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Old 11-02-2008, 11:41 PM
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KatherinePlumer KatherinePlumer is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Oak Run, California
Posts: 233
Default Re: Katherine's Scrimshaw Tutorial: experimenting with mammoth ivory

I scanned this a few times today to show you how I build up the dark tones. You can always make things darker, but you can't go the other way! So I think it's best to take it slow and build up to where you want it to be. You saw the "base coat" on the neck area in the previous post.

So then I did another layer of dotting and inking over that (concentrating more dots in darker areas, of course), and it still wasn't dark enough:



I went over it again. I think that'll do. There is often some adjusting to do when the whole figure is done, but I'll decide that at the end!



And here is how far I got today. Base coat on the shoulder now. Interesting note: the freshly inked areas look more reddish brown because this ink darkens when it dries.



I have to tell you a funny story. I went to see the play "Treasure Island" last night (it's a pirate story if you aren't familiar with it). You know how they ask you to turn off your cell phones and whatnot? Well among the list of "no texting, no cell phones, etc" during the play they said "and no scrimshaw carving." HA! I about jumped out of my chair and exclaimed "he said scrimshaw!" The people around me looked at me like I was nuts. Tee hee.