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I think I got in over my head. I'm trying to do a face marquetry for a headstock inlay. The guy is so nice and wants a tribute to his grandfather. I had him send me a favorite picture, and from that I came up with this idea for the headstock.


Just to see if it was possible, I made the following attempt. I am not an artist, so this is definitely breaking new ground for me. I'm hoping you guys have some pointers for me. He would like to keep the glasses, but if I had to we could loose them. From the experiment, I now think I can do it, but I obviously need a lot of help. I'm hoping for some suggestions. Thanks!

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Not going to be easy, not a bad first attempt. If you are serious about getting this done I would recommend that you contact one of our Inlay sponsors and get a price from them and have them do your Headplate. They are true artisans.

Thanks for sharing

Mike
White Oak, Texas

That is not bad for a 1st attempt. As far as what to do to make it better, I
will defer to Bordeaux and Lavin

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hey, I saw that same face on a tortilla I was frying recently!

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Hi Steve.

Great work on your first attempt!!!

I don't know whether you created the marquetry from the colour photograph as reference, but sometimes things like this would be better using monochrome, only picking, say two or three woods.

I don't know if this will help, but a Luthier/Artist called Grit Laskin could be a source of inspiration, especially when he "draws" into the inlays using engraving techniques.

http://www.williamlaskin.com/gallery2.php

Using a black and white zerox (photocopy) of this image and using that for reference is better, because of the contrast between light and shade is easier to pick out.

Finally, asking for other photographs of the dearly beloved man you are depicting would give you more of an idea of his facial features, etc.

Thats a good first attempt.
I'm not marquetry expert... haven't even attempted something like that actually. But I am always trying to figure out how things are done. I am a bit of computer geek too, so I figured I would just alter the photo in photoshop or something similar to bring out the lines. I guess I would just follow those lines after that. Here is a pic (me) that I did really quickly. This was just done on microsoft photo editor...




If I was a computer with a different photo editor, I could have isolated the 2 or 3 main colors like someone mentioned above. I also could have made it a solid black and solid white with more detail. But hey, this was just to give an idea.

Good luck! And post some more progress pics.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Oh... and do you have the original picture? That one looks like it has already been filtered with "watercolor" or something.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

You could just use the image superimposed as a background on your label inside the guitar and inlay some initials or a name or a "in memory of" at the 12th and save a lot of grief.

I do not want to discourage Steve as I think your efforts thus far deserve full marks for the effort, but human faces, and especially when they are specific to an individual, would have to be at the very top end of the inlay craft, it is rare to see a REALLY good one.

Have you ever noticed that it is normally the back or side of the pretty girls head and shoulders? That the blues guy always wears sunglasses and a hat? And the dancing girl has her long hair across her face?? JM2C

Cheers

Kim

options such as burning/ branding an image in with a soldering iron can get interesting results, used in conjunction with the photocopying technique might be a direction worth having a crack at on some scrap?

maybe there's another tribute to the man that might work out better, a phrase or something he was well known for etc?

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

A woodworking catalog had wood veneer that could be printed with an ink jet printer. I don't remember which catalog, but you might find it.

Ray

[QUOTE=Sam Price] .....Using a black and white zerox (photocopy) of this image and using that for reference is better, because of the contrast between light and shade is easier to pick out.
[/QUOTE]
Good pint. I'll look into that. I was hoping to get wood close to his color, but I'm thinking a most simplistic approach would be better.
[QUOTE=Chansen] Oh... and do you have the original picture? That one looks like it has already been filtered with "watercolor" or something.
[/QUOTE] Good catch. Yes I do have the original. I was thinking watercolor would soften the image and allow me to choose wood easier.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

[QUOTE=Ray Pepalis] A woodworking catalog had wood veneer that could be printed with an ink jet printer. I don't remember which catalog, but you might find it.
[/QUOTE]Ray,
That is an interesting thought. I could look for that or make an image that could transfer onto the headstock.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

[QUOTE=larkim] You could just use the image superimposed as a background on your label inside the guitar and inlay some initials or a name or a "in memory of" at the 12th and save a lot of grief. [/QUOTE] Kim,
I tried the initial idea, but he didn't want that. The image superimposed on a label is worth mentioning to him.
I'm learning as I go. While the first attempt came out better than I had hoped, it is still pretty far off the mark. I'm pretty sure that after 5 or 6 more attempts, I won't be happy enough with it to put it on the guitar.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Bill Moll did a tutorial on the MIMF a couple of years ago on doing a face inlay and his technique used the photo processing approach that Chansen showed above. Reducing the image to two colors, using MOP for the highlights, and a lot of engraving with a dremel burr produced pretty realistic images.

I'm afraid the marquetry approach will not yield anything other than a "paint-by-numbers" look.

Another thought might be to take the headstock veneer to a company that does woodscribing using a laser. They can reproduce very fine detail. This would definately be a two-tone image, however, no color.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

[QUOTE=SteveS]   
Good pint. I'll look into that. [/QUOTE]

Mine's a Guinness thanks, I'll get the next round...

Another option: Reduce the photo to a line drawing and just inlay the lines. Or trace the line drawing onto the headstock with transfer paper and lightly burn in the image with a woodburning pen, unless your headstock is ebony.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

The greyscale idea is right on. One book I have on marquetry points out that all woods ultimately fade to lighter or darker shades of brown. They recommended that you take the woods that you have, arrange them along a line from light to dark, and call the lightest one 'white' and the darkest 'black'. Then you have a greyscale gradation. More than a half dozen levels can get to be too hard to distinguish.

As with shell inlay, you need to use the grain of the wood whenever possible to suggest shapes and lighting effects. It's worth spending some time to find the right pieces, particularly for things like the creases around the eyes, which are very hard to cut in convincingly.

The 'window method' is a great one. Print out a reverse copy of the design you want to inlay, and paste it onto the back of a piece of the same sort of wood you're using for the headstock veneer. Cut out one of the middle pieces, to make a 'window', and put the veneer down, face up, on the wood you're going to cut that part from. Move it around until the part looks right, mark it, and cut it out. Put it into the window, using a couple of little pieces of paper pasted on the back to hold it in. Cut the next window, and repeat. You end up with the whole thing assembled in the backing veneer, with as lot of little bits of paper on the back side. Paste one piece of paper over the front, and when the glue dries, sand off all the little pieces on the back. Cut out around the design to remove it from the backing veneer, place it, and scribe around it in the headstock surface. Rout the pocket, inlay the design, and sand the paper off the surface.

Steve,
    You'll find that if you breakthe image into more fragments or pieces as
you interpret it into your inlay material, you'll achieve much more detail
and a closer likeness to the original subject.

    An inlay of that size would bring me to between 50 and 80 pieces in
the final interpretation. Lighter colored woods with more subtle grain will
suit the flesh and shadow needs well.

    I love working with shell and metals, but my favorite medium is wood
since a much broader palette of colors and textures can be addressed
with it.

    The "Lion of Judah" inlay that I did for the guitar I buit to take to Africa
last year ended up having less pieces than I'd originally planned, but the
woods captured the subject matter well.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Check out this post thread from a while back. I saw this pic and figured it fit with what we were talking about. The link is HERE
Here is the pic because the thread is rather long.


I really think that this is the way to go. You could trace directly from the picture if you printed it like I showed above. You could still use wood, but just one type instead of many.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

That looks nice Chansen. Steve, you might forward that photo along to the fella and see if it is acceptable to him. The variations in the shell give the face a nice three dimensional appearance. I like it!

Hey, that's my inlay! I think that's the first time someone has "referenced"
my work on the forum. I'm honored! I actually went about that just like
Chansen did with his photo. I mainly use photoshop to get my inlay
pictures where I want them, or at least close. I often "desaturate" the
picture first, to get it black and white. Then I usually mess around with
the "posterize" filter until I see what I'm looking for. The one above is
certainly the easiest way to go, but was done a bit differently. Here's a
couple more with a bit more variation in material that might give you
some ideas, Steve, although I realize that none of them are marquetry.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

The amount of pieces he states we are both different in our approach to inlay. The biggest problem I can see with this, and it's a really good first try, is that your not drawing what your seeing. Forget woods, forget cutting, forget everything except what matters first- how are you going to draw the face? THEN- how am I going to transfer that into an inlay- marquetry, whatever.

For starters look at your light and dark areas. You really seem to mix a lot of them together in your pieces.

Both eyes are at least 4 color shades of similar strength as far as I can see, but you only use three shades in one eye, and two in the other. You are also not delineating what the viewer would see as an eye from the color shades in the woods. Many pieces blend and blob together.

I can go on but I hope you get the idea. Look at the picture, trace it if you have to, but focus on color shades - darks and lights, and seperate the pieces out based on that- THEN go in and re-draw it out so you make sure the pieces say what they are suppossed to- this is an eye- this is skin surrounding the eye (a little different shade-wise).

Take you time. These things take a lot of time. Doing it slow and properly the first time will yield faster and more accurate renditions later as you train yourself to "see" the inlay better. I hope this helps- thee really is no way to get better other than working at getting better.   
Craig Lavin

www.handcraftinlay.com

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www.handcraftinlay.com

Nice work, Mike.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Chansen,
Than you for posting this picture. I think you are right. I like it a lot.

Mike,
I really like this inlay and would like to do that in wood for my client. I think it is real classy.

I'm not sure how to do it, but I'm thinking that I turn the picture to black and white, turn up the contrast and saturation and it should be pretty close.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.