Back to My Art - The Doe

I cannot believe it has been almost 3 months since I've done any serious art quilts. It has been a very frustrating time because I have wanted to begin another piece but they just don't always happen that way.
It was expedient to get the yard work out of the way after Spring FINALLY arrived, but it always takes too long, I love my garden and spend the very early minutes of the morning in the quiet doing Yoga. (It sounds virtuous but it simply keeps the joints moving.) And the last few hours of the day are also spent in the garden, listening to the birds, seeing what has bloomed and downing my medicinal cocktail.

But today, the mist in my mind parted and I knew what I wanted to try. Another Doe.
The last rendition sold quickly "Calm after the Storm".  But before that I did a close up, entitled "The Lady" It sold last year.
I think I'm haunted by the elegant shape of their eyes and head. I really have no desire to do a stag, with those magnificent racks. But the Does speak to me. They say Calm, Peace, Beauty.

This is the original version. Its was done "snippet" style, bits of pieces layered on the head and anchored with netting. The surrounding forest was lots of fun, cutting leaves and partially disguising the doe.

 

 

It was one of the first larger pieces I had done and though I was very pleased with the results, I was disappointed in my fabric choices/snippet effect. There hadn't been enough difference in the pieces to warrant the time and nuisance of stitching it all down. In subsequent pieces featuring animals I did not use that method. 

 

But I had liked what I achieved using the upholstery fabric and the deer from this winter's efforts.

 

 

There was a lot of colour play and depth using the complex materials.

So that's the method I thought I try again. I keep all my drawings and cartoon templates, so it was a five minute search to find the one I wanted.

 

 

A quick cut-out of a different material. This one has a heavy basket weave. I had two shades of this cloth. The Brown for the body and the greyer version for shadow.
Remembering some of the problems with the rough edges the last time I used the upholstery, I decided I would try using a "pillow case" method to contain the edges. A second piece of material ( in this case a brown cotton) is sewn to the outline and the piece is inverted trapping the rough edges inside.
Before that stage, I added the eyes, nose, ears colour and white markings with a cotton material.

 

The end result in a slightly 3 dimensional Doe. There is still some thread painting to be done to high light the features, and the backing or scene is still not decided, but my girl is ready to move on.