WELCOME to my first blog! Nooo it's not scary at all for me to start writing Blogs! Eeek!
So, here you'll be able to see how I create my artwork from start to finish, I'll give you the low down on what I use, the issues I had (there's usually something!) and hopefully I can share some tips along the way too! Luckily I have always taken photo's of my works in progress (or "WIP's") so I am able to put together a series of pictures that will give you an idea of how I go about my process and come to the end result.
1) Firstly, once decided on the design and composition of my drawing - I drew the tiger onto the nice piece of oak I had.
Knowing I want above all else to keep the whiskers white I use a Dremel to create a slight groove so I can in-fill these lines with white coal pencil. This acts as a shield to the heat and keeps the wood from burning underneath it.
- Now I'm ready to start burning in the details. I use a Razertip SS-D10 detail burning set-up (I'll cover this in another blog). Rule of thumb here is not to have the heat too hot. I also have to be very mindful of the direction of the fur....
2) As I work my way around the head, I reach the point where I am ready to bring in the blow torch! But I don't want to lose the definition around the head so I bring back the white coal pencil again and cover everything I don't want scorched.
5) It works pretty well but it still let some heat through in places where I wanted to it keep light, An easy fix for this? Sandpaper. If it was a drawing on paper I would simply rub it out with an eraser. As it's a drawing on wood sandpaper works equally as well but with the added benefit (so I discovered) that you can choose the shade you want to sand it back to. So my disappointment of the coal pencil not working as well as I'd hoped in some places soon disappeared when I realised the advantages it brought!
6) Then it was time to put in the final details of the fur and to make it stand out a little against the background and fight the urge to overwork it! Now time to risk it all and turn it into a clock!
7) With great excitement and a huge amount of anxiety! (I really wish I'd done this part before spending hours doing the arty part first!) I turn it over and take the router to the back of it and create the 2 x 2 inch slot for the clock mechanism to sit in. Fortunately my measurements were correct and I didn't end up with a big hole right through my wood! I then found the center of this and made a small hole just big enough for the mechanism part that the clock hands attach to to peek through and then turned it back over attached the wooden hands and hey presto! I'd make a clock!
8) Ecstatic that I hadn't destroyed days and hours of work with my router - I then removed the clock parts again so I could give the whole thing a couple coats of a clear matt varnish, Once dried I put them back again and it now sits ticking away on my mantle piece!
Hoorah!
WHAT DID I USE?
A piece of live edge oak.
Razertip SS-D10 (10amp Detail Burning System).
Graphite Pencil (to draw design onto wood).
White Coal Pencil.
Dremel.
Sandpaper.
Clock Mechanism & Hands
Clear Matt Varnish.