Bio of a Woodburning--Marilyn, Day 6

Okay, despite what some of y'all's wives have been telling you, this is The Sweet Spot...


It took me a while to find it. (Yeah, I know, just like every other man...) Fleshtones have always been a challenge for me when working with a hot tool. The dynamics of how wood heats and how a hot tool works both conspire against effecting the illusion of flesh. Look at it this way: we're using a tool designed to make distinct marks in the surface of the wood and hoping to achieve an effect that essentially has no such lines, but is represented by smooth, unmarked variations in tone and shade. I have tried and used a variety of techniques over the years, including open flame, to achieve these tones, more often than not with painful results. While I am constantly exploring how to achieve these desired effects without leaving burn marks in my wake, I largely use one very basic technique.

The pencil tip in the sweet spot picture indicates a point along the flat edge of a standard tip. A standard tip is configured like a shallow wedge, with a sharp front edge and point. The area I'm indicating is just inside that sharp front edge and slightly below the point. As I'm right-handed, I work to the right of the front edge. When working the fleshtones, it is generally the only part of that tip I try to let contact the wood surface. In life, this "sweet spot" is smaller than a grain of rice.

Here's the kicker: if the front edge makes contact with the wood, you will have a sharp, dark line (usually a great many of them) precisely where they should never be. If the point hits, you get a dark pinpoint that is every bit as annoying. If I use more than that small area of the flat, I find too much gets burned too quickly and creates a "dark streak" effect.

Even when using a technique that I'm comfortable with, the dynamics of burn tip contacting wood adds one more just for giggles. A tip will cool just perceptively when it hits the wood. Consequently, when "brushing" the shades in, the micro-second when the tip touches wood is often forever preserved as a slightly darker "dot" at either ends of the stroke. To combat this, I try to gently "brush" the stroke, moving quickly and softly at the front end of the stroke (with the idea that the work surface of the tip is moving so quickly, it doesn't have a chance to leave unwanted scoring behind.)

All these unwanted "phantom marks" are precisely why I've always found fleshtones a challenge in a pyrographic medium. That constant challenge is doubtlessly why I keep returning to the attempts.

In effecting fleshtones, it really is a matter of just training your eye to see what it's really seeing; then it's your eye pleading with your hand to translate that. For example, when considering Greene's original image, our eyes want to see the whites of Marilyn's costume. There is, in fact, very little white there. Even at the barest contour of fabric, this is entirely grey-scale.

Further, we know that the mesh of her tutu is composed of white threads. Because of its transparency (& how that transparency is manipulated by the amount of material folded under, e.g. left of her right elbow) what's beneath and behind it translate very well through the fabric. Notice, for example, how the darkness of the tapestry and the thinness of the skirt material make the section around Marilyn's legs appear darker than the sides of the skirt. This actually helped in achieving the desired effect as it gave me a section of greater contrast in which to pull it off.

With these fleshtones, and how they worked with this skirt, most of the problem solved itself, so long as I was able to keep in mind that this is a monochromic image. Grey scale...or in this case, "brown-scale." Flesh is darker than white fabric. Flesh beneath a layer of thin white mesh in lighter than it is just below the hemline. You get the idea.

In reaching this point, it became decision-making time. In the room, Marilyn's chest and left arm at this moment actually appear very lifelike. Her right arm appears a bit dark and "choppy." The fleshtones of that arm, most specifically its areas of heavier shadow, will be softened a bit later. As for left arm and chest, I must stay mindful that the finish I will be using on the finished piece will lighten the surface by as much as a single shade. Further, I've not yet achieved the desired contrast between her flesh and the fabric of her costume. These surfaces will need to be darkened by at least a single shade.

When I began this burn, I'd not intended to save Marilyn's head for last. It just worked out that way. Generally, I prefer to begin with the main event and work my way out from there. But when it comes down to it, it's always good to work the area where you feel led. The closer one gets to the conclusion of the matter, the more narrow those choices get.

I had hoped to lay in all the fleshtones (which would include Marilyn's face) in last night's session. I've always preferred to work fleshtones in one pass. As it happened, what did get accomplished took 7 hours in the getting there...