Felt Layout From A Painting
I really liked using a painting for inspiration on the last felt piece I made, so I thought I’d do it again and take more photos of the process. I had a look through some photos and found one I liked, then started the search for the actual painting. I was a bit confused because the photo and actual painting didn’t quite match, but I realised the photo was from while I was working on it, so it wasn’t quite finished! I took a new photo of the finished one:
I used a similar technique to the ones I showed last week, thinly overlaying acrylic paint. This looks different because it’s on a different type and weight of paper. I started with a couple of layers of Jonquil Merino, it looks more like a ‘Buttercup’ in the photos, but it’s really a prime yellow:
Originally I planned to do all aditional layers with fibres, but decided to do some more ‘background’ with Merino. I don’t have exact matches for the colours, but they’re closer than they look on these photos.
I realised that I always lay my felt out in a ‘landscape’ orientation, for some reason – it just feels natural – but it meant I was working from the painting the wrong way up. It didn’t occur to me straight away to just rotate the layout. I got there eventually though! So, once I turned it around, I added some black prefelt ‘blobs’ :
Then added some more Merino. I did add it thinly, but 3 photos of a few wisps and a few wisps more didn’t seem to show much, so this is all the Merino I added:
This is the first lot of Nylon Staple fibre I added, the blues and blue/greens:
It looks like a lot, but really isn’t, I think it’s just because it is bright. This next photo is the yellow and green/yellow Nylon added, which again looks like a lot:
When I compared the layout to the original photo, it’s obvious it’s more of a ‘copy’ than just inspired by the painting, but not quite right, either, so I might make a few adjustments before I felt it.
I’ll show the finished piece next time. I forgot how much longer it takes doing a layout when taking photos of the process so ran out of time to felt it.
6 thoughts on “Felt Layout From A Painting”
The layout looks great. I look forward to seeing the end result. I might have to try this with some of my artwork from class.
Thanks, Ruth 🙂
Yeah, you should!
It’s great that you’re using your own painting to create a felt ‘painting’! It’s quite a challenge as the mediums are so very different. Like what you’ve done so far.
We empathise with your frustration of running out of time – and often of light – when taking process photos!
Thanks, Lyn 🙂
Yeah, and the urge to pile fibres on or use ones which aren’t really right has to be fought too. I should have made more of all that sun we had for weeks, even right in front of the window it wasn’t very light. At least there are a lot more daylight hours at the mo, to try and get pics!
I like it. I wonder what it would look like just flattened by glass. It’s funny you talk about not enough light. My problem is to much light if I go outside. When I work inside I need to find enough clear space to take a picture.
Thanks, Ann 🙂
We need that hairspray they use on tv, so we can hold layouts in place, and not need glass! Are clip-frames still around? It’d be interesting to try a layout especially for behind glass.