New Work - Auditioning Background and Trees

I had three pieces of cloth, one full metre as an anchor background, one brillant green FQ and one (brand new, hot off the ironing board) green/black FQ. These are my background. Not much material in the FQs

et Voila......


I removed about 8 inches from one side of the base fabric and sliced and tiled the two FQ. Absolutely no waste.

Really nice mottled leafy affect.

I also spent some time "Painting" the birch trees using the ink pencils over the painted cloth. These too are spread with water and heat set.

I drew pencil lines to mark a rough size for the tree boles, about an inch or two wider than the finished width. This gives me extra to trim and twist to make the trunks less than painfully straight.
The ink is applied to either dry or wet material. It doesn't move very far so work has to be faster and in discrete spots.

 
And of course before I work the big guys in the front, there are all the little guys in the back.
Again some will be hidden but I put them in anyways.

I unraveled some burlap and took the edge off the light brown colour by dipping it in "dirty" paint water. I had intended to anchor then by stitching leaves over top, but decided it would be too difficult to remove the stabilizer. So, I only stitched down the upper half, the branches, running almost always, on or over the string.
The lower parts of the trees are anchored with only the masking tape and a few pins, until I decided what sits next, in front of them.

There will be leaves added, but not yet.