Where does that element lie in relationship to other elements?
The Sea Dragon pattern shows his body twisted into a knot. So the next step is to determine where to add more shading to tuck one element behind another.
In a simple wood burning if one area of an element is behind another the background element becomes darker than the foreground element. As that background area moves away from the overlapping elements it will gradually return to the paler tones.
I have worked a second layer of shading on a low temperature setting of 5 to darken the body areas that tuck under or behind other parts of the Sea Dragons form.
Which parts of the elements fall in the general foreground, mid-ground and background of the design?
Now that a basic shape and position for each area of the body has been established it is time to determine which elements are in the foreground, mid-ground or background of the pattern.
Foreground elements are the palest in a simple burning. In this design the foreground area is the dragon’s head, shoulders and upper body plus the scroll curls of his tail. The mid-ground is the large circular loop of body at the top of the pattern with the knot area of the body the background.
I have turned up my temperature setting to 5.5 to darken the mid-ground and background elements of this pattern.