my dog head

[opakitas]

Ok I am working on my 1st actual relief of my breed of dog I will be soon getting ready to burn it question I have is how do you burn for shading and color? If a dog is tan do you barely burn it? and for black you burn more?
thanks
Tammy

[Merle Rice]

Very nice carving and done well. Merle

[opakitas]

thanks Merle now to figure out how to burn it

[lorax]

Nice dog. Is it a Chow?

Unless I misunderstand your question, it sounds like you want to leave the woodburned lines showing? I think most of the folks that do animals with woodburned hair texturing paint the animals, so the amount of blackness doesn't matter.

[opakitas]

No this is an Akita.

Tammy

[northwood bob]

I have in past (Santa beards) first used a small veiner and then burnt the hair. after the burning process, use a fine brass brush to get rid of the soot. You may be able to do this with a power tool and wire brush. Seal coat the whole project and proced with thined acrilycs. ( I would of course try this on a scrap before attempting it on your carving.

Option II would be to use veiners of various sizes rather than a wood burning process

Good luck - It is a very nice piece of work and I hope you can get the look you are looking for.

Bob

[teeburn]

Hi, Tammy. I posted on your thread in the woodburning section but I can also post here too. You can definitely get the desired colour, tones you want with just woodburning but if you are comfortable using other methods for colouring that is fine to.

The reasons I started relief carving and restarted woodburning is cause I wanted to produce pieces using both art forms. I thought they were the perfect marriage. Since I had wood burned before I started with that and refreshed, relearned how to do it and now I'm learning to relief carve. I've done almost four relief burns. I say almost cause I'm not quite done with the carving part on one and haven't done any burning since the carving isn't finished. When it is I will burn the details in. I'm more of a purist. I like achieving the colour with the burning and the natural colours of the wood. I'm not against colour. In fact I love colour but in wood I just love the natural colour of the wood and the natural sepia tones of the burning.

I think you are doing great on carving your Akita. Now when you are done with the carving if you have any fuzzies clean them up. They will burn off when you are burning but it is easier if you clean them up before. As Marcy shared with you you want to layer your colour. I always start with the eyes cause if you don't get them right the whole piece will be off. But if you are too nervous to do that go ahead and start your base colour. Start off light. You can always add but it is harder to remove. Then go to your next tone and do those areas and so on. Leave the darkest for last. I find that is the easiest for me. I know others start with the darkest but I don't like that so you'll have to see which you prefer. But I think just starting off it is easier.

I would take and make a flat work practice piece to play with getting the tones for practice before you go to your carved piece. Hope this helps some. Please keep us posted on your progress. Blessings!

[opakitas]

what tips do you think I need?

thanks
Tammy

[teeburn]

Hi, Tammy. Depends on what you are comfortable with. Seems like everyone has their personal preferences. I use my bent spear shader for almost all my work, probably about 95% of it. I can't remember if I read what kind of burning unit you are using. Most burning units have comparable pens to each other. I have an Optima and they have a pen specifically for hair/fur. It can be used for other things to, vary versatile pen. I'd have to check and see if the others carry one similar or not. I haven't really looked for that. I use my bent spear shader and the hair pen. Some people use the round heeled skew. What burning unit and pens do you have?