I don't immediately move to replace pieces that are sold because the spark isn't there anymore. So I usually begin something new. Ever since I finished the deer in the winter scene I've been looking at this cartoon and photo I had on my wall. It's been there for at least 3 months.
I made the cartoon back in the fall by enlarging this image, again from the weather network of amateur photos, tracing it onto a full size sheet of chart paper. And there it sat.
It's a beautiful action photo of what I assume is a female mallard. At first I was happy to do the mallard but as time went on I decided I wanted to do the Canada Goose instead. Do you know there are over a dozen different varieties of Canada Geese, and guess what? None of them have white bellies. And not one photographer had captured this motion. I needed to adapt the duck photo.
So I spent a lot of time thinking about feathers. On my smaller pieces they could be suggested with batiks and a little thread, but this needed individual treatment for each feather. It wasn't until yesterday after looking at hundreds of internet photos, I figured out how to do the belly of tight, overlapping beige/brown/cream feathers.
I traced the original onto some white muslin. (I'm out of my pattern interfacing material, a non woven substrate that I use to build my features off the background.)
I had in my stash this mottled material which I cut into strips about an inch wide and began layering them on the belly of the goose. I glued them into place using a glue stick. At this point I'm undecided how to finish this, ie netting or not.
As I moved up the belly I changed to strips of beige and then finally white, up to the line where the black neck descends.
Using fusible material I cut and place the neck/head. ( I had lengthened the neck of the duck earlier), inserting and additional white piece for the neck band. Then I trimmed it back almost to the original line of the belly and shoulder. Now it looked natural.
The wings can have a composite portion high near the shoulder joints, as can the tail, but the majority of the wing feathers will have to be cut and placed individually.
It took some trial and error until I found a combination in my stash to work the feathers. In almost every picture I looked at, the underside of the wing was different or the pattern on the top side was lighter. In the end I went with a gradation of beige to brown.
After the tail, I started working with the main wings. The forewing shows only the top while the far wing shows the underside. Hence the overlap of the feathers reverses. As it was in shadow I worked only with the darker colours. And then half way through the second wing.... I realized I would run out of material. A quick run to the store and disaster. There was no more of the material in the store. I knew if I drove 50 miles I could find it but at 4:00 pm Sunday, I just couldn't leave this unfinished.
So I went with plan B and bought a darker version, almost black.
Fusible web can be removed, slowly and carefully. Fortunately I had only tacked most pieces so I was able to shift some of the brown feathers from one wing to another. Then I finished both wings with the darker colour.
She hangs off the cloth right now and until I decide on the background I will leave it as it. I just noticed I need to reverse the tail and some of her feathers may need a little shortening and of course all the thread highlighting needs to be done. But that's enough for today.
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