Friday, April 08, 2011

Wind Dancer

I am late on this challenge, but since I missed the last two completely, I am happy to finally get something done. This challenge was fun and initially I had a couple of ideas, but settled on doing a female Native American dancer. I traced the image onto white fabric using pen and ink. I trapuntoed the figure and then added batting and backing and quilted the entire piece before adding color. Initially I had an orange painted background, but could not make it work to my satisfaction, so I repainted it with brown and copper mixed together, added more dark brown and finally finished with copper highlights on top. I used Inktense Watercolor Pencils, Tsukinkeo Inks, gel pens, and Jaquard and Setacolor paints. I tried to do some highlighting and shading. I did not get a good mixture of contrasts in the piece, which I think would have made it more successful, but will chalk that up as a learning experience. I do like the movement in the piece which I think was achieved through the background quilting. The piece measures approximately 14 x 24 inches.

6 comments:

  1. Louise, I love that you made your diamonds asymmetrical with one side engaging the edge and the other showing some the crossings.This asymmetrical element helps balance that the dancer is centered on the plane. The only part that sort of bothers me is that the diamond path directly behind the dancer stops abruptly without continuing forward. Does that make sense?

    Over all this is a wonderful job and I adore the colors you chose.

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  2. I love the shine you achieved in the triangle paths. As I understand it you quilted the paths and then painted them (instead of piecing them). Very clever. I picture the paths as where the dancer has gone. I wonder if you outlined the dancer with a black marker if it would bring her forward more.
    Great job of quilting this piece. And nice color selection. Thank you for sharing this lovely piece with us.

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  3. Janice,

    Thanks for your comments. You are right, the diamontds do not follow all the way through by the section at her feet. I am always favoring a more asymetrical look and in my mind, the triangles ended under her right foot rather than continuing forward. I can see how it might be a little disconcerting. Thanks for the heads up!

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  4. Louise, this was so worth the wait! It's fabulous. I like the movement created by the triangles and the quilting in the brown background. I like that you used trapunto around the main figure and the triangles helping set them off.

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  5. The movement is awesome. Feels like she is dancing for whoever is looking at her. The quilting is very good and of course the bright colors pull every thing together

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  6. Louise, this is absolutely stunning. Lot's of movement just a beautiful piece of art.

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