Final - Doe in the Forest 2 - sold

Stitching in the evergreen boughs took all morning. The branch material was a combination of grey and black wool. Each is zigzagged into place. The white pine needles, bundles of 5, are done in 3 colours. The contrast between the 3 is subtle but it prevents it from looking flat. Darker colours are underneath as if in shadow. The original pine boughs at the very back are a deeper green from the others almost black.
Drawing the needles and the leaves out over the matting adds a dimension to the piece. This was suggested to me by a friend when I worked the original. It does add a little je ne sais quoi.
Final inside dimensions 24"x18".

Addendum: Delighted to tell you this girl is off to Indiana to live with a childhood friend. The last time we saw each other at a Highschool reunion, she had remarked that she wanted one of my works of Art.

Foreground - Day 4

Almost there.
The deep red leaves add some heeded weight. The brown border with a quarter inch black flange give the whole piece definition and solidity. Can't have this girl blowing away in the wind!

My intentions now are to add some final pine boughs, close up. That way they will remain wispy and increase the depth of colour without weight. The blue sky has almost disappeared. You can just glimpse it here and there.

Foreground - Day 3

Now it's all in the detail and the detail takes time.

As I add more leaves and stems to the piece, the dull background disappears and makes sense colour wise. My intentions are to take the foliage out over the framing, so some of the stem material (wool) and leaves are left unsecured t the edges.

Background - Day 2

At this point the size of the piece becomes important. I need a substrate to attach all these pieces to. I really like using the lightweight interfacing or the pattern weigh non-woven poly. It adds no bulk or weight and I can manipulate it without fearing that it will tear or separate. A lot still needs to be done before I layer it with canvas and batting to it's full size.

Over the pieced "sky", I layered odd pieces of an un inspiring background. This is necessary to fill the w holes that will occur as the foreground is created.
I placed several pieces of wool yarn and stitched them with invisible zigzag. These are the tree trunks in the background. Trees may be straight but they don't necessarily grow straight. Ramrod straight is just too unnatural.

 

 At the top, I stitched in some pine boughs. There will be more in the foreground as well. I wanted to relive the too brown background with a bit of green. Evergreens are all I can use because this is autumn.

The Doe is auditioned on the surface as each layer of the foreground is added. A few larger tree trunks are added. Now to add a few more evergreen boughs and leafy branches and then stitch her down, batting and backing.

The Doe - Working the background

In the past I have used a lot of preprinted "cheater" cloth. Material that had a forest scene or a winter theme. I want to move away from that so I have tried a few different things. Smaller pieces each part of the background can be cut and sewn or thread painted. I have tried tiling and it has some great features about it. But this time I wanted to try a random mosaic look for the distant forest. Patches of fall leaf colour and bright sky shining through.

I started with some batik fat quarters, selected 7 and cut strips roughly 2 inches wide. These I sewed together randomly.

 

 

 

 

The 3 browns were almost a match to the Doe and two multies of orange and greens represented the fall leaves.

After sewing 2 strips together I cut them all into 2 inch pieces and re-stitched everything again and again till I have a full panel. This will be the placed immediately behind the Doe.

 

 

But of course, the sky is not regular patches in the forest. So I took the rotary cutter and made 5+slashes.

 

 And sewed it all back together again. I had hoped I might avoid this part but it looks so much better.