Little practice, haven't tooled for a while

[Stetson912]

Practice k adam tanner wallet pattern. 

[battlemunky]

Looks pretty good. My carving looks pretty crappy so my criticism isn't saying too much  

[Stetson912]

Bargrounding is tough for me. And this pattern is a bit small so I lose lines sometimes. I've started focusing more on foreground to background tooling order and its helped a lot. Before I would just tool but changing the order like that really did help the overall look 

[battlemunky]

I'm still working on determining my depths, foreground vs. background, from the templates I've used. I haven't made my own design yet. Hell, I can't even consistently figure out which line to bevel correctly. I get better with every project though, so I keep at it. My hands are finally getting toughened up enough to not cramp or have my fingertips go numb from holding on too hard to the tool.

[Stetson912]

  On 4/10/2020 at 3:50 PM, battlemunky said:

I'm still working on determining my depths, foreground vs. background, from the templates I've used. I haven't made my own design yet. Hell, I can't even consistently figure out which line to bevel correctly. I get better with every project though, so I keep at it. My hands are finally getting toughened up enough to not cramp or have my fingertips go numb from holding on too hard to the tool.

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I've started carving my flowers first, then secondary elements like any leaves. Then any other elements like smaller leaves and scrolls then the vinework starting with the stems of flowers and secondary elements.

I bevel much the same order. With vinework I start with flower stems and move outward one side at a time. 

Usually, you bevel towards the background. That's how I see it anyway. Usually with floral, the vinework on each side of the center/main stem is layered. One sticker will be above another etc all the way to the background. That means they all bevel towards the background on the same side of the line. The other side of the main stem would bevel the other way. I hope that all makes sense haha. maybe itll help?

Seeing the pattern background is hard to start, but gets easier, as you said, each time you do it. 

[battlemunky]

Yeah man, it helps. The good news is that I "see" what you are talking about. Every one I do becomes easier to recognize. I can spot background pretty easily now. #babysteps

[Stetson912]

Gotta start somewhere, and you improve and learn best by messin up leather... if only it wasnt so expensive hahaha