Pelicans... we have progress!

It's been awhile since I worked on the pelicans.
Client work, life, you know, all those things that happen when you're not looking.

Awhile back I did start to paint the background - start... it still needs a lot of work, both with paint and later with thread, but it was a start.

So last week I moved my schedule around and worked on the pelicans. It was bliss - I desperately needed to create. I traced all my pieces onto foundation paper for the applique.

I started with the concrete, a beautiful ivory silk. It somehow seems awful that I'd be slowly turning into algae, fish gut, and bird-poo covered concrete. Well, if you've ever been to this boat ramp, it's directly next to the fish cleaning station - which makes it a favorite of the pelicans.

It's only the paint process - so much more will happen when the thread finally gets added. Sometimes I must say this aloud - to make sure I hear it and don't over paint.

Then on to the dock. The piece of silk I have isn't quite the color I need, but I made it work. Like I said in my facebook post -- the need to create is far greater than the need for perfection!

I wanted the lines of the silk to work with the wood grain of the dock planks. Well, this wasted a lot of silk. Sometimes we must sacrifice in the creation process...

I started with all the dark grain lines

Then adding a little white

Then some sienna

And then some silver and pewter to give the wood an aged look

Then I went back with the fabric pen and added some detail

The dock still needs a bit more work, and I'm not fully satisfied with the paint part yet.  There isn't enough definition of each plank (at least to me). No worries, I'll get it and hopefully before I get to that over-painted part. I know and have to remind myself that when I quilt the thread will also do a lot of the work.

Honestly, I know why I'm unhappy with the dock... yep, I took a shortcut. I made the entire dock from one piece of silk. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have made each plank section its own piece of applique. No, I'm not redoing the piece, but I will most likely spend more time fixing the dock than if I had made each piece separately. I should know by now that shortcuts aren't always as short as they appear.

So that's it on the progress for now... stay tuned, we''ll see what happens with that dock!