How To Paint Over Woodburning?

My problem after doing some woodburning on a piece is how to cover up the 'burned' in cuts? I used thinned down water base acrylic paints when painting but the burned area shows through....On an earlier post, Nancy G. had mentioned to piant when burning use the 'opaque' method so it doesn't show through, can anyone lend some guidence on this method, .......Coffeeman

[AlArchie]

Coffeman, if you are trying to cover the burned portions while leaving the rest of the woodgrain showing through, you may be bucking the impossible (or at least highly improbable) Â*

When carving and painting fish, with burned in scales, I first apply a coat (sometimes 2 coats of either liquid or spray gesso or auto primer. Â*This totally covers the burns and gives a good base for applying the acrylics. Â*I Â*have found that I favor the auto primer, as it covers more smoothly than brush applied gesso, and it comes in white, several shades of gray, rust, and black, so depending on what I'm painting, the differnt colors can work to my advantage.

I just completed a class in relief carving, enhanced with prography, and we were taught to use the burns as not only an enhancement, but as outlines to contain the watercolors within the burned lines. Â*The burned lines actually restricted the flow of paint from going into adjacent areas.

If you are allowing the woodgrain to show through, maybe it would be best to use the burns as accents, and let them show. Â*If, on the other hand, like Nancy's use of the burns on beard and other details, or my use on scales, you will definitely need to get a full coverage opaque primer down first.

Hope this helps.

Al

[Captain_Bandaid]

Coffeman, I have had that problem too. One thing that helps is to keep the temperature of the pyro pen as low as possible. You might also get away with putting gesso over the burned areas and feathering it out away from the burn so that the wood grain will show in most of the carving.

[AlArchie]

One more thought; years back a good friend of mine re-did several pieces of antique furniture and used what he called a 'pickling' technique, where he applied a fully opaque primer and then added woodgrain efffects with , if I remember right, combs and feathers. Â*Maybe you could use a similar technique if you wanted a woodgrain effect, and still had to cover up the burn marks.

I'd suggest you check over at
www.woodmagazine.com Â*
and their section on finishing. Â*I'm sure there would be someone there with some expertise in these pickling and graining procedures.

I understand Nancy also does pickles, but doubt if that is quite the same!

Al (again)

Al & Captain: Thanks for the fast replies, both have been helpful, what I need to do is cover up the woodburn area (hair & beards) completely and will implement the above steps as suggested. I have not followed those steps and just went right into painting with thinned down paints after burning, so its been my mistake, but a learning process, will be interesting to see the difference in the pieces too when painted correctly, however, I did like the burned hair showing through on the right pieces too, it adds to the effect on some pieces....Again, Thanks Coffeeman

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Not exactly sure this is what you want, but you might try 'KT Super Sealer, you can get it in clear and in white and you can burn right through it.....

[mdallensr]

Coffeeman, you also need to get the 'char' off of the carving if you want any paint to stick. Even gesso won't stick to heavy burning if the char isn't removed with a soft wire brush or Dremel bristle wheel.