Pyrography is a fascinating art – a fulfilling way to express creativity using different wood burning techniques to create interesting decorative designs at home.
Either as a crafty kind of art or a decorative talent, it is raised to a whole new level of fine art by talented pyrographers. Timothy Dahl, in an article on Life Hacker, reiterates the definition of pyrography or wood burning.
Pyrography
Pyrography is an inexpensive and fun art that can really spice up your DIY projects. You just need a pyrography pen, clean piece of wood, and your imagination, to create one-of-a-kind items. Pyrography is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks applied from a heated object. You can personalize your woodworking projects by adding your name or initials, or get fancy and burn a design or scene into the wood.
Wood burning is an interesting medium that can be fulfilling for a beginner and seasoned artist using different pyrography techniques. This is a perfect art to those who want to draw and desire to try something new. Here let’s check out some wood burning tips and tricks and learn pyrography with style from Jeremy Anderberg of The Art of Manliness.
Choosing a Design
To find designs and patterns to work with, just Google anything you’re interested in with “black and white illustration” added to the end: “mountains black and white illustration,” “wildlife black and white illustration,” “Minnesota Vikings black and white illustration.” You’ll more than likely get some great results to choose from. After you’ve picked a design, you want to figure out the size you want to use as well. For this above design, I sized it to fit a piece of wood I already had. The other few I’ve done I just made the size of an 8.5×11″ sheet of paper, since that’s what I can easily print here at home.
To come up with an interesting design, some tools are used by pyrography artists. It includes a wood burning pen, a polishing compound such as a fine sandpaper or an aluminum oxide. You will also need a clay pot or a pen holder tile, an assorted pyrography tips X 4, and a piece of soft wood. To make your pyrography a success, you need to apply a high level of creativity. This is a tip from The Pyrography Tool.
Pyrography Techniques
Depending on the style of your design, start burning the outlines of your design first. You may repeat this process to make them darker and clearer according to your desired effect. You may also want to try adding colour to your design. Once you have drawn the colors where you want them, add a little water to a soft paint brush and start blending the crayons to create a wash effect. Make sure to clean your brush in clean water between blending strong colours so that the colours stay clean and true.
After completing your pyrography project, sand off the visible trace lines for a clean look. Lastly, protect your work by putting a finisher into your wood. Let it dry thoroughly and wait until your final cool artwork is all ready for your eyes to admire.
Every piece of wood is made with different levels of artistry. And it solely depends on the artist on how he wants to use creativity in the artwork.