TEXTURES

Practicing With Textures

When creating in pyrography, think of areas you can create with textures such as grass, hair and dark areas.
• Try holding the pen at different angles.
• Make areas of deep lines.
• See how black you can make an area, careful not to produce too much smoke!
• Try an area where you overburn the wood, this gives you a halo around the line.
This is an important part of pyrography as detailed texturing of a picture can really add to the final effect. It gives 'relief' to your composition adding interest and takes away from the simple 'shaded' type of pyrography. I am a great believer in this discipline, and will be encouraging it throughout our lessons.

Deep Lines

For the next texture, you need to set your pen so that the tip glows pink. Practice burning deep lines, this gives a lovely effect. It is a good way to fill in dark areas and also to give the effect of wooded areas. I use it alot for simulating tree bark. I have included a picture to show you how I have used this texture.

 

Pointilism

You can also create shading effects and a sense of distance, by making up a pattern out of dots. This technique is known as pointilism. For this exercise, practice making dots with different heat settings.

 

Patterned & Leaf and Grass Sampler

Design a sampler by adding different patterns and textures. When you have learnt some patterning techniques these can be applied to bowls, coasters, spoons or eggcups. This simple type of decoration can look very effective! For the leaf and grass texturing technique, you need to have your point set to quite a high setting. The point needs to be applied with some pressure then pulled in a 'flicking' motion, to produce a thin line. As you can see from the example below it is very good for producing effects such as grasses and leaves.