A few weeks ago I took part in a short workshop on textile printing and design, and found it an interesting and worthwhile experience. I came home with three pieces of printed fabric with similar designs in different colours, and although nothing that I had done could be considered “art” in itself, I thought that the three pieces would make interesting backgrounds to embroideries. So I worked out some suitable designs to go with the fabrics, and this is the first one
The first print
The printed pattern looked very woodsy, and because the colours in this one were on the dark side, the print demanded either a very dark or a very light subject. At first I thought that the iridescent sheen of a grackle with go well against the dark greens but of course the grackle is an American bird and nobody in Britain would recognise it. So I made it a crow instead
Crow insead of grackle
Of course it presented the same design problem as those blackbirds I posted a few weeks ago – an all-black bird just appears as a silhouetted shape and has no structure. So the crow is appliqueed with slightly streaky hand-painted fabric, and I used various shades of grey and black thread for the rest of it I actually like it quite a lot – the crow has character and he goes well against the printed background. Now I just have to work out what to do with the other two pieces – more birds in woods, I think, but different ones
Oh, I *LIKE* that! The fuzzy effect on the belly feathers draws my eye there first, but my favorite thing is how you did the wing.
The whole effect of the ruffled look on the wing, the belly fuzz, and the complaining, open beak definitely make me think this guy is going to tell us his opinions!
Great job!
Oh, I missed seeing this wonderful crow, is it too late to ask for this design?