Winter Birdhouse Woodburning Tutorial

[Irish]

Step 7 cont:

I cut this paper leaf then used my thumbnail to score a curved line through the center vein area. This lets me fold the leaf along that curve.

Notice that as the two leaf sides change directions in their curves the highlight and shadow areas change. Also notice that both sides carry their own highlights and shadows. They are not the same and they are not mirror images of each other.

In the gray scale photo I have mapped the curved edges of the shadows. Paper shapes are a great way to figure out where your shadows would naturally be according to your light source.

So - the shape of the light source in a direct hit can determine the shape of a shadow AND the curve of the surface the light hits can determine the shape of a shadow.

paper-holly-4.jpg
paper-holly-5.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 7 cont:

Now, luckily for our design I happen to have a mature American Holly tree. Holly leaves not only bend from stem to tip and from center vein to side edge they ripple with each leaf point. So we have lots of highlights and lots of shadows.

You can see in paper-holly-7.jpg the curved edge of the highlights and shadows. Plus I have given you a gray scale photo. In photo paper-holly-9.jpg I picked up some of the different gray tones from the photo and moved them over to make a gray scale. This photo has at least five different gray tones.

Two of my favorite leaves to use in a design are holly and oak. Both have this extra ripple within the leaf. Now, looking at the photo it may seem that extra ripple makes the leaf harder to burn ... but it doesn't. In fact, it is the eact opposite. Because of the extra ripples you as a new woodburner really can't make a mistake in creating your shadows.

Any shading this is a little off or not quite in the right place are interrupted as just extra rippling!

paper-holly-6.jpg
paper-holly-7.jpg
paper-holly-8.jpg
paper-holly-9.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 7 cont:

The light source determines the shape of the highlights and shadows when it directly strikes the element. But it is the element that casts the shadow that determines the shape of the shadow.

In photo paper-holly-10.jpg there are two paper leaves. Each leaf has one highlighted side and one shadow side created directly by the light source.

There are also cast shadows for this photo. The leaf to the upper right is casting a shadow onto the lower left leaf. That shadow edge has the exact shape of the upper right leaf edge. The lower leaf is casting a shadow onto the table. That cast shadow also takes on the shape of the lower leaf edge.

(I have two shadows because I had two light sources in this photo - my small spotlight and the overhead light. Turning off the overhead made the photo too dark to be useable - sorry!)

It is the light source not the position in the design or arrangement that determines which side of the leaves are highlighted and which are shadowed. My leaves in photo paper-holly-11.jpg are folded then set with that fold facing away from the light source. This makes the upper right sides of the leaves darker in tone than the lower left.

My foreground leaf therefore has it's darkest shaded side in front of the upper right leaf. Plus the upper right leaf has it's brightest highlighted side behind the foreground leaf.

Most of the time we are tempted to always shade the background element, making it darker to push it away from the foreground element ... but that is not always what we want to do. In this photo, if I were burning it and shaded the background leaf I would be changing the direction of the light source.

So ... grab some printer paper, get some scissors and a table lamp. Cut a few simple shapes, fold them and then throw them on the table. Have some fun discovering how the shadows and highlights change as you rearrange them on your table.

When in doubt about any shadow burning use paper shapes.

paper-holly-10.jpg
paper-holly-11.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 8: Burn layer two - holly leaves

I have printed a copy of shadow-9.jpg and will use it as my reference guide through the next few steps. I am still working with my standard writing tip and since I am burning the holly leaves I will be using the random doodle stroke.

I have turned my temp setting down to between 4.5 and 5. These leaves lie in the middle range or foreground so I want them a touch lighter at this time.

A quick note about the random doodle stroke. For me, this is a comfortable, easy stroke. As I work I can move the tip lightly across the wood surface and my hand is in constant medium speed motion. This means that I get an extremely even color tone when I use this stroke.

I can control how light or dark an area is by how many curls I pack into that area. A few curls mean more unburned areas so a lighter or paler color. A tight pack of the curls gives me a medium tonal value.

burnlayer-2.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 8 cont:

I am working the first shadow burning into my holly leaves. I am using a low temp setting between 4.5 and 5 for my Colwood. You will need to adjust your setting according to the practice board tonal value grid that you burned for you unit.

Notice I have those curved edges to my shadow areas. I am treating each side of the leaf as an individual area or element.

Just above the chichadee's head is a cluster of three leaves. The bottom right leaf is in front of the middle left leaf. But just as with our paper holly leaves the lower leaf, even though it is in front of the middle left, is the darker toned leaf.

Having done the first burning in these leaves I have started the second burning. I have not changed my temp setting - I am using a second burn to make the area darker. I want to keep that curved edge to the shadows and fill about one half of the area that was burned in the first working. This walks the shadow away from the light source and deepens it as it moves away from the same.

The scan image shows you where we are at in the work. Back in a bit!

burnlayer-2a.jpg
burnlayer-2b.jpg
burnlayer-scan.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 8 cont:

I am changing the image naming system ... I am driving myself crazy so I expect that you are having problems also.

Still working from shadow-9.jpg as my reference guide I am adding the shading on the post using a straight line stroke that flows with the grain of the post's wood. I have also added a few lines on the right side of the post. The highlight for the post would not fall directly on one side but instead closer to the center of the post.

The shadow cast on the bird house wall from the nuthatch is also worked in a straight line stroke. The lines run up and down to flow with the bird house.

Notice the double shadow area where the bird's shadow overlaps the roof strut shadow.

OK ... That close up showed me that I needed to take a moment and clean my pen tip. I use very fine steel wool. You can also use rouge and a leather strop. Clean tips burn clean lines.

step8-1.jpg
step8-2.jpg
step8-3.jpg
step8-4.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 8 cont:

The shadow under the gold finch falls on both the house and the perches.

The house shadow is worked vertically with a straight line stroke but the line runs along the horizontal for the perch.

The straight line shadows under the berry vine on the roof have to run along the diagonal to match the roof strut.

My apologizes that this photo did not come out well. You can see this step in the scan close ups. I am shading the acorns on the roof with a random doodle stroke.

step8-5.jpg
step8-6.jpg
step8-7.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

Step 8 cont:

OK ... here are the scans for this completed step. We have worked all of the shading that we created in shadow-9.jpg.

step8-burnscan.jpg
step8-burnscan-a.jpg
step8-burnscan-b.jpg

Susan

[Irish]

I am going to break for the day. We will start tomorrow working on the shading from shadow-10.jpg.

So now is a good time to post any questions, comments or thoughts on this burning, the shading lessons or examples and photos if you are following along with this project.

If there is any place or step where I have left you confused just let me know.

If you want to chat about this project or any problems you might be having navigating the forum please post them to this thread:

re-Winter Birdhouse Woodburning Tutorial

Thanks! Susan

[sumacs]

I'm a bit confused. I thought the tutorial was the Winter Birdhouse not a gun.

sumacs