Oak Leaves

[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.