Pyrography Portrait - The Grandfather we never met. Part 1

 My husband's grandfather served in the Royal Canadian Air Force on Canadian Air Force Bases during the Second World War. He trained officers in some of the radio controls aspects of flight.  Many came from all across the common wealth nations to Canada to train before going overseas to fight. In his enlistment photo shown here, he is 18 years old.

He passed away when my mother-in-law was in her teen years. She has two sisters and each of them has vastly different memories of their father.  This past year, she and her two sisters wrote out their indivitual stories of thier childhood with thier dad, who suffered with schizophrenia..

This summer, they got together to finalize the writing of the different portions of the project.  My mother-in-law asked me if I'd like to do three wood burned portraits of her dad, and I was thrilled to give it a go. I had been wanting to continue learning the art of portrait pyrography and to do three of the same image was a great challenge.

So as they prepared their pieces, I prepared these portraits as a gift from my mother-in-law to her sisters.    "Dillusions of Daddy" is a very intreguing and unique project as my mother-in-law speaks of how she and her family dealt with the harsh realities of life with a father that had schizophrenia back in the 1950's. If you love a thought provoking read, and a head on look at some of life's heart-felt realities, click this link to learn more, or go righ to Amazon.ca to purchase the book.

 The initial sketch, of course, came from the photograph itself.  Only a basic sketch was needed for the basic elements to be represented.  Each starting sketch was a hint different from the others, and I knew early on that this was going to be an interesting project as each portrait began to take shape.

After that, came the actual wood burning. I took my time, working each portrait to a similar state of progress and working very slowly on the shading, building up tone and depth as I went along.  Being as the photo was older, I did not have as much details as with the last project, so I simply worked with the shading provided.

I really enjoy the process and the progress at each session.  Each work period brings forward a new aspect and identity to the peice. I'll post more pictures soon to bring you part 2 of this latest wood burned portrait of "The Grandfather we never met".