I have not had a lot of time to work on this piece. Our meeting is tomorrow morning and I thought I would like to be up to date. I did some minimal research and came across some floral-inspired paper cutouts by Matisse.
I had a photo of a grevillea, that I took years ago, for my Photography subject for my Studio Textiles and Design course. The photo is about 9 or 10 years old. Not that that matters, it is still a lovely image.
Then I looked around, knowing there must be an 'inverse' command - I visit a blog (My Camera and Me) where I know I had seen it and wanted to try it myself. I came across it almost randomly (don't ask me what menu it was in, I don't actually remember).
I found that image to be very helpful.
I freehand drew my image - I rarely draw, so that was a plus. Seeing I am emulating paper cutting, there is little detail, something that actually made it easier.
I traced the design onto Vliesofix and ironed that onto my fabric. Once again, I resisted going out and buying fabric, I am determined to use what I have, as much as possible.
I have a wonderful, tiny, pair of very sharp scissors that do the cutting out wonderfully (with my help, of course).
I then drew the other parts of the flower and traced them onto Vliesofix also. More cutting out.
After ironing them onto my background fabric, I had to sew them on. I rather liked the fabrics, so have tried to keep the sewing unobtrusive.
My quilterly soul wanted to put some detail in, some suggested leaves, for instance. But when I looked at the inspirational images, there was not much detail, if any. So I have just sewn it to some felt and left it as is.
You may have noticed that my images are not all in the same orientation. That is because I was having difficulty deciding how to orient the final piece. I have made it upright, for no particularly good reason. There were several orientations that would have worked.
All these exercises in being inspired by various artists has led me to experiment with different techniques, try different design techniques and play. I have learnt quite a bit, even though they are quite small pieces (A5). In fact, the small designs have been a bit of a challenge sometimes.
2 comments:
I love what you've done with the Grevillia Mary, it's a very good way to tackle the difficult shapes I think.
PS there's a difference in the 'inverse' and 'invert' commands in Photoshop.
'Invert' that you found does indeed invert the colours as you have done, but 'inverse', under selections, inverts your selection from the background.
Thanks for that tip, I will investigate further.
Our machine embroiderers group put up our display for the month today - and my piece is on an angle, seeing I couldn't decide on its orientation.
Two people came up to correct the 'bad' hanging, so I fully expect it will be all straight and orderly when I next see it.
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