Bio of a Woodburning--Marilyn, Days 4 & 5

After a shorter session last night and a longer one this past evening, I don't quite know what to make of how progress seems to be going. As with most large-scale burnings, I find myself growing impatient over how long a piece seems to be taking. All things considered, work on this piece seems to be progressing decently enough. Another session, two at the most, and Marilyn will be ready for framing.

Provided I don't completely muck this up.

Last night I opted to lay in the carpet, essentially cutting Marilyn's figure completely from the background. I have found when depicting large "fields" like this carpet, the human eye will invariably pick up on patterns that we often make when covering an area with very repetitive strokes. I feel they tend to make an image look more artificial. To combat this problem, when laying in a textured surface like this carpet, I tend to move the burner fairly rapidly and in very random orbits. As with most actions with a burner, this is also a very repetitive motion. Once burned, it simply refuses to appear so. Further, especially when working a larger area, I like to work multiple points and slowly "blossom" these points until they converge. In this manner, I avoid making the piece look more mechanical than it already is.

At this stage of things, the end of the fourth night I've spent with this piece, Marilyn has been cut from her background and I have burned what amounts to a "base coat" for the carpet After the portraiture itself is done, I'll return to the carpet for extra shading, final touch-ups and laying in these refreshingly straight-forward shadows.

At this point, most of all that's left holds no margin for error.

I have felt compelled to attempt this piece for awhile, owing mostly to two distinct challenges it presents. First is the portraiture itself. Fleshtones are particularly tricky with a woodburner and when one is dealing with an image as well-recognized as Miss Monroe, the portrait has to be spot-on. Since we're dealing with a medium that can't realistically be erased or painted under, you only get one chance to get it right.

The second of these "challenges" has long struck me as being the trickier of the two: Marilyn's skirt. The tutu is multiple layers of translucent fabric. In addition to its own layering, Marilyn's legs and portions of her wicker chair transfer through the fabric. How one does that without making the skirt appear too solid (and ruining its effect) is a bit of a mystery. I've never actually done it before.

A good deal of the fifth night was spent with the burner unplugged and me brainstorming how to pull this off. What I came up with was to mark some of the general (and multiple) lines of the skirt very lightly with pencil. Unlike the lines I make when I'm pre-sketching the highlights, I've no intention of actually burning these pencil lines. Their only existence is to help me keep track of the direction in which I'm working.

Working the surface with this "plan," it's essential to erase the lines as you go. The burn in this area is so lightly shaded that the lines will show, unless they're eliminated before the burner tip reaches them. Once a pencil-line had been hit with a burner, it's nigh-on impossible to erase. You'll notice in the upper left of the frame below, part of a terrycloth rag. It is essential that you wipe the surface clean of any particles, such as even the tiniest eraser crumbs. When a burner hits an eraser crumb (or any other small particle), it will scorch it into the surface and mar your burning.

Once plugged in, the skirt ended up going fairly smoothly. I found using quick, smooth, and very light strokes worked best. At the end of this fifth night, I've opted to revisit the skirt (where it crosses over Marilyn's legs) until I lay in the fleshtones. There is only a narrow contrast between the shades of this skirt and the shades of Marilyn's flesh. In order to effect that balance, I'd as soon do them at the same time.

...which I suppose would be tonight...