Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I'm back at the easel again

Here is a look at what I am working on now. Not the best of camera work today, but the collage gives you an idea of my process.
The line drawing is in the upper left


With an Art-o-graph I projected it onto a piece of silk broadcloth which I pin to my design wall. The projected image is traced onto the fabric lightly with a pencil. When the tracing is done, I move the fabric to my paint surface. Stretch it tightly and prop it up on the easel. Because this composition has so much going on and the pencil tracing was done with a light hand to prevent visible pencil marks after the painting is completed, I had to color in the leaves and stems on the line drawing to keep myself on track.

No the colored pencils do not represent the colors I plan to use. I simply needed a way to visually separate the leaves from each other and a way to distinguish the stems. This piece as planned will be about 44" x 60". A tad longer than what I have done lately. I did a little ad-libbing as I got started painting and this is what I have at the end of day one.
Stay tuned and I'll give you daily updates.

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3 comments:

Carol said...

Wow, this looks intense. Are you an artist before becoming an art quiltmaker?

Juanita Yeager said...

Hi Carol
No I did not consider myself an artist before making quilts or art quilts. I once had someone tell me that I did not know how to color in a coloring book.
Oh well,.. what I know how to do as far as creating art is mostly the result of stuff I have taught myself because it interested me. Books are a good thing as is "Just giving it a try" and not giving up if at first it is not successful. I keep telling myself all it is is fabric and a little paint and some of my time. And what would I be doing if I wasn't doing this...getting old with nothing to show for it.

Patty said...

Great philosophy, Juanita! I appreciate you showing us your process and your thoughts that go along with it.