# Photos to patterns



## lilcee (Dec 14, 2011)

Hi, I'm new to pyrography and was wondering how to make a pattern from a photo? Thanks for any help you can give me.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

The old school way is to place tracing paper on the photo and mark the lines you want to transfer on it. Once you have what your want on the tracing paper place a sheet of carbon or graphite paper on your wood, put the tracing paper on top of it and trace over your lines. This works very well and is easy to do. You can use most computer graphics programs to convert an image to a line drawing and print it out on paper and use this with the carbon or graphite paper. Instructions on converting your image are usually found under print options.


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## lilcee (Dec 14, 2011)

Thank you. I'll give that a try


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

*Patterns*

lilcee what kind of patterns are you intersted in? I have 100,000 and can e-mail some to you.
Gary

Gary's Woodburning & Woodworking
Home - Gary's Woodburning, Woodworking,Photos and Artwork


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Steve good has a technique on making patterns using Corel Draw, or the Demo coyote stencil program.

You can search for them on scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com or Youtube.com


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## lilcee (Dec 14, 2011)

seawolf21 said:


> lilcee what kind of patterns are you intersted in? I have 100,000 and can e-mail some to you.
> Gary
> 
> 
> I have a pic of my grandson I wanted to do and also a pic of my daughter's dog


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

If you can scan the photos, you can print them out and just trace the image on wood with transfer paper. Don't use carbon paper because it will never erase completely from the wood.
Gary


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi

I like to use T-Shirt paper, with a rag and a hot iron it's in place, the same one I use for edge banding jobs 

====


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

What's T-shirt paper.
Gary


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Gary

From here or any office supply outlet.

Amazon.com: Avery T-shirt Transfers for Inkjet Printers, 8.5 x 11 Inches, Pack of 18 (08938): Home Improvement

Amazon.com: Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt (9780761137856): Megan Nicolay: Home Improvement

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seawolf21 said:


> What's T-shirt paper.
> Gary


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## lilcee (Dec 14, 2011)

I never thought of using that. I have some, I'll give that a try. Thanks for the suggestions


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## newmexico (Jan 17, 2012)

We have been printing patterns on our laser printer. (This is a toner printer, not ink jet.)

We then use a hot iron to transfer the pattern to wood. Works well.

Some people use Acetone to wet the paper and rub the pattern onto the wood.


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## James R (Oct 16, 2011)

There are some videos on transferring patterns to wood on Youtube.


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## LWilsonArt (Mar 12, 2012)

*An Easy Way To DO a Pattern From A Photo*



lilcee said:


> Hi, I'm new to pyrography and was wondering how to make a pattern from a photo? Thanks for any help you can give me.


HI, I am new to the forum, but I saw this question and wanted to share something that works very well for me.

It's a FREE program you can download called PICASSA 3
Google it to get the download location.
I can post the url because I am new to the forum and I have to have 10 posts in before I can post a url.

Once you install it, it will download all of your photo files in your computer into it automatically. It has a feature called "pencil sketch" in the editing area, and this is what you will use.

To start, 
open the program, 
double click on the photo you want to edit and it will bring the photo to the place where you can do editing. 
You will see tabs with tools on them. 
Going left to right a wrench, a sun, black paintbrush, black paintbrush green background, then a black paintbrush with a blue background, 
Click on the tab with the black paintbrush with a blue background, 
in the second row of edit options you will see "pencil sketch" click on that, 
and then you can fine tune it with the sliders (radius, strength, fade) to get it how you want. 
When you get it how you like, click "Apply" 
and then click on "file" 
use the "save as" option, 
name it, 
and your ready to print!

I use picassa 3 for most of my photo editing. It's a great free program and very user friendly.


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## Jorge Santos (Aug 1, 2012)

*This is a pretty good method*



newmexico said:


> We have been printing patterns on our laser printer. (This is a toner printer, not ink jet.)
> 
> We then use a hot iron to transfer the pattern to wood. Works well.
> 
> Some people use Acetone to wet the paper and rub the pattern onto the wood.


I've used the hot iron method with a laser printer and it works well.


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## dust4tears (Jun 21, 2012)

You should Google, 'Tonal Value'~~~and get a good understanding of the meaning.

Then you should Google, 'Creating Tonal Value in Photoshop' (Or whatever other picture program you have.)

If you have the time and patience to learn, Practice your tonal values. 
Here is a link you can use to print out a picture that is for practicing tonal value~~

Pyro online~

Once you get the idea of tonal value you down, you can do into a photo~~~through your 
photo program....and 'play' with the tonal values of the picture. Once you get the picture where you want it, you can print it out~~~and then trace it like the others said using graphite paper.

More times than not, that is how the 'professionals' make their patterns that are sooooooo life like. 



(I understand this is an older post, but it still pops up, so maybe someone can use my 'method' of doing it~)


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

In Photoshop there is a filter called threshold. You first convert the photo to B/W, which is also a one step process, and then you apply the threshold filter. Adjusting the threshold level gives you more or less detail in the photo. You should be able to do the same thing with Corel Draw, but the commands may be different. Once you are satisfied with the image, save it. The result should look much like a children's coloring book image. Then invert the image (mirror image) and print it on a laser printer or print it to an inkjet printer, then copy the printed image using a photo copier. Either way will produce a line drawing "negative" image that you can "iron" onto your wood by placing the image side of the paper against the wood and using a clothes iron to heat it to transfer the image. About 250-300 deg F does the job. The laser printers and copiers use high temperature black wax powder as the ink (toner) and ironing the paper will melt and transfer the ink to the surface of the wood. Be sure to attach the paper to the wood so it can't move while ironing. Then you can remove the paper and cut out the image with your scroll saw, etc. A light sanding will easily remove any remaining ink (toner) since it stays mostly on the surface of the wood.

Charley


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## LiLRdWgn (Dec 31, 2011)

seawolf21 said:


> lilcee what kind of patterns are you intersted in? I have 100,000 and can e-mail some to you.
> Gary
> 
> Gary's Woodburning & Woodworking
> Home - Gary's Woodburning, Woodworking,Photos and Artwork


Hello Gary, Where did you get the plans for the wooden cars and truck in your wood working gallery ? You do some Awesome work. I don't know if my nerves would hold out that long,


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

Gene I got the patterns from various toymaking books.
Gary


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## Dust Magnet (Oct 3, 2014)

*Making an image ready for burning*

rapidresizer.com has online software that will let you make a stencil and or pattern from any picture. This should help you do what you want. Best of all, it is free to use. You can buy an upgrade to do more if you are interested.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Great stuff, Steve; thanks for that!!


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## Rogerdodge (Apr 24, 2014)

Excellent thread this, some great ideas. Thanks OP and those who contributed.



Rog


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

lilcee said:


> Hi, I'm new to pyrography and was wondering how to make a pattern from a photo? Thanks for any help you can give me.


I teach Pyrography a few times a year and find it useful to first turn a photo into a black and white image. The essence of this art form is all about controlling Values. Real dark areas(heavily burned) and real light areas ( no burning), than everything in between. 

I teach my students to do the darkest areas first. Save the lightest for last. learn techniques for all the mid range values, dots, smoking, toe, heal stuff.


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## blumutt58 (Jul 29, 2015)

Sometimes I'll use a transfer technique on my wood burnings. I'll take a print out of my image and go over it in conte crayon for a rub transfer. A friend of mine mentioned citra solv but not sure how that would burn.


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## The Hobbyist (Apr 25, 2015)

What is pyrography? Can someone post some photos of examples?


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