50 peso coin

[joseph engraver]

Rosa,
There are many young girls who are pure Indian blood that live here in this fishing village. They are quite shy and will not pose for a photo. This girl is fifteen years old and she comes to an English class that my wife Franca teaches, her name is Rosa Ixthzele. This 50 peso coin was difficult for me to engrave because her skin is a dark chocolate color and I am accustomed to Caucasian facial structure and features. This was a dilemma for me as I had no desire to spend all the time needed to place that many dots on the surface to give her a skin a dark color.
I did a bit of experimenting on another coin. First I tried textured punches; they worked but left tool marks that were unacceptable. Next I took a small piece of 150 grit emery cloth and with a drop of Super Glue stuck it to the bottom of a chasing punch. The paper eliminated the tool marks and worked well but the texture was too coarse. Not having a sheet of 360 grit paper which most likely would have been the best choice I tried 500 grit paper and resolved the problem.
It took twenty minutes to darken Rosa’s skin and burnish the highlights. I suppose that this could be called cheating, but the results justify the means. When I showed her the coin she was not happy with the results, but I have learned a long time ago that ladies are very opinionated when it comes to their looks.
Thank you Gail,(driven or inspired) Your question kept me awake last night.I am thinking of how to answer it honestly

[winstonklein]

neat and detailed work. Very nice !!.

[Gail]

Joseph, Re driven or inspired............sorta like which came first, the chicken or the egg. Hard to answer and equally hard to separate.
gail

[Chapi]

I hear you about women's opinions about their own appearance. I have a rule that I will not do any portraits of living wives or girlfriends and that comes from hard experience. If you want that portrait, you had better just kill her, because she will never let you hear the end of it. If they are willing to get up an hour early in the morning to try to make themselves look better, they are never going to be satisfied with with a static piece of art.
The coin looks nice, and I'm sure her family might like it. It is always a pleasure to see your posts. Great idea with the emery paper for "darkening".
-Chapi

[handengraverdave]

Very nice coin and I have done portraits in glass of women and they was actually pleasantly surprised it came out so well. Glass is different than metal I know but one still has to be diligent with features on any portrait. It is the features that make the person. All in all i think it looks good altho I have no idea what the person looks like to make a good comparison.

David

David