Irish Church

[Mottles]

Hi Paul, nice burning on the church and the tilt doesn't bother me at all, actually I think it adds interest. Nice Work!
Kathy

[Fred Zavadil]

Paul, great for only third woodburning. You really worked on your vegetation - well done.
Fred

[Irish]

Hey Paul, great work!

You got some great tonal value changes in the leaves and very nice color changes between the pines and leafed trees (You know I could never spell conifer or deciduous correctly).

I can see that you relaxed in your burning strokes after you began the background leaves. I do believe that you started the burning on the right side of the church and worked to the left. The right side top edge looks a little outlined where the left side has free flowing stokes ... clearly you learned what you were doing and became very comfortable with it.

I like that you have started adding a little colored pencil work ... are you going to continue that?

As for "Practice" work ... I had a college prof tell me that an artist should never do anything on scrap, even when it is practice. Because ... as soon as you do it will turn out great, wonderful, better then you ever expected, your best work yet and you will be kicking yourself because it is on lousy material.

Paul - Big Grin - are you kicking yourself?

You might want to grab another piece of birch, head to your scroll saw and cut out a trimmed frame for the burning that will let you mount the burning to the square while hiding that you worked off level.

Here's a thread: Hiding a Mistake!

Susan

[Paul_Guraedy]

Paul - Big Grin - are you kicking yourself?

Yes I am!

You would think that after this long I would have learned. Must be a compliment that Diana wants to keep any completed piece. With carving I have learned to practice on small pieces and then as Joe Friday used to say “…only the details ma’am”. However, I am finding with pyrography, especially something like the “non-detail” of distant deciduous tees, it is hard to tell how good (or poorly) you are doing without putting in some of the other parts of the overall scene.


Still, I have to attribute my lapse of assuming that I could burn (literally) a completed practice piece to the excitement of “a new beginning”. Pyrography, for me, is almost like starting woodcarving all over again. There is nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment that is experienced so regularly at the initial stages of learning a new skill. I am thoroughly enjoying burning on “flat” pieces. At the same time, I am both anxious and hesitant to move on to my “Charley River Eagle” piece.

I believe that as you say, “…you relaxed in your burning strokes after you began the background leaves…” is correct I think I will be able to put in the deciduous trees along the edge of the river. Now, I am working on the conifers on the side of the mountain.

I do want to use color along with burning in my carvings. Color to this old Cajun is like spices in cooking or exaggerations (well we like to think of them that way) in relating a story. Ain’t no way I am going to cook with only salt and pepper, let absolute truth stand in the way of a good story, or finish a carving without some color.

I love the “correcting” of less than satisfactory performance through the use of scroll saw framing. It will work and I will have to play with that…..along with carvin’ and burnin’. Speaking of which, the sun is coming up over the mountain here in the Ozarks, casting a lot of light into my carving area and signaling me that it is finally time to return to one of the things I love most……..