The Finished Butterfly Bowl

Hi All, In my last post I showed you how I did an outline of a pyrography image on a bowl. (Pictured below.)

This was the easy bit. Now, believe it or not but some people who do pyrography stop there. However, by doing so they are missing out on the most exciting part of creating a piece of pyrography. To me the most important part of the pyrography process is not the outline, but the 'shading in' process. You could of course just take your pyrography iron and start shading in your piece of work without much thought, but that would not lead to the best result. You need to think ahead, so here is how I go about the process. Firstly, I look for the darkest areas of the image. In the case of the one above it will be the blackberries and the darker parts of the butterflies. So this is where I start; I use my iron on a medium to high temperature setting and burn in the fruits and the darkest part of the butterflies. This establishes the darkest tones of the pyrography piece. Yo can see the dark berries on the photo above. Now all I have to do is shade in the leaves and stems. However, care must be taken here if you are to finish up with a good result. The leaves need to stand out against the plain light background of the bowl, but take care because, if the shading is made too dark it will weaken the impact of the butterflies. I turn the temperature down when 'shading in' and take my time. Always remember when you are doing pyrography that you can't rub your mistakes out and, if you burn a piece of your work to a tone that is too dark, you are stuck with it. So, when you are 'shading in' always try to maximise the contrast in tones. If the edge of the leaf you are shading is against a plain piece of bowl you can make it darker. The same is true if you are coming up against a light part of a butterfly. However, where a leaf comes up against the dark part of a butterfly you need to make sure the shading is much lighter in tone. Tips Make sure that the direction of pyrography burn is natural and in line with with the subject matter. For instance, you will notice that the shading marks on the butterflies' wings spread out in a fan shape from the butterflies' body. This makes it look natural; if I'd done the 'shading in' from top to bottom it would have ruined the piece. The same can be said with the leaves. The direction of pyrography burn should follow what you think will depict the natural growth of each leaf. Also remember that the point where your pyrography iron tip first touches the wood will be the darkest spot because the heat of the iron hasn't had time to dissipate yet. So always put your tip down where you want the darkest part of the burn to be. Take your time with the shading and you will get a feel for the whole process. Eventually you will find that you are changing your speed of movement to bring about those subtle changes in shade that can turn an alright piece of pyrography into something to be proud of. Below you can see my finished bowl.

I like this piece of work, it is much better than Olly the Owl that's for sure. Sorry it's not for sale because my wife thrust a twenty pound note at me as soon as she saw it. Speaking of my wife, she has been too busy galivanting to get the brushes out and fix Olly for me, but the day will come and I'll keep you posted. If you would like to see some more of my pyrography work please click here. If you would like to find out more about me and my books pleas click here. Finally if you have any questions about pyrography or my books please let me know.