Chipped Bananas

Yesterday you saw the bananas with green peel getting a colour change.

I worked steadily on the rest of the piece and got it done in time to post to the CQ group today. I also had time to sort out the rest of the process photos so I can show you how the work developed.

The first thing I did was to set up a 'still life' so I could have an idea in my head of proportions and shapes. I tried a couple bowls just to see if it made a difference.

Then I took it in to Paint Shop Pro and played with things like background.

I wanted to use the banana slice fabric to make a bowl or basket of dried banana chips. I didn't want to go to the shop to get them and pile them up! I borrowed a free image from the internet and altered the size and shape just to fit into my 'still life' so I could see what I needed to do for the real image.

In this case, colours didn't matter...as you can see above, I only had green bananas, which wouldn't do for a yellow piece! so, I selected the bananas made them a different layer,slotted the bowl of banana chips in there and put the bananas back in place.

Then I played with colour background ideas. At this point I got a bit frustrated because I don't know the programme well enough to get it to do what I wanted and it was taking too long. The local Advisory Committee (otherwise known as a Certain Young Man) was walking 50 miles over the South Downs, so I couldn't ask him. So, I left it where I had got it to and displayed it large enough to glance over and refer to now and then.

The next plan was to pull out all the yellows and figure out what wanted to go where. I found a ripe banana fabric in there too! (It had been purchased with potential dragon possibilities.) I also had a textured swatch of fabric that I had dyed yellow way back when I was doing C+G. One of the other students made a dressing gown of the fabric - white - and I asked for scraps to play with. This is the first time I have done anything with any of them!

As you can see, for the pieces which represented the still life, I just folded or rolled them up to be visually the approximate size. Then I auditioned fabrics for the background. Here are a couple choices.

It was interesting that with all the golden hued yellows that the acid yellow colour worked best - the difference gave it a lot more interest.

Then I tried out background proportion. Going back to the computer 'still life' I had created, I knew I wanted it to look like 2 different walls.

I wasn't too happy with the 'table'. I remembered I had a little bit of yellow check...much better. So, I tried the backgrounds again and found I still wanted the mottled golden with the acid yellow.

After I settled on proportion, I started cutting pieces of the background fabrics and the table. I cut them slightly bigger in case I decided to shift them slightly when I got down to the actual layout. I also cut out a bowl and developed a pile of banana chips from the fabric I had stitched. For the banana shapes, I printed my computer 'still life' and then cut out the bananas and used it as a template to cut them from the ripe banana fabric. I sketched a bit on it with a brown thin sharpie just so I could see I was getting the layout right. It would also work for a stitching guideline.

Before I actually started stitching, I left it laying on my large piece of cardboard whilst I went and made a stew.
Yes, this is part of the process! When you come back with fresh eyes, you can see what might need to be different. In this case, I did shift the background a bit. But I also realised it needed something in the upper right to give visual balance overall. with all the stuff happening on the table, it was too bottom heavy. So, I grabbed a piece of golden orange silk I had with the thought that it would make a great curtain. Not only did it give balance, it also gave life to the monocromatic scheme.

However, I started thinking it wanted stitching or stencilling on it to give contrast on the plain wall. No time for that! Try this piece of swirly golden yellow which I though was too much before. Oh, just right. At this point I didn't have photos...it was time to sew.

And after the sewing...Cool! I used a light brown water colour pencil to create shading and definition.

and here is the result!!!

I learned a lot about monocromatic scenes. They aren't easy. You wish you could use a bit more than 25% of another colour. But you also find out how important texture and colour values are.

Bring on Blue!!!!

Edit: I have linked this to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's.