In one of our gardens we have a David Austin rose, which is deep red and has a true 'old fashioned' rose scent. Sadly, the local possums like to eat it's beautiful buds, so I try & pick them before they become food. Their calyxes are like a dancer's arms, so graceful & elegant.
Using two thicknesses of copic pens, I began by drawing line sketches. Using flat colour, I highlighted the difference between the rose bud and the calyx.
It was the beautiful calyx lines that I fell in love with, so I traced each one, cut them separately, and had a little play with grouping & overlapping the lines.
It took a LONG time for me to find a combination that I was content with!
Roses in hand, I then rummaged through the fabric stash, auditioning fabrics alongside each other, finding the right combinations.
After working out which fabric would sit in which layer within my 'sandwich' of fabrics, I transferred the design and started sewing in the stitching lines. In the process of getting my supplies for this little project together, I discovered that I was seriously short on red sewing thread! (Out came the shopping list!!) In the end, I chose a variegated green thread, which shows up against the fabric, so I had to be careful my stitching was smooth!!
Then the cutting back began. This is always like Christmas to me! So much fun! The first few cuts boded well!
A considerable amount of cutting back later & this is the final result.
Whilst I quite like the flowing nature of the lines, the background is perhaps a bit too busy & distracting. There is something not 'right' with this piece.
Recreating it into greyscale, via the magic of computer photo tools, I can see that the tonal values of the focal shapes are too similar to those of the background. They blend in rather than draw the audience's attention to them.
Perhaps if I had added some sort of shadow to break up that sameness,...as I've tried to illustrate above with my very poor computer mouse drawing skills, it may have been a more successful composition.
This is the value of exercises...to learn!
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