Playing with Chickens

Years ago, I prayed that they would make home copy machines. I envied businesses that had thier own machines. I used to run down to the copy store all the time, to reverse, or enlarge my drawings and patterns. Yea! now home computer printers and Photoshop programs do that and so much more. I traced some chicken photos onto clear plastic sheet protectors with a Sharpie marker, copied it into my computer, and printed out an assortment of chickens.

First I played with them on my drawn pattern, moving them around and arranging them in different ways. I decided some needed to be reversed, so they look into the scene, not out of it, and some needed to be larger or smaller. Getting the scale right is important to me, and they need to be in the right perspective, this all helps to give the picture depth. I like the large one in front, I think she will be off the edge into the border, or into an uneven edge, if I don't end up using a border. The two in the back are smaller for distance. This is why I love my printer, I can make them 120% or 80% of the original size or any thing in between.

I did my final placement on the fabric, ending up with 5 chickens instead of 3. This makes more work, but also adds complexity to the design, you can just see her sitting amid her chickens, trying to fly, with feathers in her hand. Now the fun part, picking out fabrics! I am now officially on Christmas Break, I drive school bus, so I can give lots of attention to my quilting, and maybe get this ready to quilt.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see what other wonderful textile artists are doing for the holidays.