Your wood carving steps can be just the first steps in a larger project. In this sample, Mandala Fish, the basic fish shape has been relief wood carved on a 3/4″ basswood slab. This is a simple rounded over carving that was sanded smooth after the cutting strokes were done. Next I traced my mandala pattern and used my wood burner to outline the pattern details. Colored pencils finish this project bring a bright rainbow of hues to my design.
Is it a carving? Is it a wood burning? Is it mandala work? Is it colored pencil art?
YES!
Many of our carving and pyrography ideas come directly from other fine art styles and media of works. This Lantern fish is a permanent marking pen drawing on Bristol board, brightly accented with colored pencils. It was the inspiration for the wood carving fish above. Want a free pattern to try your own mixed media fish design. Here’s one! And I have two free pattern packs, ready to download, on my pattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com.
And … one more idea that fits better in the fish tank then in the standard hobby box. You can use any pattern as the bases for your next practice board. Just because you want a chance to check your tip temperature, establish your strokes and textures, or set your tonal value before you work on your main project doesn’t mean that practice board needs to be a boring, useless grid design.
Simply outlining the pattern is often our very first project in pyrography wood burning. After decades as a pyrographer I still use this art style on many projects because of the clear, crisp impact you get by just following the tracing lines. Also called line art, outlining is often used in engraving, etching, woodcut and lithography. For more please read this great Wikipedia article.
Very simple, very flat, and very two dimensional, a simple outline conveys your image without details or shading.
This dragon face is worked on a 3″ leather key fob. Since he is both well detailed and worked in a very small space, simple outlining is the perfect choice.
The leather burned purse and the birch plywood burn, above, both use the same pattern from our pattern pack – Dragon Medallions. It is the lack of shading and extra detailing in the leather purse image that makes the dragon a stronger design then the wood version. The wood version almost has too much to see compared to the clean, crisp image on the leather.
Wood burning, especially on paper mache, leaves a physical impression in the media. Santa’s outline literally drops down into the surface of this paper mache box. The trough that comes from a simple outline stroke can also be used as a damn. Here it works to stop the application of the acrylic craft paints from spreading into the background area.
Note on this little Santa, the background is not burned totally black. Instead it is filled with the words, “ho ho ho!”
I have one more fun simple outline styled work to share with you. Its a Celtic deer design. While the above samples all use carefully controlled, uniform thickness lines, this hart uses thick and thin lines. As you move through the pattern make some areas of the line width thick then taper back to very thin. This adds a little dimension without losing the crisp, line art effect.
Pyrography is so much more than just outlining your pattern and burning the background to black. Any art style can be created, using a wood burning tool and your selected pen tips.
Pointillism began as a new way to blend colors on a canvas. Instead of blending two or three colors to create a new color, small, tightly packed dots of the two colors visually created the new third color. So instead of mixing and blending cadmium yellow with ultramarine blue to create a medium green, a very small dot of yellow was painted next to a small dot of blue. Your eye then blends the two color dots into the new green tone.
To learn more about Pyrography art styles, please visit Amazon.com for your copy of Pyrography Styles Handbook by Lora S. Irish – Your comprehensive guide to the 7 major styles of woodburning: crosshatching, realism, pointillism, shaded drawing, engraving, silhouette, and texture painting. LSIrish.com is an affiliate of Amazon.
If a yellow-green was wanted the artist would paint two small dots of yellow next to the blue. If you wanted a darker green, then the artist used two touching dots of blue with one dot of yellow.
The idea of using dots instead of strokes directly impacts how we as wood burning artists can create a pyrography image. Where Neo-Impressionists used color dots, we wood burners use heat setting for pale, medium and dark dots, and density to create pale tonal area to almost solid black areas in our work.
This Celtic Bird Postage Stamp burning is also worked in the Pointillism style, and available for free here at LSIrish.com. This post includes the free Celtic Bird postage stamp pattern.
This entire design is worked using only a small dash stroke made with a ball tip or loop tip pen. How hot the temperature setting is and how densely you pack those dash strokes gives the sepia value range – pale areas, medium toned areas, and black areas.
This post included the free Cougar pattern and is one of the step-by-step projects included in Pyrography Style Handbook.
Posting tomorrow on Silhouette style burnings !!!!
All these packs hold a range of yellow-brown, red-brown, and neutral brown color giving us, pyrographers, a full sepia scale to compliment our burnings.
Before you touch your wood watercolor paper, or gourds with your pen, use can use these color packs to establish exactly where you want your shading and how light or dark you want it.
Any mistakes or any decisions to change an area’s value is worked out on paper, not on your expensive basswood plaque.
Even though the 1/8″thick plywood can warp with high-heat burning or high-humidity conditions, it is so light weight that the small quartz battery clock hanger fully supports the project – you can hang this anywhere.
My finished painted daisies pyrography clock is show displayed on a small wood easel and, while meant to go into my kitchen is still sitting on my computer desk.
Your free Lora S. Irish pattern is just below the supply list.
Step 1: Prepare your wood plaque by lightly sanding the wood with 220- to 320-grit sandpaper, working the sanding strokes with the grain of the wood. Remove all sanding dust. Using graphite paper, trace your pattern. Using the ball-tip pen and my Walnut Hollow Creative tool, I burned the general outlines of the daisy pattern, numbers, and quote onto my wood plaque. I used a medium-hot setting of 6 – 8.
When the outline is completed, erase any graphite lines or pencil lines that remain from the pattern tracing step.
Step 1
Step 2: I was not happy with my lettering burn, but very pleased with my outline work. My solution was to create a collage paper piece to add to the plywood that would carry my quote while covering up my wood burned letters. I chose a heavy, yet flexible antique paper that easily went through my home computer printer. You can see that collage piece temporarily placed over the burned letter.
Step 2
Step 3: Still using the ball-tip pen and a medium heat setting of 4 – 6, I have added shading to the background area of the pattern. Lowering the temperature a bit more to the 3 – 4 heat level, I then worked light shading into the flowers and leaves.
Step 3
Step 4: When your burning is done its time to get out your favorite artist-quality colored pencil set. Do a quick google image search under ‘painted daisy chrysanthemums’ for coloring ideas.
I used tones of yellow through bright red for the petals, yellow greens for the inner flower leaves, and green teals for the background leaves. Tones of sienna, golden brown, and chocolate make up the flower centers.
Both white colored pencil and white chalk pastel pencil was used to brighten the highlights of the work.
Lay several thin lines of quick-dry tacky glue to the back of your collage paper. Use a stiff piece of card stock to evenly spread the glue. Position your quote to your plaque and press lightly into place. Place a heavy book on top of the quote to press the paper evenly to the wood and let dry.
Several light coats of matte spray sealer. The sealer protects your raw wood, colored pencil work, and collage paper.
Step 4
Step 5: Here’s my finished clock with the quartz clock movement inserted, bees in place, and just one fun silk flower.
Hope you have fun creating your own pyrography clock! Thanks for stopping by my blob ~ Lora
