Leaves. Trees. Green. Shapes. Leaves again. All side-by-side.
This week I’m in the beginning stages of a new quilt project.
I will be building this artwork around some original photos featuring sunlight through vines and trees. I will hope to create a feeling of being immersed in the foliage.
Construction is still a few weeks off. For now, it’s a day for creating parts. Mostly green parts.
MIXING: I try to work with a very limited palette and then mix my colors. I don’t buy green paint. Here’s an example of the rich variations available in creating green. Yellow + Burnt Umber + Cerulean blue. Mixed in one proportion, a golden-olive green hue is created. Mixed in another proportion (more blue) the kelly green hue is created
I’m getting these colors down on some yardage of cotton muslin, to provide a base for the work to come.
PRINTING PATTERNS: I pulled out this large linoleum block that I cut several years ago. It’s intricate and creates really nice patterns. I was hoping for good things from this.
I mixed up a celery green color – adding just enough white to my olive green hue to make it opaque. (To print over the darker kelly green.) I think it looks great.
Then I laid down the fabric and rubbed hard to make the print. Drat! Almost nothing showed up on my fabric at all. What a disappointment.
Acrylic paints are not actually the perfect relief printing medium. Block printing inks are formulated to do this better. (I stick with acrylics, however, so I can collage the printed pieces without the image running.) And I have printed with acrylic paints from this lino-cut many times, usually successfully. As soon as the print did not work I realized that the painted green fabric was a little too stiff to get a good print. It would have been different if I’d been printing on thinner fabric or a thin paper.
Alas. Time for plan B.
ROLLING ON COLOR I took a section of the Kelly green base fabric and marked it off into a haphazard grid with masking tape. Then I rolled the paint over it. The same color that did not show up on the lino-cut worked just fine painting directly.
Small sections of simple shapes will complement the organic leaf shapes in the composition-to-come.
TIME FOR LEAVES
Working on the olive-gold base colored fabric, I used a positive shape leaf stencil for a background pattern. The pale blue-green shows up around the outside of the stencil. Now, for the top layer, I’ll do the opposite.
The darker leaves were sponge printed from a negative leaf shape. (Like the inside of the donut hole.) This creates the shape of the leaf itself. I moved the stencil randomly around the fabric for an all-over pattern.
AND SOME CRACKLE
I always enjoy creating a batik-like crackle patterns with wheat paste. It takes a few steps and some time, but always worth it.
The wheat paste is just flour and water. I pour it on, spread it out in a very thin layer over the whole fabric. Once it dries, I’ll crack it to produce fine irregular lines. The I sponge paint down into the fine lines.
Wheat paste can also be used with stencils.
Here I’m rolling on the wheat paste, then removing the stencil to reveal the shapes. Nice clean edges.
I ended the day out in the sun, leaving the fabric with wheat paste to dry.
While that happens… afternoon nap time.
(The final result: leaves plus crackle is shown below)
. . . . . . . .
Mission accomplished: I completed the collaged work with trees that I’ve been posting about for the last several weeks. Here it is. And I’m thrilled that a patron has purchased it. Off it goes to Wisconsin in its UPS box tomorrow.
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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