Dragonslayer? Hey ARTISTS, I need some Help...

[valleytinworks]

xaman..... from an artistic standpoint, i think you would be better off getting a book on drawing, this is by no means an insult...lol, you have the technical skills in the works for the leather, and in leather its tooling even if you carve or at least i think so......

a book on drawing itself will help you place texture and shading in the right areas..... for example, if the 'background of your flames were 'shaded' with color or with textures going south to north so to speak getting lighter as you went your flames would move to the forfront then debossing around the dragon itself would them move it foward as well....

you did a great job, i personaly cant do leather work.... or not that kind at least.....

there is a theory in drawing that escapes even 'professional artist' these days..... it is the basis of all creative meduims other than writing.... even a photographer should know how to draw..... so cheers man.... it looks smoking.......

 

[xaman]

Eli, that is extremely well done, especially with minimal preconceived design layout. Interesting, I've been reading Revelations again, and this looks very much like some of the visions from that book.
On the Cross image, give me a holler if you require any assistance or inspiration.
Again, nicely done.:thumbup:

No doubt, most everything I do is either directly or indirectly inspired that way. I may take you up on your offer for help on the cross, I'll shoot you a PM later with some things i have in mind :thumbup:

Looks like very nice work. I wish there were more detailed photos. Most noticeably from what I can see I'd say you could have cut deeper and done deeper beveling to get more contrast. Did you use a stain/antique to highlight the tooling? If you live next to a Tandy store they occasionally have carving classes and I highly recommend it!

Mikey, I think you're absolutely right about this. I think i was being very timid so as to not screw it up too bad... When you're making your first cuts, do you cut aggressively right away, or come back and try to re-cut deeper? Seems like trying to redo it would be prone to making mistakes?

I'll look into that class :thumbup:

 

[leatherman]

Hey Eli,
That looks so far so good, especially for a first attempt. Leather is an all together different medium than simple drawing. It is a mix of sculpture, carving, engraving, and drawing. One of my three minors is in drawing so I guess that is my advantage, and for some things a disadvantage. What works for one medium wont work in leather, and vice versa. Its a lot of trial and error, and a few carving classes.

Valley, there are several techniques in leather crafting, and all are defined rather well.
Carving: its the manipulation of the leather with hand tools
Stamping: the use of impact tools to maniplutale the leather.
Embossing: the use of heat and/or pressure to force a dimentional (sp?) feel to the leather.

Theres a lot more, but I havent finished my coffee and the brain is still muddy.