End of Day Dragon

This is my recent piece for the latest Fast Friday challenge.
Work in a Series: My series is dragons.
Color Concept: Neutrals with accent
Composition Concept: Depth

I have been working with Tsueniko antiquing inks for some projects. They give a muted or neutral effect, so I decided to spray them onto tea-dyed linen. I tore a piece of paper around the same size as my fabric in such a way as to create a landscape background. I used the pieces as masks for the spray. The terracotta came out much stronger than the others. Perhaps because I was working outside and fighting the wind to keep the narrow strip exposed, so probably sprayed closer to the work. I then created a dragon with a different tea-dyed linen cut into shapes and fused together and sprayed it as well. When it dried, I worked into the piece some with metallic crayon, thinking it would give accent. At this point I was disappointed because everything was so neutral, everything all blended together. It was all the same value.

I left it for a bit, but I knew if I didn't keep at it I would get behind. I use these for exercises, so it is mainly about the learning process. Eventually I decided to work into the dragon with Sharpie markers in hopes to make it stand out from the background.

This helped alot, so I started to work into the other areas. It helped me to see how I could thread paint it even further. Thread painting gave more of the value difference I wanted. The concept of neutral still eluded me, but I felt I had begun to get a grip on the scene. The bush/tree in the front is a bit too lolly pop-like, and the river bank really needed to get narrower at the top, but actually knowing what it needs to work is a positive. I don't think at this stage these things could be fixed with this particular piece, but I would know what to do another time.

Because I am also working within the limits of the Contemporary Quilt journal quilt challenge size limits (6in x12in), it really stretches me. I probably might have done better if I started with a random size and could move things around or trim away. So, all in all, I feel I have done fairly well with all the various constraints.

No big stories this time. Just a dragon resting after a long flight at the end of the day.

(Well, if I had a bit more spare brain space at the moment, there would be much more to it, but you know how it is!)

Don't forget, if you comment on Sunday's post, you can enter the draw for one of my new painted doodle designs.