Do You Have A Favorite Process In Creating Your Art?

     When you create a piece of art, do you have a favorite step or process? I'm not sure I do. I'm slow to start a piece. I think about how I want it to look in the end and usually try to sketch it out and paint it several times first. I enjoy drawing and painting so I find that part fun and relaxing. Getting fabrics ready is also a good time for me because I get to mix colors with my paints and who can't have fun with that? If you get the wrong color, just keep mixing. If the fabric doesn't come out right for this project, it will be good for another one.
     In my last installment, I had my fabrics pinned on my design wall and was happy with the arrangement and colors, but it was a bit boring.

last week

     The large rectangle in rust needed to be darker and more oomph. There was paint left behind in many of the colors on the plastic on the cutting table. So I sprayed it with water, put the rectangle of fabric on top of the leftover paint, and brayered heavily to pick up the paint.

adding paint from the plastic to the fabric

     That actually helped some and it cleaned up the mess. Then I added more paint using a sponge and Dyne-na-Flow in Chartreuse by Jacquard, and various rust colors I mixed up with acrylic paints and GAC-900 by Golden. Here is the result

surface designed fabric

The fabric to the right of it is a commercial fabric by Stonehenge. I also added acrylic paints and GAC-900 to the girl and the window in places to darken that area, too. Once I was happy with the tints, shades, and hues, I sewed the fabrics down to the background fabric with a straight stitch. Then I backed it with batting and quilted the girl, window, and walkway. After that, I decided to add two more fabrics and pinned them on to try them out. I think I like them because they keep the viewer's eye from leaving the piece. I'll sew them down down today.  All of these steps have been lots of fun for me, too. It's like having a conversation with the artwork. It almost tells me what it needs next. As you see, it has changed from the original sketch and painting. Once it has become fabric, it takes on a life of its own with its textures and unique character and begins to evolve. It's a fascinating process to me.

     I've been struggling with how to quilt the background. Perhaps, that is the least favorite part for me. I take the photos and put them into the App ArtStudio and then sketch possible quilt patterns on top to see what they might look like. For some of them, I'm happy with them for a day. Then the next day, I realize that they just won't look right for the piece. I think that yesterday, I finally hit one that will be just right for it (I hope). At least today, I still like it. 

     So here is how it looks on the design wall now. (By the way, these photos are taken with my iPad at night with just the overhead light. That's why they are a little fuzzy.)

in process

     The next step for today is to sew the two new pieces of fabric onto the background. Then, quilt the flowers onto the bottom right (from the shadow photos I took here), then quilt the rest of the background, and finally put on a pillowcase backing. (I think that's the plan, anyway. Unless the artwork tells me differently as I go.) So, I guess my favorite process overall is the conversation with artwork. I'm linking this with Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

What's On The Reverse Side Of Your Fabrics?

     Have you ever flipped over your fabrics to the reverse side to take a look and see what's there? Especially the ones that you've painted yourself? Well, once I decided to use some white crinoline as a base to sew appliqué silk pieces of fabric onto for an art quilt.  (This one, here.) I didn't want any of the white to show through in case the edges of the silks didn't quite but up all the way. So I decided to paint the crinoline first. I used colors of paint that would be similar to the colors of the silks. One side of the art quilt would be cool colors and one side would be warm colors and the center was going to have a female figure in it. I placed a paper cutout of the female figure on the crinoline and used a wet sponge brush and painted with acrylic paints the various colors onto the crinoline. Then I removed the paper cutout and painted onto the then white profile of the female figure. It was a fairly ugly (but functional) piece of crinoline.
     After it dried, it fell onto the floor and flipped over. And oh, my! It was beautiful! The paint had not gone through uniformly at all. It had created a ghostly effect of the female figure. The areas around her had created marbled effects. As a whole, it couldn't be used for a piece of art. It was a shame that it was going to be buried underneath other pieces of fabrics and never seen. But since we are in the digital age, that really isn't the case.

original ghostly figure on back of crinoline

original reverse side of crinoline

     I took photos of all the good parts of it and kept them on file for future use. And that future is now. I sent out the photos to a digital printmaking fabric company and within a few days the fabric was delivered larger than it was before. The colors were true and I was very pleased with it. I hung it on the design wall for about a week and wasn't sure what to do with it. I put it away for about a month. Then I did a few sketches on my iPad from one of its photos and got an idea and out came the rotary cutter.
     I sewed panels of the digitally produced fabric together and then put it on batting and did a lot of stitching. Here's a peak of some of it in-process.

stitching in gray variegated thread

she moves

The crinoline only had a partial head and part of a torso so I had to imagine the rest. Now, I'm working on the rest of the design and a quilting design. So my message to you is that when you paint a piece of fabric, always flip it over to look at the back. You may like the reverse side better. And if you like both sides, you can take photos of the reverse side and have it digitally printed if you want to use it, also. 

     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Adding Fabrics to The Monk, The Rocks, And The Sun/Moon

     Now that I've chosen a design for my monk/rock cairn quilt using Photoshop Elements, I've moved on to cutting out the monk and rocks from fabrics. I used a commercial piece of fabric for the monk and I've started to hand embroider on it. I used some of the monoprinted fabric I made for the rocks. For the sun/moon, I painted white cotton fabric with a combination of Jacquard Textile, Neopaque, and Dye-na-flow paints as well as some regular acrylic paints.

     I won't show you my final chosen design yet. I've changed it since you last saw it.  But here are some close-up photos as it is now.

Sun/Moon

Partially completed monk

I've machine-stitched across the sky area some and I've hand- embroidered some. I haven't decided how much stitching to add to the rocks so they are still just pinned on.

Rock cairn with flag

I don't know why I'm so attracted to the monk theme lately, but it is really speaking to me. The problem is that there is a call for artists I'm interested in and I want to make a quilt for it that involves a bicycle and a beach. But if I keep with my body of work and this spiritual theme do I put a monk on the bike? Balancing a rock cairn in his hand? (I think not.) I'll figure something out for that entry.

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find Art Quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you visited.

Gelatin Monoprinting

     I'm getting my fabrics painted for the rocks for my art quilt. To paint the fabric, I used the technique of gelatin monoprinting. Here are some photos that show the process and tools I used.

water in spray bottles, sponge brush, spoon and palette knife for mixing paints
brayer for spreading paint on gelatin plate
acrylic paints in cup, textile paints, toilet paper rolls and cardboard to add patterns to gelatin plate,
plates on which to mix paints

     I used mostly white cotton muslin. I also had some loosely woven white fabric.
     I mixed my own gray using Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Red Light and Titanium White acrylic paints. That way I can control how cool or warm the gray is. (I learned that in the only college art class I got to take ... Painting 1.) I used various other browns, some yellow, some blues to make the other colors (acrylic paints and textile paints).
    I have the gelatin in a cookie sheet (dedicated for this use only) and I made a cover for it by cutting a sheet of plastic I had from something (sorry I can't remember where it originally came from) and then I put duct tape around the sharp edges. The duct tape also acts as a nice seal against the cookie sheet. My gelatin plate is over a month old and has several spots of mold growing on it even though it has been stored in the refrigerator. But the mold spots can be a good thing, and in the case of getting fabric for rocks, it's a very good thing. The spots add a perfect texture that mimics rock textures.

The gelatin plate with the cover on it

The gelatin plate without the cover

The plastic cover with the duct tape edges

Here is a photo showing a piece of fabric getting pulled off as it is being printed.

Doesn't look so great at this stage? Just wait...

To show you some finished pieces of fabrics, I decided to "frame" parts of them up for you rather than show just the raw whole pieces. I used some L-frame pieces of white mat that another artist gave me.

This fabric will be great for rocks

I put two fabrics in this frame

Can you make out the toilet paper roll shapes?

And finally, here are Opus's and Rosie's reaction to be locked out on the screened-in patio for a few hours so that I didn't get any paw prints on the gelatin or the wet fabrics. The squirrels, birds, and lizards didn't get any attention this day.

They know how to tug at my heart strings.

Fun with Paint

While waiting for the background fabrics to fully cure, I've been busy with side projects. I have four window boxes under our windows in the front of the house, and, over the years have grown various plants in them. We live on a heavily wooded lot in central Florida so they don't get much sun. I want some bright color there and the only flowers that have been successful in the boxes have been impatients. But even those the last few years have been challenging to keep alive. The eaves over the house prevent rain water from getting to them so I have to go out and regularly water them and I get eaten alive by mosquitoes when I do it. This year, I had the idea to forget about putting plants in them and here is my solution for color in them.

painted with acrylics and sprayed with glossy topcoat.

This is a sculpture that is near the front door. I put a painted bird with her to provide unity... I'm learning about the elements of art.

these plants are self-sufficient

With all those acrylic paints to clean up, I used a white transparent cloth of some sort I had laying around. I don't know what type it was. I just wiped up the brushes, sprayed it with water, wiped up the plastic dish I used as a palette. I squished up the cloth and wet it more and spread the paint all over it to clean everything up so that I didn't have any paint to put down the drain. Here is the wipe cloth when I was done.

Wipe-cloth

I knew the cloth had possibilities for an art quilt/s. But instead, I cut it into three long lengths and sewed them together with an embroidery stitch on my machine and then machine couched a fancy yarn along the edges and made a scarf out of it.

I love wipe-rags!

New Background fabrics

I made a new gelatin plate for monoprinting two days ago and printed up some fabrics yesterday. Here is a great link from Linda Germain on how to make a plate.How to make a gelatin plate Linda has several YouTube videos and tutorials on her website and regularly blogs with tips on how to print. She prints on paper, though.
You can use any kind of paint or ink. I used regular acrylic paints since I had a supply from a painting class and want to use them before they dry out. To get my colors, I mixed ceruleuan blue, ultramarine blue, a little cadmium yellow light, and a lot of titanium white. I added an equal amount of fabric painting medium so that it would play well with fabric (although I don't think that is necessary).
I spread the paint with the brayer onto the gelatin plate and then pressed a toilet paper roll here and there onto the plate to get oval shapes and then laid down a piece of cotton muslin and pressed it down evenly and lifted it up. I sprayed water onto to the plate and used a clean piece of cloth to wipe up the extra paint and got a nice pattern on that cloth, too. I repeated several prints with various patterns for about 10 cloths.
Then, to get gray, I added a little cadmium light to the blue mixture and some more fabric medium and some more white.  Here are two of the prints.

with stripes

I'm linking this post to Off The Wall Friday Be sure to visit to see all the wonderful art quilters and make comments on their posts.

with ovals

After the paint dried, I used Shiva Paintstiks, which are oil paints.  I found out that you can use the oil paints on top of acrylics without a problem, but you cannot use acrylics or other water-based paints on top of oils. Anyway, what I did was to put texture plates under the fabrics and then rub the sticks on top to get patterns and layers of patterns. I pressed the oil sticks first onto a plastic plate and mixed the colors with a palette knife to get colors I wanted and loaded stencil brushes with the paint and then rubbed the brushes across the fabric that was on top of the texture plates. (One of the texture plates was actually a brass trivet that I bought at a thrift shop.)

Here are the same two fabrics from above after I was done adding textures. I hope to use these for my next art quilt background.

with textures

with textures

Some More Photos of Monoprinted Fabrics

 Here are some other photos of fabrics I had monoprinted on gelatin. You can see other photos on earlier posts in this blog. I used regular acrylic paints mixed with textile paints because I want to use up the paint I have before I buy more. I had read warnings not to mix different brands or types of paints together to get the best quality. But it turns out I like the way these fabrics came out. They have a certain amount of graininess but the hand of the fabric wasn't changed that much. It is a little stiffer than if I had used only textile paint, but since it is for a wall art quilt and not clothing or a bed quilt, that's OK with me. Plus these fabrics will be used to represent rocks and windy skies so the texture will work well for that purpose. I think I will make more fabrics this way for my series.

Gray Paint Monoprint with string masks. The droplets were made by spraying the painted gelatin surface with water just before pressing the fabric onto it

Gray monoprinted fabric with Shiva Paintstiks(white, teal, and russet) rubbed onto in with stencil brushes after it was dry. This softens the texture and adds interesting patterns.

Teal Paint Monoprint. The ovals were made by pressing a toilet paper cardboard into the paint on the gelatin surface before pressing the fabric onto it. Note the graininess of the texture in most places. The mottled areas are where water droplets were added to the painted gelatin plate before the fabric was pressed onto it.

Here is a link to an interesting blog that Ill be following: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.nl/
Have a good weekend.
Regina