Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

After sketching the design for the thorny palm quilt, I was ready to audition fabric combinations.  Purple background or green? 

Click any image for a larger view

Since the purple background provides such a nice contrast, I selected it. 

I wanted the background fabric shapes to hint at the horizontal thorns I’d be adding.  You can see how I achived that in the photo below.  Also in this photo, I was beginning to consider the challenge of making the stalks look 3D. 

I experimented with creating a 3D effect with paint.  See my experiments below, on the right. 

Hmm, that seemed to work, so I committed to it.

But the result was not to my liking.  I mean, it DID look 3D.  But, not quite right somehow.  And it seemed pretty boring to only have 2 fabrics on the stalks.  So, I went back to my usual technique of collaging multiple fabrics.  I left the painted stalks in place as my patterns.

Better.

Much better. 

Next up, thorns and berries.  I had several things to consider.
– How fat should the thorns be?  I wanted them to show up, but to still look very sharp.
– And what color should the berries be?  They’d almost surely create a high contrast with the background.  Would they take over?

I love these artistic puzzles!  SO much more fun than a pattern with all the answers already provided.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  Check out that top photo again.  I’ve purposely shown you a wide shot so you can see all the lovely fabric postcards and artists’ trading cards I’ve received.  Click the photo to get a better view.  From top to bottom, they were made by Linda Matthews, Holly Knott, Rosemary Claus-Gray, Dale Anne Potter, and Andrea Luliak.  Aren’t I a lucky girl?

Ellen Lindner