Creating Tonal Values

Wild Rose Corner demonstrates that a wide range of values can be created just by learning to control how much time you use to make an individual burned stroke.

Use three distinct techniques to create light and dark areas

Before you start your first full project, it’s helpful to get a feel for your woodburning tool and to practice creating light and dark areas as well as various textures.

You can practice these patterns on scraps of wood. If you prefer to keep all of your exercises in one place, create a practice board by using a pencil and ruler to divide a large board into numerous spaces.

Transfer the individual practice patterns to your blank using graphite paper or your method of choice.

Unless otherwise noted, these practice projects were worked using a variable-temperature tool with a writing tip on birch plywood. If you are working with a one-temperature tool, use the universal tip. Heat settings are given for each project.