The Beginning of a Succulent Series

The Fast Friday Challenge for this month was announced a week ago, and I got a late start. This month, we are to do something monochromatic and use perspective in designing our piece. I have some thoughts for perspective with a Sea Glass piece, but don’t want to only use one color, so I decided to start a new series.

This close-up of a succulent seems to show perspective well. I converted the photo to greyscale and increased the contrast so I could concentrate on line and value.

A medium green-blue fabric was selected, and a line drawing stitched on it in the same manner as for Clam Cove III which is still in progress.

These shapes are mostly larger and simpler than the ones in Clam Cove III. I thought again that I would cut different values of fabric shapes to define the leaves, but I changed my mind again and decided that this piece needs paint.

I used my Setacolor transparent paints to add the darker values in the image. I went back after I took this photo to make the darkest darks just a bit darker.

There’s something to be said for turning your work upside down while drawing or painting. I did just to keep my hand from smudging the wet paint, and almost immediately noticed the whole leaf and a half that didn’t get sewn with thread. I sketched it with pencil before I continued and stitched the last few lines after I did the painting.

My thoughts are to layer and quilt, before I go back in and add highlights with white or another light valued paint. I am hoping to achieve the same textured look like I did on Coyote Hills Marsh.

Clam Cove III – heading in a new direction

I have begun painting on my latest project to define the details.

I haven’t followed the original plan to add fabric shapes to define the scene since there are so many small detailed shapes. So I will continue on this different path that the project is taking me, and see what I can do with it. It’s progressing slowly, because I have only been working on it 20 or 30 minutes at a time when I can fit it into my schedule.

I plan to define the trees in the background next and will add some highlights to the water. Although it may get put on hold a week or so since the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge will be announced late tonight.

Clam Cove III

I am trying out a new technique I adapted from an article in the Aug/Sep 08 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.

I have returned again to my Clam Cove photo. I traced parts of the photo onto lightweight interfacing, and layered it behind a front fabric with batting. I used the tracing on the interfacing to add free-motion stitching. Most of this has been stitched twice, because my first choice of thread color matched the fabric too much and was rather weak looking. The photo is a detail of the piece in progress.

My intention was to go back with lighter and darker fabrics to emphasize the image more. Now I think I will try paints instead, perhaps with fabric accents.

Sea Glass III

My Fast Friday Group has chosen to focus on composition and color, instead of picking a theme or topic each month, and is encouraging us to work in a series as we complete our monthly challenges.

I have decided to continue my Sea Glass series which I began a couple of months ago. I don’t know if there are a dozen in me, but I will wait and see where it takes me. I have also been thinking about doing a series based on the succulent plants in my garden. Maybe I will work on two series, and pick which one fits the challenge better each month.

This month our challenge was to work in a complementary color scheme with a vertical, horizontal or diagonal format.

Sea Glass III (9½ x 13) uses green and red as complementary colors. Green is one of the more common colors of sea glass (consider what colors beer and wine bottles commonly come in). Red is one of the least common. I’ve taken some artistic license and included some light pink. I’m guessing pink is more rare than red sea glass in the real world.

My original idea for a diagonal composition wasn’t working the way I had intended, and so I played with shapes until this spiral emerged. Does the small curve at the bottom help make this a diagonal composition? Perhaps this would qualify more as a circular composition.