Wood burning a Mandala Dragonfly pyrography tutorial

In this blog I will talk about Mandala Dragonfly artwork that I did.  This blog is not what I would consider a tutorial blog.  I will discuss a few things in the blog, but mostly it is an easy way for me to share the pattern and the products I used.  

A video tutorial is available on YouTube.  The video tutorial covers a lot of information not in this blog.  This blog does have some information not covered in the video.

To watch just Click on the image to the left.

Here’s the pattern for the design. 

Here’s a link to the original design I found on the internet: https://30seconds.com/mom/tip/18930/Mandala-Coloring-Pages-Free-Printable-Coloring-Pages-of-Mandalas-for-Adults-Kids

There are several other designs to choose from, so you might have to scroll down a little way to find the dragonfly.

While I found the pattern on 30 Seconds’ website, I know nothing about the 30 Seconds.  I copy / pasted the design onto my computer versus using their print button.  Yes, I’m that untrusting with unknown sites.  I really want my computer to stay virus free.  🙂

There are 4 pen tips I used for this project: shader, writer, ball, and skew.  If you don’t have a ball or skew, a writer can be used instead.

SUPPLY LIST:

8 x 8 inch (20.3 x 20.3 cm) piece of wood

I used a cheap wooden craft box that I most likely got at Michaels.

Here’s a link to one that is very similar:  https://www.michaels.com/product/85-wood-flat-box-by-make-market-10357774

The most important thing is that the top of the box is not made out of pine!  Pine is not fun to burn on.  It doesn’t burn evenly and tends to ooze sap.  At least that has been my experiences with pine.

This particular craft box has a top made out of some sort of pale plywood.  That will provide a much better burning experience than pine.  

I will explain why and how I use the below list of supplies in the blog. 

The below links are Amazon affiliate links.  This means that I get a minuscule amount of the selling fee Amazon charges the merchant.  The price to you doesn’t change.

Culiau customizer engraver – https://amzn.to/45GUEOY

Any sort of rotary tool, like a Dremel, will work.  I personally prefer the engraver because of it’s small portable size.  I do provide an option if you don’t own a rotary tool.  The alternative will be discussed in the blog.

I did a product review for the engraver.  Here’s a link:  Culiau customizer engrave product review

Embossing Tools – https://amzn.to/3uAC7o3 

Xacto knife – https://amzn.to/3bC1WgD 

Speedwell dip pen – https://amzn.to/3W0W5pF

Technical ink pen – https://amzn.to/3DQ8EO0

 

 

Winsor & Newton Watercolor paint – https://amzn.to/3Ah9iRa

Gray Fountain Pen Ink – https://amzn.to/4h1nnUZ

I have not tried this ink.  It is something I found on Amazon and it had good reviews.   I used diluted watercolor paint on my project, but fountain pen ink is a good alternative.  

Prismacolor Colored Pencils:

I’m not providing links to the colored pencils.   First off, the smaller sets don’t contain most of the colors I used.   I doubt anyone wants to 100+ dollars to buy Prismacolors complete set of colored pencils just for this projects.

You can purchase individual pencils online and in a umber of craft stores and/or fine art stores.  I didn’t feel like tracking down sources and comparing prices.   

In the blog I will provide some ideas to use instead of the exact colors I used.

Black #935

Dark Gray #747 ½ *

       * This is the Verithin brand and Prismacolor also refers to it as Cool Gray 70%

French Gray 10%  #1068

French Gray 20%  #1069

Warm Gray 20%  #1051

Warm Gray 30%  #1052

Warm Gray 50%  #1054

White #938

Here’s the dragonfly after I traced the pattern onto the board.   I know it’s a little messy looking.  Graphite smears easily and I tend to rest my hand on the pattern as I trace.

What I want to point out is that I did not trace in the background design.  Instead, I just traced the dragonfly and the corner mandala designs. 

I know it can be tough to tell that I didn’t trace the background design since there is a lot of graphite on the background.  I tend to rest my hand on the board as I work, and that caused the graphite to smear onto the background.

Speaking of graphite.  I’ll explain my basic pattern transfer process.   I print out the design onto plain copier paper.  I coat the back of the print out with graphite.  Then I secure the print out graphite side down onto the board and trace over the pattern lines.

Yes, I know there is a thing called carbon paper.  I don’t use it because I’ve yet to find one I like.  They are either to light and difficult to see, or too dark and difficult to erase.  I don’t have that problem with graphite, and it doesn’t take me that long to coat the back of a pattern.

Once the trace lines have been traced, then use a writer pen tip and burned over the trace lines.  Afterwards, rub over the area to remove excess graphite.  

This photo shows the artwork after the traces have been burned over and a pencil eraser rubbed over the area to remove excess graphite.

I burned a thick dark line around the outer edges of the dragonfly.  I did this to help the dragonfly stand out.

It might be hard to see, but I also burned a thin dark border along the edges of the board.

In this photo I haven’t finished the border.  The easiest place to see it is along the upper right corner; especially along the right side of the corner.

Speaking of corners, I started burning on the lower left corner.  I am aware that it can be hard to see what’s going on, so let’s zoom in.

Here’s a close up photo of the corner.

I want to point out the white dots on the design.  An arrow is pointing to one of the dots I’m referring to. 

I created the dot using an engraver.  A Dremel or other rotary tool can be used instead.  If you don’t have a rotary tool I would recommend using an embossing tool instead. 

To do this, simply press the ball tip of an embossing tool deeply into the wood.   

If you are using a softer wood, like basswood, this will be pretty easy to do.  If you’re using a hard wood like maple, you will have to exert a lot more pressure to create a deep divot.

After the divots are in place, then burn over the area using a shader.   

This image and the previous image are from my moonlit tree tutorial.  That tutorial goes into more detail on using an embossing tool.   Here’s a link to the tutorial if you’re interested.  Moonlit Tree tutorial

Here’s a progress photo of a corner.  My main goal when burning this was to create contrast. 

If you look at mandala artwork, there are two things that stand out.  1) Their intricacy.  2) Contrast.   The combination usually makes for a very visually striking image.  

At this point all but one of the corners is completed.  The dark thin border around the edge of the board is also completed.

I didn’t record my burning of the 3 corners.  I used them to work out the process, and I recorded the last corner for the video tutorial.

This was great since I worked out any issues, and it created a template I could follow on the last corner design.

Here’s a close up of a finished corner.

The design on the dragonfly wings is the same as the design on the corners.  I kept things super easy and burned the wings the same as the corners.

One reason this made it super easy was because I wasn’t changing pen tips as often.  I could burn in all of the designs that used a particular pen tip before switching to another tip.

Here’s a close of up the wing. 

If you compare it with a corner design, you’ll see that they are burned in the same way. 

The only difference between the corners and the wings is that more of the very center of the design is visible on the wings.

 

Another progress photo.

The corners and wings are done, but the body still needs to be burned in.

All of the pyrography is done.   

In many way I like how this looks at this point.   

In fact, I  actually debated if I wanted to add the background design.   I decided that the unburned background was a bit distracting.

I then contemplated adding a hint of color, like super pale blue, to the background and calling it good enough.   My concern was that color would compete with the dragonfly.   

Here’s a close up of the body.

Place the pattern back on the piece of wood and trace the background design.

Then use a dip pen and ink in the trace lines.  I’m inking in the lines for two reasons. 

1) It will allow me to erase the graphite. Graphite can smear very easily.  If you working with plywood, like I am, it can get down into the little plywood texture making it look dirty.

2) It will allow me to erase the colored pencil, if needed, without disturbing the trace lines.

Why didn’t I burn in the trace lines? 

I had decided to use grey colors on the background, and I didn’t want browns and tan hues from wood burned lines.  That said, if you decide to try this artwork, feel free to burn in the trace lines if that’s what you’d prefer.

My ink is highly diluted Payne’s grey watercolor paint. 

It is important that the ink be very pale in color.  The reason is that the any bleeding of pale color won’t be very noticeable.    

I tested out different dilution rations by painting a small line on scrap. 

Once I had a color I liked, I tried it with the dip pen. 

I highly recommend that you do the same thing. 

It is so much easy to test colors on scrap wood versus trying to fix a problem on your artwork.

If you prefer, you can use a refillable technical pen. 

I would have used one, but I forgot I owned the thing until after the project was finished. 

Diluted watercolor paint can be used with it.  That is you can if the as long as the watercolor creates a smooth mixture.   

Be aware that some really cheap brands of watercolor create a grainy mixture.  The grainy bits would clog a technical pen.   

In the video I used ComArt transparent smoke airbrush paint in my technical pen.   I only used that because it was close by and I didn’t have to mix up paint.  Basically I was being lazy.   Airbrush paint has very limited applications, so I wouldn’t recommend buying it if you don’t have an airbrush.

The technical pen is more precise.  The lines are consistent in size and the amount of ink is constant.   Plus, you can ink over a lot of lines before you have to refill it.

The size of the lines a dip pen creates can vary.  You can’t ink a lot of lines before you have to dip it back in the ink.  Plus, if there is too much ink on the dip pen a ink droplet can form at the end of the pen.  That droplet is just waiting to land on your board and create a mess.  Not that I have experienced this.  Really.  Instead I, uh, heard about it from a friend.  😉

The downside of the technical pen is that it costs a lot more than a dip pen.  Plus, it is more difficult to clean than a dip pen. 

Before I start with the colored pencil, I need to explain a couple of things. 

First.  The amount of pressure you use to apply the color will impact how dark the resulting color is.  The harder the pressure the darker the color.

Second.  You can also apply more layers of the same color to get darker result.

Also, you can alter a color by layering it with white.   White layered over a color produces a different result that a color layered over white.   

The first and third color swatches started out with the color, and then white was applied over the color. 

The second and fourth color swatches were the opposite.  I started with white, and then applied a color over it.

Why point all of this out?  I do realize that not everyone will own the same colors I do.  Plus, not everyone will want to buy the colors I used if they don’t already own them.   The purpose of this demo to show you how you can experiment with black, white, and whatever grey you have to get a suitable color palette for the artwork.

I used white on the eyes of the dragonfly to help them stand out a bit more.  This is the only place I used colored pencil on either the dragonfly or the corners.

The brown color on this pattern print out shows the places I used dark grey.   A good portion of the pattern lines where darkened up with this color. 

The red color on the pattern show where I used of warm grey 50%. 

I do want to mention that you don’t have to color your background the same way I did.   

I printed out the design onto plain copier paper and tried out different color combination.  I ended up using grey tones because I felt they didn’t compete with the pyrography.

The orange on this pattern is where I used the warm grey 30% colored pencil. 

Something else I want to mention is that I almost always apply a light layer of color first.  It’s easy to apply more layer to darken it.  More than once I apply more color just along the edges of a design to give it a touch of gradient color.

Warm grey 20% is represented by the green color.   

I zoomed in on the pattern to show a close up of one of the pointed designs.   This is the only design I layered several colors onto. 

With the pointed design starts out with a layer of warm grey 20% over it’s entirety.   I recolored along the inner edge to darken it.    Then I applied a layer of warm grey 20% over everything.   Lastly, I applied a layer of white along the outer edge.  The white is represented by the orange color.   This is the only place on the background design that I used white. 

The blue color represents warm grey 10%.   As I just mentioned, this color was applied the warm gray 20% on the pointed design.

French grey 20% is presented by the pink color.   Black is represented by black.  Maybe not the best choice.

I only used the French grey 20% in two places:  1)  Along the arches on the outer portion of the design.  2) On the background behind the design

Black was used to draw a thick line around the outer edge of the mandala.  To clarify, the line was drawn on the background behind the mandala, versus on the outer edge of it.

I also colored in a very lightly layer of black on the background, but I applied the color using circular motion.  This darkened the background and created a subtle texture. 

I can’t emphasize enough that I applied a very light layer of black! If it turns out darker than you want, just lightly rub over the area with a pencil eraser. 

Just started to work on the background.  

I started with the darker colors.  They were applied them in the same places I burned the corner designs dark.   Basically, I colored the background mandala so that it was similar to the corners.

This shows the project at an angle to shows the sides.  I painted the sides with watered down dark brown acrylic paint.  I mix up equal parts paint and water.  This creates something that goes on smooth and quickly.  I usually have to apply two layers to get the dark level I want.   

Most of my pyrography projects get painted sides.  Even the ones done on a piece of basswood.  The reason is that I think that the dark sides are less distracting.  I also think it gives the artwork a more professional look.

Something that probably doesn’t show well on any of the photos is the then dark border I burned around the edges on the top of the box.  I felt the thin dark border helps tie it to the sies.

Below are more progress photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final artwork hanging on a wall.

A piece of ribbon was insert between the lid and the base of the box. 

CONCLUSION

That’s it for this blog.  I hope that the way I presented the colored pencil work is helpful.  It was an idea I had that I hoped would make it easy to see where I applied a particular color.  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of it.

Brenda

Jan 14, 2025

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