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Saturday, January 20, 2007

Nude in Taffeta - Putting Closure on an Unfinished Quilt

Well, this piece is a work in progress. I started it last summer by painting some synthetic taffeta I brought home from my mother's place when she was moving.

I wanted to sketch a female figure with thread on this fabric. Don't ask me why - it was just an idea that I came up with. I loved the colors and shades the paint left on the fabric and I wanted to preserve that as much as possible.

When it came time to do the thread work, I was scared and overwhelmed - paralyzed. It has been pinned on my design wall unfinished for months, so today I decided I would give it a go for better or worse. It needs to move off my design wall so I can move on.

Here is the result of today's stitching. Better than I thought it might be, but not exactly as good as the mental image that started me on this piece. I wanted to keep the image sketchy and somewhat impressionistic, but it seems to be lost on the fabric (and the face looks unhappy ... . er . . . demonic!). I am contemplating going in with another layer of paint, crayon, paintstick, or colored pencil - to either darken the figure or the background or to add shadows somewhere.

Any suggestions?

2 comments:

  1. I would certainly darken up the image, asit's quite hard to see. Maybe just the outline, or highlighting the outline in some way. Your nude does look very cross!

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  2. Your nude is great. Try boosting the contrast of your image. Did you take the photo with a flash? It might show up better if the light is diffused.

    Michaele Shapiro

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