Eilish Tree

A new idea to try...

I have been desperate lately to try out the idea of blending fabric with paint! The two things I love most are painting & sewing so I've been wondering how I could combine the two. I made this fairy last year on some canvas fabric. I made her really quick but am quite happy with the result.I used watercolours in the background then fabric for teh collage. I sewed the design on top. I love doing this sort of free-hand sewing and I am really happy with the eyes!

Last week I decided to try the technique on a canvas already stretched. I'd had promised my youngest son a painting & he wanted a superhero so I sketched a whimsical superhero sitting on the moon. For the background I created a patchwork of fabrics (I am absorbed with some of the techniques in Kelly Rae Roberts book "Taking Flight", you can find her blog here). Kelly Rae uses papers for her patchwork but I decided to use the stash of amazing fabrics I have.

After applying the background I then separately cut out the fabric to piece together the superhero & the moon. I free-sewed them onto some fabric using matching colour thread. Then I stuck the collage onto the canvas with some gel medium after coating the fabric with clear gesso.

A close up of the head. I painted the hair with acrylics & basically painted & highlighted over the fabric.

I finished it off with spatters of white & silver to make stars. I am pretty happy with the overal picture but unfortunately the fabric has bucked a lot more than I would like. It does add texture to the piece but I think next time I might have to sew the pieces separately & stick them on to the canvas one by one. What do you think?

The main thing is that my son loves it! It was a good first experiment & most of all I enjoyed doing it!