Let me qualify my remarks as I often do by unnecessarily stating that I am not the foremost authority on pyrography or wood burning, but I don't really believe that such a person exists anyway. This is art and in spite of what some artists think, that means there is no right or wrong way to do it. What I can tell you is how I do it, and offer some insights into my methods. By doing that... I would expect that those who can profit from this tutorial will add it to or adapt it to the methods, style, and techniques they already use and will yet develop and learn. I believe that what makes us progress and get better in our skills is to continually perfect our use of the equipment, and add to the textures and techniques we are able to use. So I hope I can do that for you.

Now let me discuss some of the methods I have developed and have been happy with for doing foliage for landscapes and other outdoor scenes.

The first method I use is a texture I simply refer to as the “scribble” technique. It is essentially just like the name implies. Just like using a marker, each time you pause or change direction it leaves a little extra ink or dark spot. This is normally an effect I try to avoid with pyrography, but here is an opportunity to exploit it. As I randomly scribble around on the surface it leaves dark blotches similar to the marker on paper. I keep going over the area in several "layers" until I have filled it in. The random light and dark spots give it an interesting texture that has depth. This technique is very versatile and is the foundation for most of my foliage.

Left: To illustrate how it looks when I begin to "scribble".

Right: I have gone over the area several times, you can see the top section where I have finished all the layers I will do, and the lower part is still thinner. I hope you can see that this texture looks very fitting for leaves at a distance. 

By simply using darker and lighter values, different shapes, and a combination of these I am able to create an array of different types of trees. I will illustrate in a moment.

One thing I will say that what ends up being a lengthy explanation becomes very quick and second nature, but you want to pay attention to trees you see and how they grow. When I want a branch to show through, the leaves would part there to reveal part of the branches, so it makes sense that even as my random shapes and tones can create the feel of the leaves, I try to make the areas around exposed trunk the darker areas as they would be deeper in the tree and in the shadows. (see figure on right)

Also the more random the shape the better, it creates more visual interest and it is more realistic. Varying from one tree to another is important too; even the same breed of trees will be of varying age and shape, so make some taller, shorter, skinny, fat, and leaning slightly different directions. Some will be closer to one tree than another, some will have dead spots with branches missing, etc.

Left: Simple illustration to show a pine tree unaturally uniform, and the second with a more randome shape looks more realistic.

Right: A more complex illustration of the same idea.

The pine trees are simply a different shape, and often a darker tone, but still the same scribble method. Some pines can be more straight out with the branches, some the branches can point up, and others point down. Some can be thick, others thin. Just by playing around you can make one texture do a lot of things. (see figure below) On the right in the following picture is even the same texture I would use in a small shape on the ground for a simple bush.

Of course you know that a tree is much thicker at the base than at the tips of the branches, so keep that in mind and be sure your branches do not look thicker at the outer edges and that any limbs that branch off of another are smaller than the limbs they branch off of. (see figure on right.)

Tree trunks are all the same method too, just a small change can make a big difference. I simply get the shape of the trunk and shade it like a cylinder and add bark detail. I can shade some trunks darker than others and by changing the shape of any bark detail, you can change the breed of the tree.

For close up pine needles I simply put my tip on the branch and flick it out for each needle like a hair, the “flick” makes it thicker at the base of the needle and come to a point at the end. A few hundred of them and you have a tree.

One method I have been asked about many times is very simple. Use a spoon shader as a stamp. Simply tilt it in its tip or to one side and it makes a nice crescent shape. Like the pine needles just keep stamping until you have a tree. It always helps me to observe trees I see any place I go and remember, sketch, or photograph trees I like to use as reference too.