Oak Leaves

[Regis]

Now those are leaves! Did you draw them all at once or did you add leaves ans you went along?

[ClayB]

Hi Regis,

It took me awhile to figure out how to do the leaves. Here is what I finally came up with. I copied several leaves off a pattern sheet that came with George Hurst's oak leaf book, The Mighty Oak. Then I cut each leaf out and arranged them on piece of paper. Taped them down and took them to the copy machine and printed them on to velum. Could have just traced them onto tracing paper but the copy machine is pretty handy. I think you could do the same thing with real leaves, but we dont have oak trees up here. If you did it that way, it might be easier to figure out how they attach to a branch too. Hopefully my idea for that will work too.

Clay

[ClayB]

I am always really reluctant to color my projects, but it doesn't stop me from trying. Sometimes they end up in the scrap pile, but more of them these days turn out ok. I tried to put some fall colors on some oak leaves yesterday. The first attempt with oil dyes turned out terrible. Then I decided to try the Eco Flow dyes I had picked up a month or so ago. I was really surprised at them. I guess I was expecting water based dyes to be just like acrylic paint. It sure isn't. These dyes are really nice! They are easy to apply, they mix and shade really well on the leather. I had a lot of fun playing with these and am actually looking forward to doing more with them. Maybe some of my elk pictures will get colored this winter after all.

(Kate, get out the brushes, you will have fun with these!)

Clay

[Brandon]

Hi,

A friend gave this to me some years ago, it had been in the envelope all these years.

This thread reminds me of it.

Seen it somewhere?

B.

Edited September 30, 2007 by Brandon

[freak]

Man Clay i think that look awsome man !! After looking at it for a few minutes i has to remind myself that, that's leather.

NIce job man and thanks !!

[Don101]

i did this one manny years a go one day when i was bored and wanted somthing to do way before i knew about lifters and such with little experience on carving as such, the colouring was done with the permanent markers as i did on the wallet thanks Clay for the tutorial as it has shown me how i can improve on this style of carving, when i get some spare time ill have to try it the again the ClayB way and see what happens

[ClayB]

Don,

There is absolutly nothing wrong with that oak leaf!! It's really nice. My wife does not believe you colored it with Sharpie's. If you did that a long time ago with little experience, I can't wait to see how they will look now.

Thanks for sharing the picture.

Clay

[steve mason]

thanks for the tutorial, it is fun to see how many ways you can skin the same cat. some nice examples of carving there.

Here is my interpretation of the oak leaf.

Edited October 5, 2007 by steve mason

[ClayB]

Steve,

Yours is a really different style and I really like it! There is a lot of interesting things going on in your leaf. Any possibility of getting you to do a step by step?????

Thanks for sharing your picture.

Clay

[SCOUTER]

Clay,

Thankyou so very much for a wonderful tutorial! Showing the different backgrounds and naming tools and suppliers really put this over the top! You are awesome to do that for all of us!

[Kani]

All I can say is WOW! Thanks everyone. This helps alot. Now I can practice on other things. This shows me alot of things I didn't know. Thanks.

[Dually]

thanks for the tutorial, it is fun to see how many ways you can skin the same cat. some nice examples of carving there.

Here is my interpretation of the oak leaf.

Man, you guys are all amazing, and I want to say thanks to ClayB for all his pics, but dog-gonit...Steve, how in the world are you and some of the other great carvers on this board getting your petals lifted without leaving tracks going under?!! Specifically on the border side of your leaves where you can't hide tracks with a backgrounder. Whenever I petal lift on a flower for example, I track on and flatten the stem or vine near it. I would appreciate any help in this area. I'm just never happy with my carving. Thanks to all in advance.

[wildland]

Clay

dose that pebble backgrounder have a number? I have been looking through the HideCrafter catalog, but haven't been able to find it.

[ClayB]

Hidecrafter used to have what they called their Pro Crafter tool collection. They were a little better quality tool. The pebble background tools were in this line. The numbers on mine are PA003 (small) PA 004 (medium) and PA 005 (large). They are pretty popular so I would think they would still carry them. You might just have to give them a call.

[kevinhopkins]

Wow!

Very neat carving! Now that i have a little more time on my hands, i bet ill give it a try carving.

I have see that Hide crafter selling small and large petal lifters. Are they worthy of buying? Or should i bought those from grey ghost?

:scratchhead:

Anyway, for now, many thanks ClayB

Actually, Osborne makes a couple that really do a pretty good job. Any osborne distributor will have them, and they actually are quite inexpensive for an osborne tool. I think that's what hidecrafter sells, but I'm not sure. At any rate, if they don't have them, give me a call

Kevin@springfieldleather.com

[wildland]

Hidecrafter used to have what they called their Pro Crafter tool collection. They were a little better quality tool. The pebble background tools were in this line. The numbers on mine are PA003 (small) PA 004 (medium) and PA 005 (large). They are pretty popular so I would think they would still carry them. You might just have to give them a call.

Thanks I will

[JLSleather]

As soon as i can i'm doing this one again. After doing something you get a better understanding of it. I'm sure i can do better next time. Now that i have a little bit of a feel for it. I want be second guessing myself, like i did with this one

freak

Actually, this looks GOOD. On the next one, try also rounding the edges of your acorns and "downturned" leaves with a spoon or modeler. Takes about a minute and REALLY makes a difference.

[gregd]

There are probably 100 different ways to carve an oak leaf. George Hurst has a book called The Mighty Oak with a bunch of different styles in it. The one I will show here is based on a pattern in that book. I used different tools on each side of the leaf to show different effects you can get.

Here the leaf is traced and cut. I try not to join the cuts at the tips. If you do, the tips can start to peel up, which now that I think about it, might look neat in certain carvings.

Here I started to bevel the leaf. On this side I used a smooth beveler. I usually start on the inside curves with a smalll beveler. Tandy used to make round bevelers that should be good for that, but I found them hard to use. For really tight curves, the small figure bevelers work pretty good.

This side was beveled with a checkered beveler. I usually use checkered bevelers because they leave less "tracks".

Next I beveled the center vein. The top side was done with a Craftool 202 (left or right) angled beveler. I always have to hit it on scrap first to know which one to use on which side of the vein. On the bottom I used Hidecrafter Pro Crafter PB016. It allows you to do both sides with the same tool. You can see that the craftool makes finer lines.

Here I am starting to pear shade. I use a long, narrow pear shader like a P368 and start in the points of the leaves. Once the leaves are shaded at the tips, I fill in most of the rest of the center of the leaf with the pear shader, but leave a ridge along the outside.

Continuing to fill in. While looking at the pictures really large like this, I am thinking it might look better to leave ridges that aren't shaded from the tips to the center vein to get more contrast. I might have to try that on the next one.

The pear shading is done on one side.

Small viens are cut in with the swivel knife.

On this side, decorative cuts where put in instead of the small viens for a different look. Decorative cuts have never been my strong suit so you'll have to just pretend they look good.

This side was backgrounded with a pebble backgrounder from Hidecrafter. It's one of my favorite backgrounders.

This side is backgrounded with a regular checkered backgrounder just to show the difference in looks.

Here I used a coarse textured backgrounder. Just another different look.

If I dont have a border on my carving, I like to switch from the pebble background to an E294 matting tool when I get a little ways away from the figure.

I like to use a pro petal tool to lift the inside curves of the leaves. I think it gives added depth to the carving. The tool slides into the leather, but not through the back. It creates a small cavity in the leather and if you lift on the tool, it raises the top side of the leather, giving your leaf a 3-D effect.

So there's an oak leaf the way I carve them.

Awsum work really nice

[Targaid]

Awsum work really nice

So many operations but your work looks fantastic.