In this blog I will talk about the Bengal Tiger artwork that I did.  This blog is not what I would consider a tutorial blog.  I will discuss a few things in the blog, but mostly this blog is an easy way for me to share the pattern and reference photo for the artwork.   A video tutorial is available on YouTube, and this blog will have a link to that tutorial.

At the end of each burning session, I take a photo of the artwork.  I got in the habit of doing this because I used to maintain a current projects page that showcased my progress on assorted artworks.  The page became a bit cumbersome to maintain, so I removed it.  I’m still in the habit of taking progress photos, and some of you may appreciate that as I will share a number of those photos in this blog.   

Before we get going, I want to point out that pen tip and nib are the same thing.

Click on the image to the left to view the tutorial on YouTube, or click on this link:  https://youtu.be/l8eOOFFr2aY

This is the reference photo I used.  I got the photo from Pixabay.  Obviously, I’m only using a small portion of the image.  

Here’s a link to the original photo on Pixabay:  https://pixabay.com/photos/tiger-siberian-amurtiger-predator-5205812/

Here’s the cropped the image I used.   

To me most of the original image wasn’t that interesting.  Instead, I just liked the face and how the tiger was staring straight ahead. It like the tiger is looking right at me.

The cropped image is what I made a pattern of.   

Here’s the pdf file of the pattern: Tiger pattern

Here’s a close up of the artwork after I traced the pattern onto the board.  I’ve started to burn in some of the trace lines. 

What I want to point out is that I traced a number of areas as solid continuous lines, but I don’t burn them that way.   

Any time I burning in fur, I always burn short little dashes that are angled in the direction the fur grows.   These little dashes will eventually disappear because they will get blended in with the fur texture.

Here’s the artwork after the trace lines have been burned in, and the excess graphite erased. 

Notice how pale my burned trace lines are.   I burn them so that they are dark enough to see, but light enough to blend in. 

Or to put it another way, all of the lines are burned to a pale color regardless of whether they represent white, black, or orange fur.   

Burning the trace lines to a pale color is extremely important with the white fur.  This will keep the fur looking nature versus a coloring book style.

After the trace lines were done, then I started on the dark stripes. 

I either burned single lines or used a zigzag burn stroke to create the markings. 

There isn’t an advantage to using on method over another.  Instead I think it is more of a personal preference.  For me burning single lines is extremely monotonous. 

It is important to use a light hand pressure when burning; regardless of which method you use.   A light hand pressure keeps the pen tip from sinking into the wood, and it helps keep the tip at a constant temperature. 

This image shows two clusters of burn marks.  The one on the left was made using a heavy hand pressure.  The one on the right used a light hand pressure.    Notice how deep the lines are on the heavy hand pressure side (left).   Re-burning becomes a major problem with the left side because the nib wants to follow in the tracks of the previous burn marks.  This just deepens the previous burn marks. 

I do have a video that goes into greater detail on the impacts of hand pressure on burning.  The video has a test you can do to check your hand pressure. 

To watch click on the video thumbnail to the left, or click on this link:  https://youtu.be/q8OGqS5kyHg

I recently created a video that goes into great detail on the zigzag burn stroke I use.  If you’re not that familiar with this burn stroke, then the video might be beneficial. 

Just click on the image to watch the video on YouTube, or click on this link:  https://youtu.be/yaYSqp1Ebyo

I also have another video that shows how I create and modify the zigzag burn stroke to create short fur texture. 

To watch just click on the video thumbnail or click on this link:  https://youtu.be/KYxpEhYopIM

I have blocked in almost all of the dark markings, but I did not burn all of the markings to a super dark color. 

There are two reasons for this.  1) I prefer to work at lower heats and reburn to build up the color. 

2) I wasn’t 100% how dark I wanted some of the markings.  Let me explain reason 2 a bit more.

One way to help push things into the background is to use low contrast.  I plan to use this concept on the body.  This means that if the orange fur and black markings are within a few shades of each other, this will create a low contrast area.  That will push the body into the background and help bring emphasis to the face.  The face is the focal point. 

Some of the dark markings have been re-burned over, and I have started burning in the orange fur. 

There are two very important things you must do when creating fur texture. 

1) Burn the fur in the direction it is growing. 

2) Adjust the length of your burn stroke accordingly.  On the snout I used very short burn strokes.  The facial fur gets gradually longer as you get near the mane.  To replicate this, I gradually increased the length of the burn strokes the closer to the mane I got.

The orange fur requires a lot of reburning to build up the color, depth, and shadows. 

The darker areas you see on the orange fur were all created by re-burning. 

I do not increase the heat setting on my burner. 

I often get asked what temperature I burn at.  I quit sharing that information because people felt there must be something wrong with their burner if they didn’t get the same results.   

There are a lot of factors that go into the heat setting you should be burning at.  For example, what type of wood are you burning on?  Hardwoods require a higher heat than soft woods. 

What size of pen tip are you using?   Most of the time larger tips require a higher heat setting than smaller ones.   

Also, how many burn hours does your pen tip have?   A brand new tip will require a higher heat than the same tip that has been used a lot. 

In this photo I want to point out the whiskers.   Notice the color of the whiskers on the left side of the face; they are black.    The reference photo shows white whiskers. 

It is really difficult to avoid burning over the whiskers; especially when there are this many.  

I could embossing or engraving the whiskers, but in this situation that isn’t a great option.  The reason is that the direction of the whiskers and fur are the same in a number of places.   That means the nib can easily drop down into the groove and darken it up.

What I’ve found works best is to burn the whiskers a dark color to mark their location.  Once the burning is done I will scrape the dark color away to reveal white whiskers.

You may have noticed that I only burned the whiskers on the left side of the face.  That’s because I was working on the left side of the face, and got tired of trying to avoid the whiskers.

The board I’m burning on is a cradled piece of birch plywood. I positioned the artwork on the diagonal and put a one-inch (2.54 cm) border around the edges.   Todd took a piece of scrap plywood and cut a ‘V’ shape into it, so that I could rest the board on it. 

If you look at the edges where the dark border will be, you can see a number of blotches and other burn marks.  Since the border will get burned to a very dark color, I use the edges to blot the pen tip. 

Blotting the pen tip removes any excess heat ensuring I don’t end up with unwanted dark blobs or other dark mishaps. 

I also use the border to test heat levels.  This is especially important if I switch pen tips or work on different projects between burn sessions on this one.

The orange fur is looking really good.  I’ve reburned over it a number of times to build up the color and tonal depth.   

I really like the contrast it provides for the left side of the mane. 

There needs to be something done to the background on the right side so that the mane can be seen on that side.

Backgrounds are not my strong point.  I always struggle with them and seldom like how they turn out.  

With this artwork, I started out trying to mimic the reference photo. 

That didn’t look good because it was too busy looking.   I felt that it was distracting.

Since the tiger has so many stripes and markings, it might make the tiger disappear into the background. 

I have a guideline I try to follow.  If the subject is busy, then the background should be free of texture.  If the subject is a solid color, then the background can have some texture.  Is this guideline set in stone?  No.  Each artwork needs to be evaluated to determine what would work best.   

I re-burned over the background, and tried to make it more uniform in color.  This created a new problem.  I felt the background color was too similar in tonal value to the orange fur.    

In this photo I’ve lightened up the background by using an ink pen eraser (also called a sand eraser) to remove some of the color.

Afterwards, I added subtle crack lines here and there.   This looks better to me.

Be aware that you do not have to do the same thing I did.  I do highly encourage you to add some sort of background to your artwork, so the white fur around the edges of the face will stand out. 

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on the background, then dark the background adjacent mane.  You can let the color quickly fade away.

Notice the how the darkened background really improves the visibility of the white mane.   

Even though I have burned in most of the border frame, I leave a small areas unburned so I can blot and test the pen tip heat on. 

Another option is to have a piece of scrap wood nearby.  This works great for blotting to remove excess heat, but it might not work for heat testing.    To get good heat test results, the scrap wood needs to be the same type as you’re burning on.   

This is a close up of the whiskers. 

The upper blue arrow is pointing to an experiment.  I used an X-acto knife to cut a thin line along the whiskers.  I thought that this would help me see them and make it easier to enlarge them later on.   Unfortunately, my experiment didn’t work that well for either.

The yellowish arrow is pointing to a whisker I enlarged.  This was done by gently scraping along a whisker line with the tip of a sharp knife.   

If you have a rotary tool, like a Dremel, you can use that instead of sharp knife.

At this point the tiger is mostly done.  The main thing I still need to work on are the whiskers.

Since my X-acto knife experiment didn’t work, I burned all of the whiskers to a dark color.   This makes them very easy to see.  

Afterwards, I started gently scraping over the burn marks to remove the color.   

Another benefit of burning the whiskers to a dark color, is that the writer pen tip creates a shallow groove.   This groove helps guide the tip of the knife when scraping.

There are a lot of whiskers on this tiger, and it takes time to get them done.

I estimate that each whisker took between 10-15 minutes of scraping.  

I cannot emphasize enough the need to use gentle pressure when scraping; especially if you’re working with plywood like I am. 

The reason is that small pieces of the plywood tend to chip off when working in areas where the whiskers cross.  I’ve circled a couple of areas where this happened on my artwork.   

I’m not sure if using a Dremel would prevent this.

The very last thing I did was paint the sides of my board. 

This gives the artwork a more finished look. 

I don’t burn them because it takes too long, and I lack the desire to waste the time it would take.   

Here’s a close up of the face.  

IN CONCLUSION

That is it for this blog.  While the blog wasn’t a true tutorial, I found the limited information helpful.  I hope you try the artwork, and, more importantly, I hope you have fun burning.

Brenda

December 15, 2024

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