In this tutorial I’m going to explain how to create a moonlit tree scene. This is a beginner friendly project that is fun to do. You only need a writer pen tip, a shader, a skew tip, and some embossing tools. Embossing tools are also called tracing styluses. The embossing tools are the key to creating the moonlit tree and the stars.
Since this is a beginner friendly project, I will do my best to cover every step involved. Depending on your experience level, you may not need the information presented in some of the steps. If that is the case, just skip that step.
Before we get going, I do want to mention that this was an experimental project for me. This means that I didn’t plan things out too much. Once I was almost done with my artwork, I discovered that it needed more. It was at that point I added the deer. Despite this, I doubt you’ll have any problems following along.
Click on the image to the left to watch a YouTube video version of the tutorial.
Now, let’s get started.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
- Writing tip
- Shading tip
- Skew tip
- 6 x 7 inch (15.2 x 17.8 cm) piece of wood
- Embossing tools or metal tracing stylus (same thing)
- Pattern Moonlit Tree pattern
Amazon Affiliate links to products I used. This tutorial will explain when I used the various products.
Embossing tools: https://amzn.to/3uAC7o3
X-acto knife: https://amzn.to/3bC1WgD
Metal Ruler: https://amzn.to/48cJgNz
Vanish Eraser: https://amzn.to/3Adt3J4
Kneadable Eraser: https://amzn.to/39Z64qM
Culiau engraver*: https://amzn.to/45GUEOY
*This is not a necessary item.
STEP 1 – PREP THE WOOD
Wood burning is much easier if you take the time to prepare the wood surface. Always smooth the wood surface by sanding it with at least 220 grit sandpaper.
Then thoroughly wet the board by misting it with water or running it quickly under the sink faucet.
The board should be damp to the touch, but not soaking wet.
Let the board dry and then sand again.
This piece of plywood board is broken up into three sections. The far-left section is how the board looks without any prep work. The board has a rough texture. The middle section of the board shows how it looks after it was sanded, and the surface is a lot smoother. The right section of the board shows it after it was lightly misted with water and allowed to dry. Notice how rough the board looks, but a quick sanding will remove that and leave an ultra-smooth board.
Doing the 4-step process (sand, mist, dry, sand) produces a super smooth surface, and the smoother the surface is the better the burn results will be.
STEP 2 – TRANSFER
Feel free to draw your own moonlit scene. As you can see, mine is not that detailed.
I always start with a concept sketch to work out the general placement and size of the objects.
Then I coat the back of the drawing with graphite, and secure the drawing to the board graphite side down. Afterwards, I trace over the pattern lines. I don’t use carbon paper because I haven’t found a brand I liked. They are either too light and hard to see. Or they produce really dark lines that I have difficulties removing from the board. For me the graphite is a better solution.
I drew a line 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) from the edge of the board because I plan to have a dark border frame on my artwork. I wanted the moon to overlap onto the border, so I’m cutting away the corner edge on the pattern. This will make it easier to align the pattern on my board.
With the corner on the pattern cut around, I can align that corner with the pencil lines my board.
Here’s how things look so far.
STEP 3 – EMBOSS
For this next step I’m using an embossing tool. I compare them looking for one with a small tip. A link to a set found on Amazon is near the top of this blog.
Once the tool is selected, then I rub over the pencil lines using a good amount of force.
Only emboss over the small branches.
Emboss along the outer edges of larger or thicker branches, and do the same with the tree trunk.
The purpose is to create deeply embossed lines that will appear white or pale in color once they are burned over.
Be aware that embossing is much easier to do with softer woods, like basswood, instead of hard woods like maple. I’m using basswood for this project.
If you have a Dremel or another rotary tool, you can use that instead. I do like Culiau’s Customizer Engraver for this type of work. The reason is that the engraver is small, very light weight, and easy to control.
Culiau (ald). I did a product review on this engraver. Here’s a link to that blog:
Here’s how the artwork looks at this point. Note that I did not emboss along the edge of the owl. If you want to emboss around the owl, please so do. It would probably look great if you do.
STEP 4 – BORDER PREP & TRACE LINES
I already mentioned that I drew a line 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) from the edge of the board. You can make your border wider, thinner, or leave it out completely.
I have aligned a metal ruler along the pencil line. Then I used a X-acto knife and cut along that line creating a thin groove line.
Next, use a writer pen tip of your choice and burn over the trace lines. If you embossed around the edges of the owl, then do not burn around the edges of the owl.
I’ve found that burning circles is easier to do if you burn 1/4 of it at a time.
This means you burn 1/4 of the circle, rotate the board, burn the next 1/4, rotate the board, etc.
Make sure to burn over the deer trace lines.
Since I added the deer after the artwork was mostly done, I actually had problems seeing the trace lines. That’s why the pattern is close by.
After the trace lines are burned in, then rub over the area with a pencil eraser.
I’m using the Vanish brand of eraser. I like this eraser because it is a touch rougher than a standard pencil eraser, but not as rough as an ink or sand eraser. The roughness helps remove stubborn pencil marks without abrading the wood like sand erasers do.
I used a kneadable eraser for the graphite that is deeply embedded in some of the embossed lines.
I pressed the eraser down into the lines, and lifted it up. Afterwards, I knead the eraser and repeat in another area that has a lot of graphite imbedded in the embossed lines.
For some reason this always reminds me of silly putty I played with as a kid. I’m not even sure they make that stuff anymore, but it’s a sign of how old I am. 😊
STEP 5 – BORDER FRAME
Use a skew pen tip and burn over the cut or grooved line made with the X-acto knife.
Always start at the top and pull the pen tip down towards the bottom.
Use a light hand pressure and allow the edge of the skew to follow the cut groove line!
Make sure to rotate the board as needed so that you are always pulling the pen tip down towards yourself.
I will warn you that cutting with the wood grain is much easier than cutting across it. I’m currently cutting across the grain, and the skew tip tends to bounce a bit. I usually re-burn over the line 2-3 times to make it the same darkness level as lines burned with the grain.
Switch to the shader of your choice and burn the border to a dark color. I like to burn a wide line adjacent to the cut groove. I try to angle the pen tip so that the edge follows along the cut line.
After a wide line has been burned, then place the flat of the shader on the wide line and pull the pen tip downward. Depending what heat setting you have your burner on, it may take a couple of passes before the color is dark.
Burn over any tree branches that overlap onto the border. Make sure to use the flat of the shader as this will help the pen tip glide over embossed lines versus sinking down into them.
You will probably lose some detail on the branches. To restore them, just rub back over them with an embossing tool. This works when the color is on the lighter side. If you’re burning at a high heat and the color is really dark, then this probably won’t work as well. I do have a section on restoring branches, and I’ll provide more information in that section.
Once the branches are restored, then resume burning in the border.
If you choose to burn at a higher heat, I do recommend avoiding the branches if at all possible.
That’s what I started doing as it was taking forever to get the border done at the low heat I was burning at.
Here’s how the artwork looks at this point.
STEP 6 – BACKGROUND TREES
I didn’t transfer the trees from the pattern, so now I’m drawing lines on the board that represent where I want trees to be.
Use the shader of your choice and burn a thick dark line over the pencil line.
This is now the tree trunk.
Next, start at the top of the line and burn short lines that angle downward and have a slight curve on them. These are the tree branches.
As you work your way down the tree trunk, the tree branches should get longer in length.
Don’t worry about burning over adjacent trees.
These are distant trees that are very dark in color. The tops of the trees are the only thing people will notice.
Burn over the moonlit tree branches as you work on the background trees.
There is a good chance that some of the moonlit branches will get destroyed. Don’t worry, there are ways to restore them, and I will cover that in the next section.
I do recommend that you avoid burning over the owl, the thicker tree branches, and the tree trunk.
Also, rotate the board as needed to make it easier when burning around objects. To ensure the edges stay crisp and clean, position your shader so that the body of the shader is angled away from the edge.
Look my shader in this the photo. The front edge of the shader is on the edge adjacent to the tree trunk. The body of the shader is angled over the background trees. This is optional position and it will ensure that the tree trunk doesn’t get accidently burned over.
The background trees do not need texture; they just need to be dark.
For that reason, in areas with lots of thick branches I use circular motion or uniform strokes as my burn method. I don’t try to burn the short curving lines that the majority of the trees have.
As you can see, I lost a number of the tiny branches on my tree.
STEP 7 – RESTORING BRANCHES
To restore the tiny branches, I used the edge of a sharp X-acto knife to gently scrape them back into existence.
I don’t try to remove all of the color from every branch because I think the variety adds a touch of realism to the scene.
If you have a Dremel or an engraver, you can use that instead of the X-act knife. A Dremel is quicker, but I don’t think it can create as fine of lines as the knife can.
I tend to work in small sections at a time. I restore the tiny branches in an area, and then, if needed, I reburn over the background trees to darken them up a bit. Afterwards, I move onto a different area.
That said, keep in mind that you do not have to do things the same way. Restore all of the little branches, and then do any reburning that is needed.
STEP 8 – DEER and THEIR SHADOWS
As I said before, I didn’t add the deer until the artwork was just about completed. That’s why you see me burning the outlines now. In your artwork, the outline of the deer should already be in place.
Also, please ignore the ground and tree shadows. Those should not be done in your artwork.
User a writer pen tip and burn the deer to a dark color. The color does not need to be uniform. The deer are small, so no one is going to look that closely at them.
I am using a circular motion burn stroke as I burn in the deer. I did switch to a standard sized writer pen tip because the larger size made burning in the deer faster.
Here are how my deer look. The color is not uniform. Some of the deer have odd shaped faces, but that doesn’t matter because they still give the impression of deer.
Next, add a cast shadow to the deer.
I am using a loose circular motion burn stroke to create the shadow. This means you can see the underlying wood in the center of the circular loops. I allow the pen tip to meander as I create the shadows. Sometimes I burn over previously burned spots. This creates irregular color and texture. If you prefer a more uniform color, then please do so.
The moon is in the upper right corner, so the shadow should angle down towards the lower left corner. How much of an angle you give your cast shadows is up to you. The only important thing is that the angle matches on all of the deer.
Here is how my deer and their shadows look. If you look closely at the shadows, you can see that they are not exact replicas of the deer. For this artwork, it is good enough. That said, customize your artwork to your preferences. If you want shadows that better represent the shape of the deer, then create them.
STEP 9 – TREE SHADOWS and GROUND
Burn a thick line that starts at the base of a tree and angles down towards the left of the board.
Make sure the angle matches the same angle of the cast shadows on the deer. Also, stop burning the minute you encounter a deer.
The rotate the board.
Start at the top of a tree trunk, and burn slightly curved lines that angle downward. This is the same process we used to create the background trees.
As you can see, my tree shadows are very dark. I recommend burning them to a much lighter color!
Originally my cast shadows were as dark as the background trees. I didn’t look right.
To fit this, I used a piece of 220 grit sand paper and sanded away a lot of the color.
Burn the ground to a color that is much lighter than the cast shadows of the deer or trees. Currently, I’m using the flat of the shader to burn zigzags. This creates an irregular texture that I thought vaguely looked like grass.
I realized creating grass texture was silly, because we wouldn’t see the texture in real life. That’s because the grass is too far away and its nighttime. Once I realized this, I changed my burn stroke to uniform strokes. I didn’t try really hard to make the ground perfectly uniform in color.
I do recommend making the background grass slightly darker in color than the grass on the hill the moonlit tree is growing on. This will help create the illusion of depth in the artwork.
STEP 10 – SKY
Begin by creating deep divots in the sky using an embossing tool.
Vary the placement and size of the divots.
I used several different sized tools for this because I thought it would help the realism.
Here’s how my board looks. These divots will become distant stars.
Next, use the shader of your choice and burn over the sky.
The color should get gradually darker the further from the moon you get.
I’m using either circular motion or uniform strokes as my burn method.
I only mention this to help explain how I created the artwork. That does not mean you have to do the exact same thing. If there is a burn stroke you like to use, then please use it.
It is easier to smoother looking burn results if you burn with the wood grain.
My board has horizontal grain, so I rotated it to allow me to burn with the grain.
Additional tips: Use a light hand pressure. This allows the pen tip to glide over the board surface and remain at a constant temperature.
Don’t burn at a high heat. The higher the heat is, the harder it is to create lighter colored results. Near the moon we want a lighter color.
Slightly overlap your burn strokes. This will help hide individual burn strokes.
Reburn to slowly build up the color. Reburning makes it easier to control how dark the area is.
Pull the pen tip down towards yourself. Burning in this direction makes it much easier to maintain a consistent hand pressure and speed.
I’m using an X-acto knife to gently scrape away my dark line I burned around the moon. The line was too noticeable and made my moon look like it was in a coloring book.
When you get to the moonlit tree, use the flat of the shader and burn over it. Avoid the larger branches and tree trunk.
Using the flat of the shader helps ensure that the pen tip glides over the embossed lines versus sinking down into them.
I’m using uniform strokes as I burn wide bands of color. It takes me 3-4 times of reburning over an area to get it as dark as I want.
I did mention that I used a variety of shaders.
This particular shader is much smaller than the one I used in the previous photo. The previous shader was too large and I kept burning over the thicker branches.
It does take a bit of time to create smooth gradient color. It also takes a fair amount of reburning to slowly build up the color.
One of the major reasons I didn’t burn at a higher heat was because I’d lose more of the tiny branches. I’d prefer to take longer burning, than spend lots of time restoring tiny branches.
STEP 11 – MOON
Use a writer pen tip and burn a loose circular motion over the moon surface. Circular motion means that you are burning loops or chains of circles. Loose circular motion means that you can see the underlying wood in the center of the loops.
Allow the pen tip to meander around. This will create a random texture and help prevent lines from forming.
Add a few dark patches here and there by reburning in small areas. Use the same loose circular motion for this.
Next, apply a layer of tiny dots over the moon surface.
Vary the size, location, and color of the dots. This is controlled by how long you hold the pen tip in place. The longer you hold the pen tip to the board, the larger and darker the dots will be.
Here’s how my moon looks.
STEP 12 – MOONLIT TREE and OWL
Use the shader of your choice and lightly burn over the thicker branches on the moonlit tree.
It is not necessary to make the color uniform, but you can if you so desire.
I did darken small section of the branch that owl is perched on. This was to give the impression of a cast shadow.
If desired, you can change the shape of your tree. I had finally noticed how odd and top heavy my tree trunk was.
I do recommend burning the center of the tree darker than the edges. This will help with the moonlit effect. Also, I burned the left side a touch darker than the right since the left side was further from the moon.
I had to restore some branches on my moonlit tree. This was done by using a knife to gently scrape away color.
Again, if you have Dremel or other rotary tool, you can use that instead.
The last thing I did with the tree is use a writer pen tip to burn the sky darker around some of the small branches. I also make some of the branches a touch thinner.
Use a writer pen tip and burn the owl to a tan color. For some reason I added little dots to represent the eyes. This is completely unnecessary as you wouldn’t be able to see that much detail.
Also, I made the left side of the owl slightly darker than the right.
IN CONCLUSION
I hope you found this tutorial fun and easy to follow along with. I enjoyed creating the artwork because I wasn’t trying to replicate a photo. This allowed me to feel free to experiment. I hope that if you try creating this artwork you will feel comfortable to experiment around.
Until the next blog,
Brenda
October 2024
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