New to intarsia, so be rough with me grrrrr

[megga]

Hi all new to this forum, and this is my first post (apart from the Hello bit)
Some of the work on here, just blows my mind, love to get even half the skill (Thats me kissing butt as a trade for advice)
I have done a few intarsia pieces, would not post any pics as they look like they have been squeezed out of the devils own bum lol, no but they are bad. I fall down at the sanding bit, i never know how much or what kind of angle to sand. As a normal male, i jump straight in and then wonder why its not worked again. Any advice for a newbie?

[trailfndr]

First and foremost,  SLOW DOWN. 
Start with whatever is furthest away from the viewer.  Shaping is the most difficult part of Intarsia to learn.  A lot of it was trial and error for me.  when you have multiple pieces that need to be shaped together, use double sided carpet tape to attach them to a piece of scrap plywood, and then you can sand then all at once.  Once you take them apart, you can fine tune any shaping that you need to do.  Take your time, and try to envision what the subject looks like.  Use photos to compare and study what something looks like in reality, and then you can slowly shape to that look. 

I highly recommend a good beginning Intarsia book, that has step by step instructions for simple projects.  Judy Gale Roberts has a couple good ones, "Intarsia Workbook" and "Wildlife Intarsia" are both great starting places.  You can get them from her site.  http://intarsia.com/shop/product-category/books/intarsia-books/

Kathy Wise has a good instruction book, but it is geared to a more advanced user.

Don't be afraid to post pictures,  The feedback you can get from folks on here will make your work better.

[megga]

Cheers, thanks for the response, i'll take it on board :-)

[troy_curtis]

From one newbie to another. I have only done a few intarsia projects. Sanding was a hard part for me as I am still new at it. My suggestion is just keep looking at what others are doing, read up on it some, and most important don't be afraid to try. My first intarsia was a light house that I drew on the computer. It had a lot of imperfections, but the person I made it for loved it.