Woodburning Tips for Artists at any level
I am going to share some wood-burned gourds I have found that illustrate good design practices to help you see why the artwork is successful. By analyzing a gourd this way we can learn from the best.
I will tell you what I think works and doesn’t work. I taught Art for several years with Master Degrees in Art Education and Graphic Design. This topic is always subjective and you can certainly disagree with me.
By talking about these elements, I hope you can learn to be more critical of other’s work to help you understand what mastery means and how you can improve your artwork.
I will keep adding new enties on the top,so check back here often to learn something new.
When shading feathers or leaves, remember that the light hits the middle of the surface, then gets darker towards the edge. The darkest parts are where the shapes overlap. The tones on each shape should go from light, medium to dark. This sequence will give you depth.
A shading tip will work best. Practice achieving these tones on a shard. This is a basic technique you will use over and over.
Sometimes it is difficult for beginners to understand how all the burning techniques come together to create a realistic image. This design is in process Susan has outlined the frog, then started to shade in the dark areas with light tones. These will get darker with layering.
We can see two prominent shading strokes here. The stippling (little dots) on the body which provides a textural effect and short line strokes on the leaves. There are many more strokes ahead to give the frog more depth.
To the artist’s advantage is the size of the image. The larger it is, the easier it is for beginners to get it right.
Here is a gourd where you can see how thick the “ditch” is in comparison to the others on this page. The artist is using a burning pen as seen in the back ground. I find it a little had to use and useless if it doesn’t have a thermostat on it. But this artist is a painter and is looking for a deep line to keep her acrylics on the gourd. I must say the lines are smooth and consistent, just what we are looking for!
When judging wood burned gourds you want to look for the mastering of three techniques. Each takes practice. Yet once you have it, the wood burning process becomes very relaxing as you can let your mind find your creative zone and you focus on each stroke. Everything else and even time disappears. That’s why we enjoy it so much!
How deep should your outline channel be?
The width of the channel depends on your burning style. Do you apply a heavy pressure with lots of heat or a light pressure with low heat? You make this decision as you practice. What feels comfortable for you?
Here are five gourds all using a different pressure and they are all acceptable in the judging world. To create a thin clean line means you will need to go consistently slow and maintain the same pressure and that takes much practice.
Here are the three shading tips I like to use. I begin with the writing tip allowing me to slowly add shading with circular motions. If you are not sure how the shadow works, draw it in with pencil till it looks right. Then just burn over the pencil and erase it as you work. The broad shading tips are called spooners and are used to create big areas of blackness to a shape.
I use three sizes of the ball tip to to stipple. The closer the dots the deeper the color. Takes patience but creates a lovely texture.
Most gourd artist settle on using only about five tips. For outlining I use the spear. For stippling I prefer the ball and for shading I like the writer. I usually buy the medium and the small versions because I woodburn jewelry shards and decorative items.
Once you have completed your shading, you can add color. Rely on dyes or watercolor pencils to avoid covering up your burned area.
Two gourds showing stippling. The fish gourd shows both ways gourd artists stipple. One with the woodburner and the other is using a carving bit. The second gourds show a mastering of all three woodburning techniques. Can you point out which tip was use in each area?
