First drawing onto leather.

[NorthIdahoLeather]

I am just learning how to draw floral. 
Up until now I’ve just used purchased patterns for my tooling. Frustrated with how some of these patterns don’t fit certain shapes, I am encouraged to learn. I enjoy tooling and I know what it should look like, but doesn’t always flow out of my hand the way it is in my head. Time to Practice drawing as much as I can. 
Anyway, this is the first item that I actually drew on leather and tooled it. I was going for a heavier background here intentionally as I thought it would look best on this type of item. Constructive criticism is welcomed. I know I have a long way to go before I’m ready to do saddle fenders and scabbards. Haha. 
 

[Rockoboy]

Ypur tooling looks reasonable, stitching looks good. I cannot see if your edges are burnished, but they might need a little more. Overall, a pretty decent effort for a beginner. On to the next one.

[chuck123wapati]

great first try for sure, What I would try and do is fill the area more by gradually widening the stem and leaves more at the upper ends to fill the area more on the inside and outside of the design and create more variation in the width of the stems themselves. It would also help you in your effort to fit the design to the shape. Floral is hard to do for me as well. 

[NorthIdahoLeather]

I appreciate the feedback gentleman! Thank you!  I have long way to go in my drawing skills. 
Chuck, I agree. My vine work is pretty crude. I’ve been studying pictures of other folks work and I can see how your advice applies. I hope to do better on the next go round. I have a lot of practice ahead of me, but I think the results will be worth the effort. 
Thanks again! 

[Professor]

Not sure if its relevant but recently when marking out a belt blank on a double shoulder of 8-9 ounce cowhide, my belt stripper being unusable due to a missing bolt, I used a metal straight edge and a metal marking scribe with carbide tip. I was surprised at how neatly and deeply the scribe cut into the surface of the leather.

I've been thinking of using this scribe rather than a swivel knife to layout the pattern for some floral carving. I figure to use a French curve drawing implement as a guide for smooth even curves.