Sketch While You Wait

Posted on August 22, 2014 by ruthlane under sketch book, Sketching

I was waiting this morning while my husband underwent a procedure. So I took a long my sketchbook, Inktense pencils and a water pen.

This is a sketch of a Mountain Orchid from a photo my sister took while she was here. It’s also known as a lady slipper. I worked on this sketch for several days and had painted the center portion with white acrylic paint so that it would cover the background green. These are really cool flowers and I like how the sketch came out. I think it would be cool to try to felt one of these flowers in gigantic size compared to the real flowers.

Here’s the photo of the flower. I now see some details that I didn’t get into the sketch and the scanner didn’t catch all the shading I did on the white part of the flower.

Here’s the second sketch I worked on today. This was quite a complicated flower but once I got started it wasn’t that hard to recreate. I can never remember what these are called but I have them in my front flower beds. They spread like crazy and take over but the deer don’t eat them so that works for me. In case you’re wondering, my husband is doing well. Have a great weekend!

Making Prefelt for the Monet Challenge

Posted on August 15, 2014 by ruthlane under wet felting

I finally started on the third quarter challenge for the Felting and Fiber Studio which is using Monet’s work as an inspiration. I originally thought I would use on of his floral/landscape paintings but changed my mind after I looked at more images of his work. I’m sure you’ll be able to guess the inspiration once you see the pattern.

To start, I needed to make some blue prefelt. I used merino wool that I had previously dyed with indigo and then carded into batts.

I made the prefelt and left it really soft. I then made a pattern out of freezer paper to cut out what I needed for the Monet piece.

I ironed the freezer paper to the prefelt and then cut it out. Have you guessed the inspiration?

Perhaps you can see in the close up how soft the prefelt is. I want it to just sink into the background. It has two layers, one light blue and one dark blue. Hopefully that will give it a more mottled look.

And here’s the prefelt all cut out. For the background, I am planning a solid piece of white or yellow felt. Then I want to make a break down screen print to go over the surface to give all the color to the piece. I’m not sure how it will turn out but it should be a fun experiment.

Sketch Book Pages

Posted on August 8, 2014 by ruthlane under sketch book

I’ve been working in my sketchbook when I get a few minutes. I have been trying to do some “layering” of different techniques.

This one has been painted, printed and then I used colored pencils to better define the flower shapes.

The photo on this one is one my sister Margaret took by our house while she was here. I stenciled on the little blue flowers and then used Inktense pencils and permanent marker to draw the larger blue flower.

This one is another photo by Margaret and then the rest is paint.

I painted the background first on this page and then silk screened purple ink through a screen that was made from a photo of marbles in a vase. I then added colored pencil. I think I will add more to this but haven’t decided what yet.

This last page has several different layers including paint on the first layer, then silk screened dark green ink followed by a layer of light gesso. I then put more color back into the background with colored pencils. Again, I think I will add more to this one but not sure what yet.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a good weekend.

Completions

Posted on August 1, 2014 by ruthlane under Felt, surface design

I have been working steadily on my piece for the Totem exhibition as it needed to be completed before August 15th. I finished it today including mounting it on matte board for hanging.

Here’s the finished piece. You can click on the photo to see more detail. It doesn’t really have a name yet but it is supposed to look like a “totem blanket” that has been found as an artifact.

This is “Rising Reflections” finally attached to the canvas. I have had this sitting around for a while but since I was mounting the Totem piece, I thought I should just get this one mounted too.

And this is the small landscape that I needle felted, machine stitched and then hand stitched. I don’t really like it much though. Not sure what it needs but it has been finished for a while. Not sure what I’ll do with it but I’m sure it will go in the pile of stuff that still needs to be mounted or framed.

While I was taking photos, I heard lots of crashing around behind me in the woods. I turned around and this deer went running by. At least it wasn’t a bear 🙂

More Sketch Book Work

Posted on July 25, 2014 by ruthlane under sketch book, Sketching

I worked on more sketch book pages and backgrounds today. I also did a bit of felting but I’ll show you that on the Felting and Fiber Studio site soon. I printed out some of the photos that my sister Margaret and I took while she was here. There are of wildflowers and I want to work on sketching the flowers and developing further designs.

I also played around with some acrylic inks, acrylic flow release and rubbing alcohol.

I’m not sure I can tell what the flow release does. I will have to play around with it some more. Has anyone else used it?

These last two photos are using the rubbing alcohol. I painted first and then while the paint was still wet, I dropped alcohol onto the paint. It causes a kind of resist effect.

I really like this effect. It’s the rubbing alcohol again but instead of drops, I squeezed it in a stream across the page. It’s always fun playing with different color combinations and paint techniques. Have a good weekend!

Ruth Lane Art

Experimenting with Arts Endless Possibilities