Woodburning techniques

PA
Posted By
Patti_Anderson
Dec 5, 2003
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918
Replies
7
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Can anyone share a technique or point me to a good tutorial on how to get a great woodburning effect? I’ve tried several things, but either they turn out too black or they are not enough black enough…and I can’t seem to achieve that reddish-singed-wood look that you see on woodburned plaques.

I’ve got lots of wood now, via Al Ward’s Special Effects book CD and Adobe’s Studio Exchange, now I want to burn some text!

TIA
:)Patti
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PA
Patti_Anderson
Dec 6, 2003
Nobody game on this topic? Jodi? Bob Warren?

Here’s an example of some exceptional woodburned art:

< http://www.carvingpatterns.com/projects/images/burnspirit.jp g>

I am looking more for the right combination for this black-rusty-burnt look for text as well as the look of the art itself.

Patti
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Dec 6, 2003
Hi, Patty, no real suggestions, but the official name for that sort of woodburning is ‘pokerwork’, so you might try googling that.
JF
Jodi_Frye
Dec 6, 2003
Patti, from what I can see it’s your basic artistic line drawing. If you look carefully you will see that the reddish is actually the color of the vein in the woodgrain. He accentuated this color in certain areas. Probably a cherry wood.
PA
Patti_Anderson
Dec 6, 2003
I have never ever heard it called pokerwork, Barbara, but I’ll give it a google. 🙂 I used to do it in 4-H and we used a small woodburning tool that looks sort of like a sodering iron. Fancy woodburning tools have interchangeable tips. It’s like etching, only you are burning with different types of strokes, not carving.

Accomplishing the effect in Elements is challenging. I can get the "sketch" but I was hoping someone had tried this before and could offer a process of sorts.

I’ll keep playing with it and see what I can come up with. I learn a lot by playing! Meanwhile…if anyone has some more ideas on this, let me know.

Patti
BE
Bob_E._Warren
Dec 6, 2003
Patti –
Not the expert here, but here’s the way I’ve made what looks like woodburning to me:
1. Reduce what you want to burn into the wood to a black and white line drawing (there are a couple of ways to do this — see Lynch’s recent note on it on the forum).
2. Make a layer full of wood grain immediately below your line drawing.
3. Go to the line drawing layer and add an emboss layer style. Double click on the style icon on the layer to adjust direction and amount.
4. If needed add a levels layer associated with the line drawing to fine tune the effect.

Now the link you posted looks more like marquettery to me, but that could just be my interpretation. To do that, I would try using color layers applied to various sections of the line drawing.

Bob Warren
JF
Jodi_Frye
Dec 6, 2003
Patti, on a new layer above your wood try using the small paintbrush in ‘overlay’ mode with black. Be sure the new layer in palette is also set to ‘overlay’ blend mode. Creating seperate layers where you could lower the opacity in some areas of brush strokes may work out well for you. I’m sure you’ll get it 😉

edit; Hi Bob, ya weren’t there a minute ago 😉
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Dec 7, 2003
Fancy woodburning tools have interchangeable tips. It’s like etching, only you are burning with different types of strokes, not carving.

Yes, that’s why it’s pokerwork. Originally it was done with the tip of a red-hot poker. It’s still very common for artists who are planning to paint on wood to use it to sketch their design with a fine point so that the paint will be corralled, besides doing entire designs that way like the one in your link.

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