Lauren Gray does some fantastic pyrography work. She has a classic style and natural subject matter that somehow still carries a sense of the modern. She’s mastered tonality, and her work has kind of a reflective, moody quality. While her most recent work is with casein paint and pencil, she’s got prints of some of her pyrography pieces available at her etsy store, The Haunted Hollow Tree.
Yesterday I talked about the dearth of pyrographers kicking it up a notch to create a higher art. I found this guy Blair Mclean on YouTube and thought I’d point out his work as an example of the concept that I strive for. He does some incredible straight-line images of architecture and landscapes that kind of put me in mind of art deco and Peter Kuper. Instead of traditional burners, he uses a torch and metal straight edges. This is awesome stuff, check out these videos of his process.
I’ve been quietly slipping into woodburning as a medium, with relatively little fanfare, since it’s largely been an experiment. At this point, I’d say I’ve learned a few good lessons so far. On my latest piece, part of the Creatures of the Arboretarium series, I used all the nibs that came with my single-temperature, cheap little burning pen. Each one has a different effect.
I learned a few little tricks along the way, like keeping the nibs clean from carbon buildup to keep them burning clear and even. Light sandpaper or a razor generally do the trick.
I’ve also started figuring out what each nib can do, and how to use the different burn styles between them to create new effects.
If you’re careful, you can even use a blade to lighten up some areas that may have been over-burned.
And the finished piece. It’s a pangolion. Basically a pangolin (sort of a scaly anteater, also called a living pinecone) and a lion combined.
I’ve returned to the Hybrid series, officially titled “Creatures of the Arbortarium” (that’s an imaginary word, not a mispelling-an asylum for mad trees) for one last time. While, I notice that my art has often had some kind of hybrid creature lurking in the foreground or background, I would like to get away from these plaques in favor of some other ideas that I’ve been itching to explore. One major difference between the current animals and my previous ones is that, rather than just working with pen and ink and watercolor pencil, I’ve begun burning the animals with a rudimentary woodburning pen. Here’s a couple I have so far.
Mousegonfly
Tarsnail
All images © Eric Battaglia 2010
Clumsy
In the beginning, there was no evil, but for a jar that Deity kept locked up in a cupboard, leftover from a previous experiment with another universe. To keep His new project from being tainted, He called upon one of his angels to take the jar out of the studio, far far away. Only his weakest and ugliest runt showed up. Deity sighed, and gave him the jar. “Take care with this, and remove it to a location far away.”
The crooked angel almost made it to the edge of the world, before the jar simply slipped from his hands and shattered on the ground, allowing evil to scatter to the ends of the earth and there flourish. And so, Deity shrugged his shoulders and started on a new project. The poor malformed angel was given the world to do with as he wished.
This is a WIP I started for Illustration Friday. I’ve been wanting to pursue woodburning as an element in my work, hoping to find a balance between the woodburned elements, and those using paint or ink. So far, seems way off balance. I also used my new Dremel for the bird’s outline. Weee fun.
Another woodburning experiment.
Eric Battaglia © 2009
I burned in the outline and then painted it with diluted acrylics. Still just learning, but so far I’m happy with the way this is turning out. A few more of these little things and I might be ready for some of the bigger projects I have in mind.
