CELTIC BIRDS POSTAGE STAMP PYROGRAPHY PROJECT LORA S. IRISH LSIRISH.COM ARTDESIGNSSTUDIO.COM Create perfect graduated shading using the art style of Copyright, L S Irish, LSIrish.com, 1997-2015 pointillism. All Rights Reserved, 1997 - 2015 1 SUPPLIES NEEDED Stamp collecting is one of the favorite past times 9” X 12” x 1/4” birch, basswood, or poplar plywood in the U.S. Many of us began as small children 220- to 320-grit sandpaper who waited impatiently for the day’s mail to arrive Brown paper bag to discover if one of the envelopes sported a new #4 soft pencil for tracing stamp for our album. Masking tape to secure the paper pattern Ruler As adults our interests expanded into the history, Variable temperature pyrography unit geography, and political movements of foreign Ball tip or loop tip burning pen countries or into the elusive chase of a particular Artist white eraser stamp that would complete a year set or series Polyurethane or acrylic spray sealer release. A philatelist, stamp collector, might focus their collection of a specific time period - as stamps is- sued during World War II - or on a specific group of countries - as stamps issued from the Caribbean Island nations - or on a particular topic - as steam engines, butterflies, or dog breeds. You can bring your favorite stamp topic into your love of wood burning with this beginner’s level pointillism-styled project. Pointillism is the art style of creating designs, with graduated shading, through the use of a simple dot pattern. So let’s begin our free ArtDesignsStudio.com project by getting our supplies together. Ball-tip Pen Loop-tip Pen 2 PEN TIP SAMPLE BURNING Each wood burning unit manufacturer has a wide variety of pen tip profiles that you can use in your pyrography work. The shape of the tip determines the shape of the small dot pattern that pen will burn. Where a ball-tip pen creates a perfectly round dot, the loop-tip pen makes a small oval burn pattern. Any pen tip can be used for pointillism, so have some fun practicing Western Horses Pattern Pack with each burning pen you have in your kit to determine which pen tip will work best for you. Assorted Horses Pattern Pack 3 PRACTICE BOARD Creating a practice board before you begin your project allows you test you tip points, experiment with your temperature settings, and explore the textures that you can use on any pyrography project. If you are starting a new project work, practice on the same media on which you will burn your design. For this project you would burn your practice board on birch, Simple Realistic Flowers Pattern Pack basswood, or poplar plywood. 4 POINTILLISM The simple shape of the dot is used to create the pointillism style of pyrography. Fine, small dots widely spaced give a light tonal value to the area of work while tightly packed, medium-sized dots take the area into a darker tonal value. The size and tonal value of each individual dot is controlled by the temperature setting of your wood burning unit. A medium temperature settings, between 4 and 5, makes mid-tone, medium-sized dots. Hotter temperature settings between 6 and 7 will give you a dark toned dot slightly wider in size than the mid-tone settings. African Big Cats Package Of all of the art styles available to the pyrographer, pointillism is North American Big Cats Patterns the easiest way to create seamless, graduated shading. White Tail Deer Patterns Giraffe Practice board: Working left to right First square: medium temperature setting, lightly packed Second square: medium temperature setting, graduated packing Third square: medium-hot temperature setting, graduated to white Fourth square: medium-hot temperature setting, solid fill corner 5 1 PREPARING THE WOOD Begin this project by lightly sanding the board surface with 220- or 320-grit sandpaper to remove any wood fibers or ridge lines left from the manufacturing process. Work the sandpaper with the wood grain to avoid adding fine scratches that may show in your burning later. Remove the sanding dust with a lightly damp cloth. Lighthouses & Sailing Ship Patterns Sailing Ship Pattern Pack 2 BROWN PAPER SANDING Brown craft paper or brown bag paper can be used as a fine-grit sanding media and leaves your wood surface with an extremely smooth finish. For this project we are using it as our final sanding media. You can also use heavy brown paper to clean your burning tips without damaging the polish of the tip wire. Crumple a piece of brown paper bag paper. Use the crumbled paper exactly as you did the sandpaper to give your surface an Relief Landscape Patterns extra fine sanding. Remove any dust with a clean area of your damp cloth. Farm Scene Pattern Package 6 3 TRACING THE PATTERN Print two copies of the Postage Stamp pattern with your computer printer - one for reference during the burning steps and one to use for your tracing pattern. Fold one copy of the pattern into quarters, folding once along the vertical center and then a second time along the horizontal center line. Using a #4 to #8 artist’s soft pencil, rub the pencil graph- ite onto the back side of the pattern paper. Completely fill the area with a solid rubbing. With a ruler, lightly pencil mark the center vertical and horizontal lines of your wood surface. Place the pattern onto the wood surface, printed side up. Match the fold lines of the pattern with the pencil guidelines on your wood. Tape the top edge of the pattern paper to the board using masking tape or painter’s low-tack tape. With an ink pen trace the pattern lines. Remove the pa- per pattern. Pencil tracing lines are easily removed after you have completed the wood burning using an artist’s white eraser. Avoid colored erasers that can leave dye streaks on your finished wood burning. 7 PENCIL TRACED PATTERN 8 4 OUTER FRAME BURNING Using a medium-high temperature setting, and your ball-tip or loop-tip pen, begin your project by filling in the the outer frame area of the design with a tightly packed dot pattern. The medium-high temperature will give you dark tonal value dots without haloing or scorching the background area of the work. The top banner, U. S. Parcel Postage, uses this dark, solid pointillism pattern to make the lettering appear as if it were white colored. This technique is called a negative burn, and is where the background of the element is worked in a dark burn Angels & Cherubs Pattern Package and the primary element is left in the unburned lightest tonal value. Christmas Calicos Patterns Christmas Classics Pattern Package 9 OUTER FRAME BURNING 10 5 SHADING THE OUTER FRAME Work the graduated shading in the outer frame using the same temperature setting as in step 4 with a loosely packed dot pattern. The loosely packed dot pattern allows some unburned areas of the wood to show through the burning. This mix of light background and dark dots blends to create a mid-tone value range. The darkest areas of the shading are worked at the outer side of the area or where the area comes into contact with another area Grapes Pattern Pack of the stamp pattern. In the sample, below, you can see the Mixed Fruit Pattern Pack darkest area of the corner triangle is worked along the left - outer - side of the pattern area. Oak & Grape Pattern Pack 11 SHADING THE OUTER FRAME 12 6 SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS Using a medium temperature setting, burn a loosely packed pattern of dots for the Celtic knots that originate from the bird’s head feathers. Visually break your Celtic lines into small units that begin and end where the line tucks under another portion of the knot. Work each section of Celtic line as one complete unit by darkly shading the two outer edges, where the line tucks under another line, in a dark, tightly packed dot pattern. Gradually loosen the packing pattern as you near the center point of the line unit. Allow a thin center slice of the line unit to remain unburned. This will give you a graduation of dark, medium, light, unburned, light, medium, dark in each area of the knot pattern. Use this temperature setting and a medium-packed dot pattern to outline the Celtic knot lines. Western Ranch Pattern Pack Western Town Scene Mantel Patterns Westward Ho! Pattern Pack 13 SHADING THE CELTIC KNOTS 14 7 SHADING THE BIRD’S BODY The bird’s face and the triangular accent in the wings show the darkest area of the burning on the side of each area that is closest to the center point of the pattern. Note in the close-up below that the lower bird mirrors the shading of the upper bird. To create a few extremely dark tonal value areas in this project, tightly pack two layers of dot patterns to the eyes, nostril, and beak opening. Work the dots of second layer of these area to fill any unburned, white areas left from the first layer burning. The solid-packed dot pattern is also used in the wing lines - see photo below. A solid-packed dot pattern is used to outline the front area of the bird’s face, the eye rings, and around the outer edge of the wing. Flying Ducks Pattern Pack Waterfowl Pattern Pack Puddle Ducks Pattern Pack 15 SHADING THE BIRD’S BODY 16 8 SHADING THE TAIL & FEET A medium temperature setting and loosely packed dot pattern is used to create the pale tonal values of the bird’s leg, foot, and the three tail feathers.