[Irish]

W.I.P. = Work in Progress

With all the talk about tonal values and the gray scale value of colors that "Pheasant of Birch" started I thought I would play around with a burning worked from a color image. The original scan is from a carving that I did a while back for Wood Carving Illustrated about using layers and levels in relief wood carving. Since the final carving, in color, and the line pattern are both posted here at WCI I thought I would use it for the burning.

Goto: The left nav bar and click on Free Carving Patterns! And thank you, Fox Chapel, for posting these!!!!

The work is on a boat oar that I cut out of 3/4" basswood. The sides were planed with a 1 1/4" straight woodworking chisel so that there are still plane marks left ... to add a little interest to the sides. A hole was drilled in the handle for a leather cord for hanging, then everything was sanded.

Here are the color scan, gray scale of that scan and the pattern that I am using.

Susan

[Irish]

I have traced the pattern by rubbing a soft pencil to the back of the pattern paper. Taped it into place then traced using a fine point pen. After the tracing was done I added a double border line with a compass.Open the compass the amount that you want the border inset. Put one side of the compass against the outside edge of the oar and the pencil point on the board ... then just pull.

I prefer pencil tracing as it's soft and easy to get rid of when you're done burning.

Susan

[Irish]

Now ... Standard Disclaimer here gang! This is my favorite way of approaching a wood burning. There are some great burners on the forum and perhaps they too will show us their favorite way and method. I do not claim in any way that this is the only way to go

I like to map out the entire design first with a very pale burning. This lets me discover each area and what it will need before I have dark set, unchangeable lines. The tree stump and grass are my background objects so I did them first. The burner is set of a very low setting and I am using the small writing tip.

Susan

[Irish]

The next area is the middle ground which is his body. I still have the temp set at very cool and am still using the small writing tip. In this area you have the body rolling over into wrinkles. Since my light source is straight onto the deer this means that the sides of a wrinkle will be dark, then to middle with the center of the wrinkle pale.

Because this is also where the deer's hair is I am using very short lines that flow in the direction of the fur ... or do deer have hair???

Susan

[Irish]

The face is next and it contains the foreground elements. It also has the darkest areas of the burning, the eyes and the nostrils. Again, the temp setting and tip are the same and I am still working in the direction of the hair growth.

Susan

[Irish]

So here is the mapping done. Because I have worked very very pale I can make changes quite easily. I have the original gray scale, the wood burning value scale, and the mapping side by side. I can check to see if I am on track or if I need to make changes.

The burning map is still paler then the gray scale, which is just where I want it. But notice, even though everything is pale I still have definite values ranging from the unburned color of the basswood to a medium tone.

Got ya all totally bored yet?

Off to start my second layer where I will be burning everything again to start strenghtening the image.

Susan

[Ron Davidson]

Irish -It looks really good. Keep up the good work and keep showing us the progress.Ron

[Pyrographer]

As you said, everyone does things different. If I am doing a portrait, human or animal, I always do the eyes first. They are the windows of the soul and I feel if not done right I might as well throw it away. I then burn in layers, much as you get dressed...underwear first, then the outerwear. Same concept, burn from bottom up, background to the foreground. This helps make the work look more natural and lifelike.

Animals are not my speciality but I have two pieces of work in progress on my website that I did of of two dogs. They were commissions and I sent the progress photos to each of the people who ordered them as I was doing them. The loved getting the updates. They show how I did each one step-by-step. If you want to take a peak, they are "Indi" and "Blaze" in the animal section of the pyrography gallery.

My technique is different also, I use what I call the "smooth shading technique" and I use a spear point shader for just about everything I do, except signing my name. The effect is similar to an old sepia photo. As Susan said, everyone has their own way of doing things and this is the technique I taught myself because I wanted to achieve this "look" but it is not a technique that works well with animals. I still use my spear shader for animals but I use a different technque to do the fur. I lay in the tone, a base color, and then add the fur in strokes using the side of my spear shader.

[wade clark]

Susan,
Wow! I can smell the wood burning! Would you mind documenting every carving and burning you do, step by step in this fashion, and starting an encyclopedia set for us!? Put me down for an early set, number 1 or 2 would be wonderful, and please sign it all over the place!
Bored? Hardly! Hanging on every word and detail!
Wade

[Irish]

Nedra, I think that is one of the fantastic points of wood burning ... there are so many ways you can approach a composition and so many different techniques that you can use to execute it. Something for everyone and if one version doesn't work ... well, there are many more ideas out there that might!

Wade, When you do get bored. let me know As for an encyclopedia ... in your and my dreams. I'm having enough trouble just keeping up with the bunch of you and the great ideas that everyone is posting. My "Must Do" list grows everytime I come over here.

I have started the second layering with the temp set just a tad higher and still working with the small writing tip. To create the darkest lines, so far, I am simply pulling the pen slower. More time on the wood means more time for the tip to darken the area.

I am not using the shading tip in the fur as I want a good bit of the original wood color to show through the fur lines. For most animals, if you look closely at one hair all of the coloring is at the outer one-third of the hair. The inner portion of the hair is much paler. Plus many animals have a second, shorter coat of hair below the guard hairs. So by not using the shader, sticking with the writing tool, I have lots of pale lines between the dark lines to suggest this paler inner hair coat.

I have not done the face yet.

Susan