Stage and type of shading

Above about stage and type of shading.

There are several stages to, and types of shading. Let’s start with a simple circle.

1. The first type of shading and the best place to start for beginning pyrography is positive/negative shading.
Positive/negative shading is used for branding irons, metal cut outs, scroll saw patterns, etc. You really only utilize one shade, and that is the dark. The shadows are really the only thing you are drawing.

Here is a pyrographed picture of my son that utilizes this type of shading as an example.

2. The next type we will talk about is hatching and cross hatching. Hatching is a technique used in mediums such as ink to give the feel of shadow with lines. Cross hatching uses lines that cross each other. Two of these figures illustrate the point simply, and the third shows that depending on how detailed you get, you can really get a good feel of shadow, and still with only one tone of color.

The snake sketch was an ink drawing done with no lines other than “hatch” marks. The sketch of the rose and lantern was an original sketch in ink used to create the pyrographed piece “Revolution”. It illustrates the use of hatching and cross hatching to shade.

3. The next type of shading is another used in monochromatic mediums such as ink. It is another good method for pyrography because like the other methods, it uses only one tone. Pixilating, also known as “pointillism” or "stippling" is a technique for shading by using many small dots at varying distance to create the feel of shading. This technique is time consuming, but it creates such a unique texture that even when more advanced shading is developed, this method can still be the most effective way to shade textured surfaces such as fur or cloth.

This picture is a wood burn which used pointalizing to shade the trees in the background.

4. The last method of shading, and the most difficult to master with pyrography, is “smooth shading”. It is the most realistic shading effect, and will look the best on smooth surfaces like skin.

The second illustration shows how you can calculate a shadow by drawing lines from the object parallel with the direction of the light to give you an idea of where the shadow would be cast. Another note is that we have eliminated the outline. A picture will always look better when you can eliminate the lines that are unnatural.

The illustration of the cube is to show how the same light source would affect a different shape. The top is the most direct surface to the source of light, the front of the cube is in partial light, and the side is completely shaded. Flat surfaces are usually easier to shade.

Smooth shading is an effect created in pyrography by varying the speed you move the burning tip across the surface to create the different tonal values. Speed (rather than temperature or pressure) is the most effective way to create this effect. Of course lower temperatures will help you get a smoother transition between values, but don’t be cautious or afraid to burn dark, as you will find the lighter values will fade over less time than the darker ones.