My 1st pattern attempt.

[Minnesota scroller]

Constructive criticism welcome, even from Barry. Note the smiley face, Gill. My wife has light brown hair which she foolishly spends money on to highlight. This made it a really pain in the neck. By following proper procedure, most of the hair would have been cut out leaving just a few highlights with no decent way of tying in to the rest. I was forced to go this route. I'm not 100% happy with it but my wife doesn't seem to mind it. I'm sure with a bit of practice, I will improve. People do recognize her anyway so I must have done something right.

[Gill]

Hi Mike

You can safely use a few more smiley faces in your posts if you're going to design and produce work to that sort of standard . Well done!

What software did you use and how long did it take you to complete the project, from concept to finish?

Gill

[Minnesota scroller]

Gill,

Thanks much for the compliment. I used Paint Shop Pro X. I've been enrolled in the Pattern Academy thru the Free Scrollsaw Patterns site. It's not a bad tutorial. I just wish a person could advance to the next lesson a little quicker. There are 8 lessons and I've been thru the first 5. I didn't really keep track of my time on this. I would work on the pattern for a while and then pick it up again the next day and so on. I probably spent about 3 hours total on the pattern, half of which was on the silly hair. Cutting it out probably took me about 2 hours. I'll probably attempt another one next week and see if I've improved any.

[ozarkhillbilly]

Mike you've come quite away's in a very short time! Congratulations!!
We're our own worst critics, but for me, I think you did a fine job!
Thanks for sharing, keep up the great work. And add "pattern maker" to your
list of accomplishments

[Charlie_1]

Great work

[minowevie]

Mike, I think you captured her better than the picture. alot more softness. like I could do that. I be she loves it. Evie

[Sawduster]

Mike,
Good job sir ! Being new to this as well, I can appreciate the effort and patience involved....especially on a laptop ! I am impressed !
Good job

on a sidenote, I tried my best to purchase a Wacom 6 x 8 graphic pad today. Seems they are not sitting on a shelf waiting to be bought I live near Raleigh NC which would be a fairly decent market I would think, and no one has them in stock ! Everyone wants to order it for me. I really want to put my hands on it before I buy it .....oh well, the search goes on

[bearfretworks]

Constructive criticism welcome, even from Barry.

Hey now...

No criticism of that pattern from here - I think it is VERY WELL DONE. Now the real question is how did you convince your beautiful bride to marry you?

JUST JOKING. Again nicely done!!

[Minnesota scroller]

Gill, Barry's picking on me again.

Robert, I just orderd the Wacom 4 X 5 from Amazon.com. They haven't sent it out yet but I think for the little bit I'll be using it for, it should do the job. One nice thing about Amazon is you can read owner reviews before you purchase. Appears that all the Wacoms I've checked rate very high. Some other brands don't. Let me know when you get yours and what you think of it.

Everyone else, thanks for the compliments and encouragement.

[bearfretworks]

Gill, Barry's picking on me again.

I'm not picking.... I ask myself the same question 50 times a day....Just looking for an answer cuz I ain't got one!

[core-eagle]

Hey Mike,
Great pattern and cutting! Did you stack cut this for Christmas presents, great for in-laws? Keep up the great work. I am up to lesson 7 that arrived yesterday. Haven't had time to check it out though. Busy work schedule! Maybe Sunday????

Practice......Practice......Practice....!

Tim

[Gill]

I'm not sure why Barry would ask himself 50 times a day why Mike's wife married Mike.

Hmmm... could be more than scrolling rivalry here .

[Forester21]

Mike,
on a sidenote, I tried my best to purchase a Wacom 6 x 8 graphic pad today. Seems they are not sitting on a shelf waiting to be bought I live near Raleigh NC which would be a fairly decent market I would think, and no one has them in stock ! Everyone wants to order it for me. I really want to put my hands on it before I buy it .....oh well, the search goes on

Here's a thought - do you have a college, community college even, near you? I enrolled my daughter (10th grade HS) in a college art class and when I took her to the first session, there were a couple of other students working with what I am going to assume was a Wacom graphic pad. You might be able to talk to a graphics art teacher and see if you can get a demonstration from them?


And to Mike - great job!!

Theresa E

[workin for wood]

looks good...I saw one of your pictures in the scroller galleries and it was pretty kick...well, you know.

you deffinitely have that style down. I have seen some people do some mis-justice to that type of scrolling, but that's sure not you.

Think that was maybe John Wayne I was looking at that you did, and it was grade A.

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Hi Mike,

Nice work.

There were a couple of things that bothered me though: the bridges on the chin and the mouth, and the nose seemed incomplete.

I tried to make a pattern from the picture last night and failed miserably: I couldn't match the nice way you did the hair, even trying multiple times.

So believe me when I tell you that this is meant as constructive criticism, I prove to myself last night that I couldn't do as good a job as you did of creating the pattern

So, plan b: I took your cut and modified it a little with what I think adds to the look. You may agree, or not with my improvement suggestions, and you probably can improve even more on them. But here it is for your review.

Regards,
Marcel