Man at the park, portrait

[caterina]

Hello.
I am working on a new portrait, of a man seen at one local park in the summer.

www.dropbox.com/s/htvojz6caxl1tdy/img_20211204_090020.jpg?dl=0

I think that I will need to add stitches for the branches that I laid out in wool during the felting underneath the greenery, hoping that they would be glimpsed here and there through the green, but somehow the brown and black fibers did not migrate upwards in the least! How come that they always migrated when I did not want them to, and in this case I rubbed and rolled and nothing happened? Should I have done something differently or used synthetic fibers or other types of fibers than wool?

Also, I don't quite like the black shadowing over his head, I will try to needlefelt some lighter colour over it, to mitigate that black there. I feel that it does not really work that well.

I also am a bit put out by the photo: I can't seem to manage to get the colour details of this particular portrait show on photo. For instance, the sky or the green grass are all variegated, but they seem a slab of grey-blue and a slab of green in the pic. I guess it is to be expected with a mobile camera, but I wonder why it is so particularly with this portrait and less so with others..

[MTRuth]

Another nice portrait! I see branches in the trees and greenery. I am not sure you really need to emphasize them. And wool has a mind of its own. I usually see the most migration with really heavy fulling. But if you want more branches, a bit of judicious stitching would definitely add them back in. I agree about the black shadowing, it looks like he has a black aura

Photography with felt/fiber art is very difficult. We have had many discussions here about taking photos. If you use the search function, you should be able to find some ideas on how to improve your photos.

[lyn]

I agree that the black is overpowering - other than that it's a lovely portrait and the background is full of life!

You are not alone in your frustration with the camera - we all empathise!

[caterina]

Dec 4, 2021 19:40:28 GMT MTRuth said:

Another nice portrait! I see branches in the trees and greenery. I am not sure you really need to emphasize them. And wool has a mind of its own. I usually see the most migration with really heavy fulling. But if you want more branches, a bit of judicious stitching would definitely add them back in. I agree about the black shadowing, it looks like he has a black aura

Photography with felt/fiber art is very difficult. We have had many discussions here about taking photos. If you use the search function, you should be able to find some ideas on how to improve your photos.

Thank you, Ruth: your comments are always very helpful.

[caterina]

Dec 4, 2021 21:25:44 GMT lyn said:

I agree that the black is overpowering - other than that it's a lovely portrait and the background is full of life!

You are not alone in your frustration with the camera - we all empathise!

Thank you, Lyn: I am glad that you think the same!

[Shepherdess]

Looks pretty good except the black is a bit heavy. I think your plan to needle a lighter colour over it will be good. Photographing wool is a real trial.

[caterina]

Dec 5, 2021 19:37:48 GMT Shepherdess said:

Looks pretty good except the black is a bit heavy. I think your plan to needle a lighter colour over it will be good. Photographing wool is a real trial.

Thank you for your comments, Ann.

I have managed to complete some of the fixing in the afternoon, before the winter day became too dark for me to see the true colours. I will go back to it tomorrow, if I will have time, and see if it needs more needling.

One thing that I don't like much is the different look achieved with needlefelting, that you can really see when all the rest of the painting is wetfelted, as in my case. So, I think that maybe I will go on with a second wetting and felting after I have needlefelted all the bits in place, maybe. Or is it just me feeling that a needlefelted patch will look odd and fluffier when all the rest is wetfelted?

[MTRuth]

I think adding the fiber with needle felting and then wet felting again is a good idea. That way the surface will all look the same without having a different texture from the needle felting.

[caterina]

Here, I made the changes, I think that it is not too bad, but maybe still a bit too dark around the left side of the man?

www.dropbox.com/s/csbtmugifkhso0q/img_20211206_100406.jpg?dl=0

I wetted and lightly soaped, and rubbed a bit the needlefelted part, and I think that it is better now. Maybe I should insist on that and wetfelt it a bit more, mh, I don't know.

[MTRuth]

That's a definite improvement. The darkness on the left side now doesn't draw the eye as much as it did before.

[caterina]

Dec 6, 2021 16:12:46 GMT MTRuth said:

That's a definite improvement. The darkness on the left side now doesn't draw the eye as much as it did before.

Thank you, Ruth! :-)