I have a friend who is super at wood burning.  She did a couple burns for me.  There should be pics here somewhere.  Good idea.   Biggest drawback I had was that the burns were too light.  Do a practice burn and take it into the sunlight and see how the darkness is. 

Thanks for your reply. My son is gonna do a simple line drawing of a Blue Heron, no shading or real details. i was gonna try and inlay copper wire then sand it down and then fiberglass over it. i think it would have looked cool but i was having some issues and didn't want it to hold up my build any longer.

Copper wire and solder are my favorite inlay materials at the moment. If you change your mind and go ahead, do a practice piece first.  I found the shiny metal will show up the glass fibers.  I laid the glass then did the inlay on my last yak.  Came out good.  Pics if you missed them earlier.

Kim

Great pic...did you route the surface first then push the copper/solder in or just lay it on top and put a coat of resin on? Do you have any pics of the wood burning your friend did. My son did mine last night and it turned out real good...ill have to try and get a pic up if i can....what kinda yak are you building?

I found the old thread on the copper inlay.

http://www.clcboats.com/forum/clcforum/thread/4314.html

I am not building a yak at the moment.  I did get into building paddles last week.  I did an inlay of a wolf. On that I routed the paddle, pressed and glued in the solder, sanded, buffed and glassed.  Not a good image but it aalso is in progress.  Only one layer of epoxy.