Innovative Artist: Art of Pyrography, The: Drawing with fire

by Cherry Ferris

Overview

Learn to burn: illuminate your pyrographic art with mixed media, gilding and natural materials.

Library Journal: This well-structured primer will appeal to artists looking for a new medium, as well as beginning to intermediate–level pyrographers interested in adding new skills and techniques.

Cherry Ferris throws open the world of wood burning with a new art-led approach and shows you how to use different media and materials to set off your pyrographic artwork.

Packed with encouraging, practical and insightful advice on pursuing your own artistic path, this book covers everything you need to draw with fire – whether you are an experienced pyrographer or want to expand your horizons with a new medium. Containing:

• A brief overview and history of the subject
• A tools and equipment section
• An introduction to the basic techniques and information on surfaces that you can safely burn.
• How to transfer designs onto surfaces and incorporate a mixed media approach by looking at shading techniques
• Introducing color into your work
• Playing with backgrounds
• How to protect your finished pieces.
  

Chapters include:

• Color: Incorporating colored pencils (for bright rainbow shades), watercolor (for its luminous transparency) and oils (for their buttery, blendable consistency and jewel-like colors)

• Using resin to finish your work – which results in a beautiful glass-like finish

• Using gold leaf to add a touch of magic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782219385
Publisher:	Search Press
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Series:	Innovative Artist
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	725,025
Product dimensions:	8.69(w) x 11.25(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Cherry is a self taught artist who explores the beauty, detail and complexity of the wonderful world around us, particularly its animals and nature. She likes to use many types of media and is versed in pyrography, pastels, watercolour, coloured pencils and oils. Cherry also loves the heightened detail in botanical illustration and often uses these techniques alongside many others to create her eclectic variety of art forms.
Cherry often uses the art of pyrography within her work to burn or scorch designs onto natural materials and surfaces, such as wood panels and rag paper. Inspired by her fascination with colour, pigment and materials, Cherry is at her happiest when she is able to bring them together to create a piece of art.
Cherry has had her work shown at the Wildwood Gallery on Dartmoor, the Derwent Pencil Museum at Keswick, The Wildlife Art Society International, and the South West Academy Fine and Applied Art Open Exhibition 2019. Her work sells well, and is in private collections both in the UK and overseas. She also runs workshops for beginners to more advanced pyrographers in which people have an opportunity to learn the essential techniques and to experiment with new ones.
Cherry lives in Devon, UK.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
Pyrography uses a heated tool, much like a pen, to scorch or burn images into wood or other surfaces such as cork or leather. Ferris, a trained tattoo artist, takes a mixed-media approach to this type of craft, incorporating watercolor, pencil, pen and ink, and gilding that results in highly embellished, colorful works of art. After an introduction to the two types of pyrography machines available, Ferris discusses her setup, as well as some potential surfaces for the craft. Untreated wood and high-quality paper are the most common, with wood requiring basic preparation prior to beginning a burn. The types of lines that can be made vary based on the surface being used, the speed at which the tool is moved, the pressure placed on the surface, and the tool’s heat and tip. An extensive exploration of pyrography styles, featuring a variety of examples from Ferris’s work with descriptions of the tools and techniques used, makes up the bulk of the book. Projects ranging from small, beginner-friendly pieces to more extensive, large-scale illustrations are included.
VERDICT This well-structured primer will appeal to artists looking for a new medium, as well as beginning to intermediate–level pyrographers interested in adding new skills and techniques.



Henry Malt, Art Book Review
I would add this to my ever-lengthening list of 2022’s innovations, but I’m pretty sure pyrography has been written about before, albeit more as a craft, maybe a curiosity, than as art. This is the first book to cross my desk, anyway. It’s also worthy of note that this appears in Search Press’s The Innovative Artist series, which betokens both a broad coverage and a move of the technique into something more mainstream.

As you might expect, this is not a beginner’s guide, nor should it be. I think we can accept that those exist and that this is as much a showcase for an experienced practitioner as it is a book of instruction. That said, there’s plenty of technical analysis to get your teeth into here. Someone wanting to pursue this as art will find a great deal to occupy and challenge them and the results are simply stunning... This is basic techniques for the more experienced worker who mainly wants to make sure they’re on the right track and learn from a master.

... this is an astonishing book that will open your eyes to work you probably didn’t think possible. The detail and subtlety of shade and colouring that Cherry achieves is remarkable and looks more like painting or drawing. There’s much to learn and this is a book you’re going to want to spend a lot of time with – I’d go so far as to say that, if you price a book by the number of hours spend between its covers, this is definitely well below minimum wage.

Will you ever manage to achieve the same results as Cherry? Well, it wouldn’t be for want of trying, on your part or hers.

From the Publisher

12/16/2022

Pyrography uses a heated tool, much like a pen, to scorch or burn images into wood or other surfaces such as cork or leather. Ferris, a trained tattoo artist, takes a mixed-media approach to this type of craft, incorporating watercolor, pencil, pen and ink, and gilding that results in highly embellished, colorful works of art. After an introduction to the two types of pyrography machines available, Ferris discusses her setup, as well as some potential surfaces for the craft. Untreated wood and high-quality paper are the most common, with wood requiring basic preparation prior to beginning a burn. The types of lines that can be made vary based on the surface being used, the speed at which the tool is moved, the pressure placed on the surface, and the tool's heat and tip. An extensive exploration of pyrography styles, featuring a variety of examples from Ferris's work with descriptions of the tools and techniques used, makes up the bulk of the book. Projects ranging from small, beginner-friendly pieces to more extensive, large-scale illustrations are included. VERDICT This well-structured primer will appeal to artists looking for a new medium, as well as beginning to intermediate—level pyrographers interested in adding new skills and techniques.—Nanette Donohue

Library Journal