The Nature of Pyrography

To transfer your photos to the wood that you have selected, you must make sure that it is the right size. It's easy to use a copy machine or scanner to either make it bigger or smaller. At the same time copy it in black and white so it will be easier to work with and you can use the black and white gradients to determine the light and darker areas while you are woodburning your design.

Next use a sheet of graphite paper (placed between your photo and wood) and trace the outline of your design and details of the important areas such as eyes, nose, mouth and direction of the fur. If your subject isn't posed exactly the way you wanted it, now is the time to change it (tilt the head, raise the arm, etc,).

If you want to reuse the pattern many times, Trace the reproduced picture onto tracing film (durable, see through plastic) by simply placing the film over the picture and tracing the outline and important details (as described and pictured above).