Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Geo I

Kathy... this challenge got me! It was not easy at all... I went out and took a picture of our mountains.
Geo I
Then I defined the lines in Photoshop and set it as background on my computer for a few days to look at and think. We have a favorite spot where we used to stay with our 5th wheel at Hurricane, Utah and I tried to remember some of the colors and because it has been a few years now, I cannot remember the lake, but it is not on the same side of the road as Zion..... and I did add ...I think, anyway... somethings unexpected.. Anyway, I am adding this one to my 'crap quota' for the year.
Because I really want to remember this, I wanted to do a piece for my fabric journal.. so it is 9 x 6 and I have it in my Journal already.
I learned a lot.. mostly what does not work. I had more stitching and I took it out, you can see the needle holes. In this case.. less would be more.

I used a feather to do the 'rock work' because of the size, I couldn't find anything with a small enough point
nor the color I wanted. I am going to post some photos of the feather at work on my blog and will link to it when I do.
I don't really expect any comments, but if you can find something redeeming, I will file those comments
in my Fabric Journal.

Kathy... that was an awesome Challenge.

9 comments:

fastfriday said...

Carol I am glad you enjoyed the challenge, my piece is coming slowly. I like the movement in your piece, and the sense of overlapping, what I question is color placement, (not the actual colors but their values) remember in a landscape that things in the distance not only have less detail but are softer colors. Even in the dry west colors are going to be muted by the water vapor in the atmosphere so are actually grayed or muted in the distance while brights and dark darks should be in the foreground only. It is a bit counter intuitive and when I am doing landscapes in color I have to keep reminding myself to keep distance colors muted and not as bright or as dark as foreground colors.

Kathy

janice pd said...

Carole, I commend you for putting something up that you are less than pleased with. I suspect that you also know why it didn't work. However, I think it has good bones and should you decide later to take it further it just might turn into your vision of one of your favorite places.

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

Carole, I really like all the textures that you have. They really show what we are trying to achieve in this challenge. I too think the color placement could have been more 'landscapey' but then we were to use unexpected color. For me this is a fun piece and I know your 'brain' is boiling with what you can do with it :)
Good job.

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

I digress, it is a very good interpretation of the picture. You do have lights in the front, the only thing I might change is the yellow...but again we were to use different colors and your values are real close to the original...this little one sort of grows on one.

Cherie in Del Mar said...

Carole, what do you mean about "using feathers"? I think you have interpreted the challenge very well. I'm not sure about the yellow...is that part of the sky?
Fun piece...Cherie

Joni said...

I like all the texture you achieved in this piece. I just noticed the little trees silhouetted against the sunset - cool! Don't be too hard on yourself, it you learned by doing it was well worth it. Thanks for sharing.

fastfriday said...

Carol
LOL well I had that one totally wrong visually, and your layout of values makes more sense. I think you were trying to make the shapes a bit too simplified, If I were doing it I would try superimposing 3-D box shapes over the photograph instead of just outlines, that would give a couple more planes that could intersect instead of overlap. Have you ever studied Mondrian? He didn't start out painting abstract grids, in fact he was a naturalist who then started to simplify shapes, his tree studies are fascinating. As you have discovered abstracting shapes isn't easy to do. However I think the piece does work, just not the way you wanted it to originally, look at it again in a few weeks then decide.

Kathy Walker

Betty Warner said...

What the others said plus this. I enjoy the feeling that a couple of your big rocks seem to be 'nestled in'.

Often when you look at mountains one or two will seem 'nestled' among the others. When they are photographed the light doesn't allow that feeling to emerge. When interpreted in other media, the requirement to get the distance right through the use of effective values, means that you can't get that 'nestled in' sense about any of it. IMHO.

I always look forward to seeing your work. I am inspired to do a better job of keeping a fabric journal.

Carole said...

Betty..thank you for your 'eye'... I missed seeing the 'nestled in' but now that you mention it, I see it too. I wonder if that was what I didn't like about it... because I was more focused on the light and where it was coming from, perhaps no forest because of trees?
ha.

Kathy.. good point about the 'box' idea...as opposed to outlines. I will be trying that.