Practice Piece - Critique Wanted

[paris3200]

This is my first practice piece after getting a Barry King swivel knife and tools. This is the third tooling I've done. I would love some critiques. A couple of things I noticed myself.

• Beveling needs to be smoother. I tried walking and tapping, but sometimes the tool didn't want to slide easily. Not sure if it needs to be deeper as well.
• Bevel cuts need to be smoother on the vines. I think I need to work on making them one continuous cut. I stopped and readjusted a few times and not sure that was a good idea.
• Bar grounding is hard! It looks terrible.
• Vines in general need work. I was going off memory of what I had read. I need to review before attempting again. I also struggled with which side to bevel. I got lost in all the lines.
• I need to get some tracing film. I used parchment paper and I wasn't able to see the leather. This led to some screwups in layout.

Everything considered I am pretty happy. I really enjoyed this. I'm thinking of picking up either Cary Schwarz's or Keith Valley's tooling video. Anyone like to recommend one or the other?

[AcornBiter]

Looks decent!

My critiques would be:

1. All lines need to be beveled. Like the whole bottom half. And the lines for all of the vines need to be beveled according to which vine is sitting on top of the other.

2. Your thumbprinting needs a little work. Make sure you hit the tool square and don't lean left or right. Also let it fade a little more. Seems like you have one good impression of the "heel" and then nothing. Needs a little more fade-out.

3. You mentioned this, but you can see all of the beveler tool marks. It isn't really about sliding the tool beveler. It should kind of hover very slightly off of the leather. Hit and move, hit and move. It just takes practice. And yes, bevel deeper.

4. As for the bar grounder, try not to use it in a pattern. The reason it looks bad is because you hit once, moved left, hit once, moved left. I can see the way you moved the tool as you were doing it. Try to spin the tool and make it impossible to tell which way the tool was facing when you hit it.

5. Hit that undercut a little harder. Gotta lift those leaves up.

6. There are some impressions on the vines I can't place. Did you just use the modeling tool up on the top vine in the last picture? I'm not sure it needs it.

Anyway, I don't mean to be critical, just trying to help you get better. Looks good for a first shot, though!

[paris3200]

AcornBiter,

That is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Don't worry about being too critical.

1. I really thought I had beveled all the lines but by looking at the pictures I can clearly see I haven't. I understand what you are saying about beveling according to which vine is on top. I was struggling to determine which one that was.
2. Do I fade-out by walking the beveler back?
3. I did a second piece last night just to play around with beveling. After watching some videos on youtube I started to hold the beveler so it was almost spring loaded to be slightly above the leather. I was able to get cleaner bevels, but still not clean. I assume that beveling deeper is done by hitting harder. I'm going to keep practicing.
4. I will give that a try.
5. I will give that a try as well.
6. I did not use a modeling tool. To be honest, I got a little rushed to finish because the kids were waking up and the vines didn't get enough attention.

Edited September 15, 2015 by paris3200

[Thor]

I'm not a fan of the Sheridan Style, but I let you know what I observed.

You need to learn to make your cuts out of the wrist and the motion (swivel) of your fingers rather than trying to do it out of your shoulder and elbow.

Even though the leather might not look like it, but the print marks are telling me that the leather was too moist.

To get rid of walking marks you can use your beveler and stroke the bevel after. Don't start on any of the backgrounding before you didn't finish the beveling. Leather can and should be a little more moist for beveling, but not as moist for backgrounding in which you don't want to be able to see the individual stamp prints. If the leather is too moist you'll see those bulges as in your picture.

[JLSleather]

For a 3rd timer- that really isn't so bad! True, it could be smoother, but this will come with practice. And I agree that your leather was too wet when you began. The right moisture content will help with the 'smoothness', too -- even on your swivel knife cuts.

Starting with leather too wet is a VERY common beginner mistake which MOST of us have made. And as a rule, basket weave or other geometric stamps have "supposed to" rules that should be followed so the overall look is cohesive. Other stamps... bevelers, muletools, shaders,... all welcome your own style.

STAY AT IT

[Bob Blea]

Hi Paris,

You've got some good information here but one thing I would recommend differently on is the use of the bar grounder. The way you are using it is the way it is traditionally used. You stamp rows of neat little dots next to each other, and yes it is difficult and takes lots of practice (and good eyesight). The leather also needs to be drier than yours is to help eliminate the unevenness you are seeing. Striking to tool with consistent force is important too. What Acorn Biter said is more how you would use a backgrounder when matting down the background. A backgrounder has a wider face, is usually tear drop shaped and it has a checkered face. It's much easier to use and you do rotate it as you use it to eliminate a pattern from showing up. If I tried to rotate my bar grounders on each strike I think I'd go crazy trying to get it even because it's so narrow. And there is nothing wrong with using a backgrounder instead of a bar grounder, just 'traditionally' in the Sheridan style they always use bar grounders. As JLS said, you can develop your own style so play around and see what effect you like best.

Good luck and keep practicing! You will see improvement fast!

Bob

[Sheilajeanne]

That is REALLY good work for a 3rd time piece! I've been at it a few months, and am still struggling to eliminate bevel marks. Any good videos out there I can watch?

What I try to do is bevel very lightly on the first pass, then go over it again after I've done some work on some of the other details.

Advice/comments welcome!

[huffdad]

To get rid of walking marks you can use your beveler and stroke the bevel after.

Could you (or anyone else who understands) please explain what this means? Beveling is one of the things I need to improve also. Are you talking about using the beveler by hand as a sort of modeling tool?

[Sheilajeanne]

I tried stroking the marks left by the beveler, but the surface of the beveler was too rough, and it was abrading the leather. I imagine this only works with a smooth beveler. I got one of my smooth figure modelling tools and used that instead, with some success.

I am really starting to think the key is not having the leather too moist, then the beveler doesn't cut too deep, and tool marks are kept to a minimum.