Portraits Question(s)

[Rightarm]

    Becky. I'm going to try something like this for the first time. what I'm going to do is firefighters in action. We have a firefighter that also is the photographer for our  job. He just gave me a dvd disc of photos that I can print off, & make patterns. I think these will make great projects, that I can donate to special functions that we do to raise money for charities. I have this idea to burn some of the wood to make it more realistic. I'll let you know how these turn out. Dave

[Becky]

Good luck with that, Rightarm!  It sounds like a worthy project for sure.  The woodburning idea sounds good too.

There's lots of good advice in this thread.  I don't know how to make a pattern but it sounds like you do.  I still find most portraits to be quite intimidating but these were fairly simple.  I like to take my learning in small doses (and I did learn a lot from doing these).  Good luck again.  Please be sure to post pics!

[Rightarm]

   I'm going to give it a try. I've been playing around with making my own patterns. So far so good. I have looked everywhere for firefighters in action, and you just can't find them. You can find firetrucks & ambulances, stuff like that. Steve made a really cool pattern of 2 firefighters & a maltise cross that I made mini-clocks out of for a charitable golf outing for collage scholarships. And they where a big hit. I really want to make my own patterns of guys & gals on our job. I think it would mean more if the person that I did the project for , recognized theirselves, in I guess you would call it a marquetry style project. Well I guess I'll find out. Good luck on your project. Dave

[julief]

Try using a bernzamatic to singe the edges of your cuttings.  It works very well and adds a whole other dimension to your work.  I've used it on fretwork and crosses.  People seem to like it.

[Russ C]

I have been combining Pyrography with Scrolling for a few years now. It actually works well and looks great. If you need any help let me know. 

[Rightarm]

    What I have is the large hand held propane torch. I think I'll buy a smaller pencil type torch. Man, I hope I don't burn the garage down. I'd never hear the end of it! Dave

[Marcellarius]

hi rightarm,

I saw an article once that did woodburning with laying hot sand on the wood.
never did it myself.

I bought a small branding kit this vacation, but haven't used it jet.