looking for in a good design is a sense of flow through the whole pattern and there should only be one starting and one stopping point. You start your flow in the lower left and flow to lower right, but at the center because of how that stem looks (and doesn't seem to connect the vines around the center) the flow abruptly stops. The same sort of problem happens betweem the two top flowers. You have the vines crossing over each other there, and that again breaks up the flow a bit. A over and under crossover like that is not something you see often in Sheridan style, not to say you can't make it work and part of your own style.

Another thing regarding the flow: Each of the leaves and stems coming off your main vine appear pretty abruptly. Another hallmark of the Sheridan style is that the lines created by the stems and leaves are long and fade out gradually. The lines of those leaves should follow the same flow as the main vine. I don't have a good picture of that handy, but take a look at the pictures of Bob Park's work (his user name here is Hidepounder) in the gallery and I think you'll get the idea.

Hope this helps (and doesn't just confuse you!),

Bob

[RiverCity]

Thanks guys. I see what you mean with the thinner more flowing leaves etc.

I need to buy some books

Thanks

Chuck