Bracers

been wondering how id make these patterns on leather it looks like it might be burnt in so twas wondering if i should use a soldering iron to burn it or not

or


Link Ref Art

seeing the ref art should i make it out of some other material, like foam sheets or make a mould of plastic

any advice would be appreciated thanks

You can burn designs into leather using a soldering iron though it has a habit of being wobbly. Foam will probably be the neatest method, though it would be less durable than leather as that stuff lasts years.

-Tab

In the actual artwork, it looks a lot more like the designs on the bracer are raised up instead of burnt on, and the bracers look more like suede than dark leather... but I'd use a hot glue gun or something similar to draw the designs on, and let it dry so I could paint over it and it would look raised like that.

I'm not sure if I'd use a soldering iron on leather. It works, but you'd be really bummed out if you messed it up and it'd be pretty difficult to work with.

In the artwork it doesn't really look like any real material.

In terms of the photos, I'm not a leather expert, but I know that for masks and other shaped applications they use Vegetable Tanned leather, as it can be soaked and heated so it can be shaped and will retain that shape. there are special tools which can carve and emboss leather. It's not cheap to get set up, and would take a lot of work to learn and practice to do them in leather.

personally, I'd cast them in latex. Make a positive out of plasticene, cast it in plaster and mold a latex copy. the other outcome of this is the ability to do two copies. Latex is very robust, so unlike foam it'll last more than one or two events, even in a high stress area like the wrist