I know a rooster seems like an odd choice for a felt picture.  But I had seen a picture of this Dutch Bantam Rooster and I was intrigued.  The colors are vibrant and cheerful.

It took me a while to work up the courage and the process to try to capture this beautiful creature in felt.

First, I made two merino batts to use as a background.  One for the ground, one for the sky.  I laid them over a batt of Coopsworth fiber as a base.

Then I cut out a prefelt backing for the rooster and the comb. I needle felted the head and  different colored feathers. The eye is a small garnet inclusion.

When it was finished, I placed it on the background.  Since I wanted the rooster to be the star, I didn’t add a lot of detail only some different color fibers to give a feel of flowing tall grasses.

I was careful not to over full it.  I wanted the whole picture to have a hazy feel to it which would also help keep a feathery effect of the rooster.

Once it was done drying,  I did some more needle felting to give it dimension and added a few more details on the grasses.

If you’ve noticed that there is a lot of area around the rooster, its because I was thinking of putting it over a stretcher bars or canvas.  What do you think?