Fantastic Ornaments (Dover Pictorial Archive) (Dover Pictorial Archives) [Paperback]

I don't agree with the previous 2 reviews of this book. I think it has plenty of great elements to incorporate into any design. Maybe they are right about being too complicated for crafts. I am a graphic artist, and the more complicated, the better. I especially like the details of the mystical creatures that are featured in this book. Lots of flourishes and victorian type ornamentation like most of Dover's books in this genre. I believe this book stands on it's own and worth having it as part of your clipart library.

REVIEW FOLLOWS A FEW REMARKS ABOUT TRANSFER OF IMAGES - I just got this book as a present and am astonished how well it meshes with all my other dover books - this was one I was going to get - and it was a present from a fellow engraver. BUT it's not just for artists, it's also a wonderful coffee table book if put out with a few others (see my review of Florid Victorian Ornament Florid Victorian Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives) to learn why) - it's a long review, but you'll understand why it's a VERY cheap way to 'dress' up your living room, and keep guests occupied while you are out of the room. Perhaps 'occupied' is an understatement -- when they begin to see color in black and white drawings, they will be astounded by the art form -- weather graphic, or as is my case, engraved. And the longer you look at the line drawings, the more you will see, and soon you, like me, will find yourself looking at a single page for 10 minutes and wonder where the time went! Forget curved lines, though they are amazing, what you can do with simple straight lines is beyond your imagination right now, then add in the curves and it's a new world you are peeking into!!! FIVE STARS WITHOUT QUESTION!!! Light, dark, shadings, hue and saturation of color -- all in black and white line drawings -- it's amazing! TEN STARS!

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most reviews have said that the lines are far to complicated to transfer. this is because there are many ways to transfer - from special wheels with needle like spikes that come out and you just 'connect the dots' - to the use of Methenol, Ethenol, Xylenol, or toulene -- each ink company has it's own chemical that works best -- as does the paper you use. Check the paint section of your hard ware store, and you may even be makeing a trip to an auto parts store too for something to transfer on to. Supermarket and drug store 'alcohol' is too much water and won't work well without a LOT of smudging.

photocopy or print the page, place ink side down, and practice with a Q-tip until you get your transfer down -- it will be from a solid line to a sometimes broken line - and as a firearms engraver in hard metal, I NEED the fine-line shading to bring out light and shadow. Often I can transfer lines as small as 000 - and if not, with the original there, I can chose the correct fine-liner to make it happen. With me, there IS no 'erase' or 'do over' -- you are having your grandfathers Winchester, or your Great Grandfathers Winchester engraved, or a civil war Sharps that your Great-grand-daddy used in the War of Northern Aggression -- and that gun cannot be replaced, sometimes not even repaired at great cost - so being exact is more than important, missing a strike, or skidding across the metal can result in law suits and thousands of dollars for damage to irreplaceable objects -- so my lines and my gravers have to be sharp and clear, and the 50-120 strikes per inch have to be perfect each time, every time. Just like a sculpture -- you can't have a 'woops' and put the arm back on. Ink is much the same way, but often you can cover your mistake, in some arts, there can be no mistakes. Ever - so you get your transfer right until it's perfect.

Sometimes you may need to 'seal' the surface so the transferring ink doesn't soak into and 'smudge' on the object being transfered to.

Buy, or go to your library and get a copy of James B. Meeks "the art of engraving' where he has hints about how to transfer -- from using china white, to auto-body primer, to many other substances - Art of Engraving: A Book of Instructions and I'm sure that there are books in your own field that will help you transfer -- often a community college or state University will have an instructor in a lab who will take the time to answer a question of someone not enrolled in their class. Especially on something as important as design transfer. if they want you to enroll as I've seen ONE instructor requie -do it, you can always immediately withdraw, and get most of your money back. It's what 'Office Hours' are for: individual instruction of students -- use them -- and get out -- but when you think of it - free use of a kiln and glaze can be rather appealing -- esp if you take an incomplete, and can use the lab until you complete the final assignment for up to a full year in most places, with no more money up front -- I used to teach in college, it's a trick i learned when I learned to engrave -- even taking an F so I could repeat up to three times with an incomplete each time -- pay for three semesters, get 9. It can be a bargain. And in Lab courses you can become an unofficial 'aide' and pick every last morsel and detail and secret from your professors brain! You are, in essence a pod person who sucks your professors brain dry! WHILE you face problems you have not even encountered yet, but might some day -- when you'd have a solution and not need help!

I have found most of these Dover books exceptional in most every respect -- you can see my review of Florid Victorian Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives) for an idea of what I think of these 'design' books -- and if nothing else, they make a wonderful 'coffee table book' -- but I suspect that after reading Meeks, and talking ot a college instructor, you will learn a LOT about transfer.

In hard metal engraving the problem is to not 'chip' the surface the transfer is on, I imagine that in leather or clay where you 'draw' the design in using different sized wooden or steel dowels, this problem will not BE a problem.

Amazingly enough, this book was returned to me TODAY with one I loaned as a thank you for the loan -- and I can see the problem you faced, but it's no different from the florid Victorian book -- lean to transfer -- practice -- I usually think of it as "playing around" with an idea, because it's more fun than PRACTICE!! (uggghhhh!) - and I think the book will come alive for you -- I already have seen what it has done to a flint-lock and matching knife -- and some of the lines are 0-00-000, though most are 1's and 2's and I can look at the original, and the transfer and see very little difference.

Join a guild, or ask a professional who teaches because the professional who teaches has probably read a lot about transfer - and IT IS A PROBLEM faced by those who lack the 'secret' knowledge. And if one says no, keep looking, we had a teacher who said that he would not teach or discuss transfer except how to transfer for your own personal collection, and it was ONLY smoke transfer, perhaps the oldest and most primitive transfer possible --and one you could NEVER use from a printed page or someone else's work -- So find out from another teacher -- or go to a large city library,and look in an index under 'transfer' -- in EVERY book, for each author may have their own pet way, or have a unique, nearly fail-safe way.

When all else fails -- which is rare -- get a number one or softer pencil and draw over your photocopy, then 'burnish' the back, transferring the pencil onto the object, then 'draw the line you grave, and grave the line you draw' as my Master told me.

This book looks AMAZING -- and so it gets five full stars! And I can already see where it can be mix and matched with other Dover books for design -- wow! --Dover -- NO COPYRIGHT DESIGN! Viva Dover!

A couple of reviews have mentioned that the designs in this book were too intricate and therefore they gave it less than stellar reviews. However, I believe that this is the books strength and not it weakness. I design websites and the images in this book worked perfectly, precisely because they were more detailed.