Shoal of Fish - Coral Reef Series.

This is a step by step account of how the piece was created. 

The Base Foundation Fabric

The Base Cloth.

Starting with a small piece of an old cotton sheet, I wet the fabric and wrung out most of the water. With watered down blue screen printing ink that was still a bit lumpy I randomly brushed the colour over the fabric rubbing it in to spread out the lumps and to create a swirly watery pattern. 

Next I dripped drops of water here and there to lighten areas and sprinkled salt in in spots to create the watery texture. A really random process of trial and error!

After drying in the sun, I brushed off the salt and placed the fabric between two sheets of newspaper - with the iron on the hottest setting I heat set the ink. After which I rinsed out the fabric with cold water making sure to get rid of all the salt residue and repeated the drying/iron process. I think if you leave any salt on the fabric over time it may break it down and eat it away? So better safe than sorry!

... Making the fish

Back to school or shoal? 

Well I never... Schooling and shoaling is a kind of collective animal behaviour by fish. Any group of fish that stay together for social reasons is said to be shoaling, and if the shoal is swimming in the same direction together, it is schooling. (I googled that!) 

To get the right shape of the fish I experimented with shapes on my sewing machine -  trying out the different programmed embroidery stitches. I think I am one of the very few people who actually try to use all those stitches that come with fancy machines! But then again I do tend to stick to my favorites.

I have an Elna Diva - given to me by my parents for my 21st birthday (all those years ago) and it has been my prized possession ever since. It is the one thing I own that I would run screaming into a burning building to save!

It has hundreds of pre-programmed embroidery stitches along with cartridges/cassettes with even more stitches. Not only that but there are also rotating buttons so that you can turn the stitches sideways, mirror image and horizontally so the possibilities are endless. 

I tried out lots of different combinations of stitches and manipulated the shapes trying to form the bodies of the fish - but I found that there was not enough 'movement' and the fish looked a bit flat - facing either right or left - no way to convey random movement - to slightly turn or twist the body to represent the swimming fish darting this way and that.

Playing around with stitches.

So I ended up painting in the general shape of the body with acrylic paint. 

Starting with a blue base in (Ultra Marine) I added a stripe of white to the belly and a blob for the eye. On top of the white stripe I used a touch of fluorescent Pink (Pébéo 371) then a blob of black for the iris. 

Next I began to embroider the yellow tails using stitch No.75 manipulating the stitch length and width to create a subtle differences in the fish tails. 

Programmed Machine Stitches - Elna Diva.

For the tails of the three bottom fish swimming downwards - I Freehand machine stitched to get the right "sway" of the tails, along with the little baby fish for which the programmed tail stitch was too big. 

Sometimes I miss judged the the distance to fish body and so left a little gap between the tail and the body - this I corrected with an orange Prismacolor pencil. 

On the whole I was happy with how the fish turned out but they still looked a bit flat - so I added a yellow halo with a pale lemon coloured pencil along the spines.

Getting to the good stuff!

At this point I attached strips of scrap fabric to the sides to extend the base fabric to fit my embroidery hoop - I prefer to use a large hoop that lets me work on a lot of different areas at a time so I don't have to keep stopping to preposition the hoop, I also find that when using a small hoop the more you move it around the more chance there is to warp the base and it also causes any appliqued bits to fray. 

Completed Fish.

I hand painted in the sides of the underwater "valley" and added some sea grass. I always water down acrylic paint when painting on textile pieces to stop it from stiffening and leaving a plasticy finish.

Beginning to build the coral reef.

And from this point I got a bit carried away and forgot to take progress pics!

The Quilted background

I took a piece of 1inch thick quilting batting and peeled away a thin layer – that was a bit uneven and lumpy (which is a good thing) and placed this behind the base fabric. Without a backing fabric as I wanted to keep it lightweight and also the finished piece is to be mounted onto a canvas covered frame so nothing would be left exposed behind after framing anyway.


I basted the batting to the base fabric with big tacking stitches to keep in place while I quilted the background.

Following the wavy watery lines and swirly patterns made by the ink and salt - I freehand machine quilted the background, hinting at the ripples and trails in the water made by the swimming fish.

Building The Coral Reef

On the bottom left hand side I used long hand sewn stitches in moss green DMC tapestry thread for dimensional sea grass and used programmed stitch No.71 adding ‘fern” like stitches to the sides of the valleys.

Bottom Left Side.

Coral Steps

The Coral ‘steps’ on the left were created from oval shapes with side openings through which I poked in a little stuffing and made in to puffs, I then hand stitched a little pleat on the opening side to give a flat sided edge to be stitched to the base and it also helped to make them stick out like steps and hold their shape.

Coral Steps  - Bottom Left Side.

Fan Coral

The cream coral with the orange edge (along with the small green edged one on the left side) are circular pieces of fabric with a satin stitched edge (zig zag stitch with a width 2.5 and length .5) I then stretched the fabric on its bias and around the edges to pull it out of shape and flute the edges a bit. The circle is then folded just off the centre to layer the edges and then in quarters etc pulling and manipulating the folds into a pleasing shape – I then secured the shape with hand stitches.

Bottom Right Side.

Round Peach coloured Disc Coral

The peach coloured coral on the right hand side is made from a cotton pad the kind used to remove makeup! I covered it with a fine layer of organza fabric in much the same way as for the green puff only a much bigger piece that allowed the cotton pad to remain flat and round. Then with orange thread I machine stitched the centre cross adding shorter spokes emanating from the centre. A few glass beads in orange here and there hand sewn through all the thickness anchored the piece in place to the base.

Bobbly Green Coral 

The little green puff is a one layer piece of towelling fabric cut in a circle with a running stitch around the edge – in the centre I placed a small piece of stuffing and then drew up the threads to form a puff or a ball shape and tie off the threads.

Glass Beads and french knots.

Lastly I added glass beads in different sizes and shades of green and gold in clusters along with french knots in tapestry threads, to fill in gaps around the coral.

I make each piece of coral separately and then hand stitch them to the base – I never use glue as over time the glue breaks down and I don’t want pieces to fall off or discolour with age. I then take a selection of corals and place them around in different compositions until I am happy before securing them to the base. I can then fill in the gaps with other corals, beads or hand embellishments.

Random Corals and space fillers and Cabbage Corals

The easiest ways to make coral pieces is to randomly machine stitch (with a tiny stitch) circular, ovals rounded triangles and squares from two layers of fabric with right sides together, then trim the shapes close to the stitching – make a small slit in centre of the underside and bag out/ turn rightside out, then iron the shape flat. I also use this method when making leaves. 

You can then either embellish the edges or just leave them plain.

These random shapes can then be curled into ‘rosebuds’ or into ‘rose flowers’ to form cabbage corals simply by adding petals to the rosebud shape.

Finished -Unframed

Almost done!- the Mounting and Framing

The final stage was to mount the completed scene on to a 20cm x 20cm purchased canvas and wooden frame.

I removed the extending scrap pieces and tried to iron out the wrinkles a bit manoeuvring around the 2D parts as best I could.

I then centred the piece on to the frame and starting at the centre of each of the four sides I slightly stretched the fabric securing each side using a staple gun, radiating outwards with the staples either side of the first one lightly stretching and smoothing out the wrinkles as I go. I continued evenly around the edge placing a staple then placing the next one on the opposite side parallel to the last.

Finished!

The last step was to trim the excess fabric from the back and sign, name and date canvas behind!

Schools Out! Pictorial progress of the painting...

Schools Out  - the Finished Painting by Michelle Griffiths

It all started with some finger painting...

Figure 1.

I started with a white Gesso background and was too impatient to wait for it to dry - I added a splodge of Acrylic in cobalt blue on the right bottom and top left corners with Cerulean Blue in the top right. And then got busy smearing it around with my fingers gradually ending up using my whole palm. It was sooooooooo much fun!

I added more paint to a palette then dipped in my finger tips - at this point I had absolutely no idea "who" or "what" was going to appear. So I proceeded to lightly sweep my finger tips across the canvas.... and hundreds of tiny fish appeared!

Figure 2.

In Figure 1. bottom right corner you can just make out palm prints that in my minds eye formed the shape of coral so I went a head with a brush and White, 'Flesh colour', Brown and Fluorescent Pink -paints and added more detail. I reverted back to finger painting for the blue coral next door. 

Figure 3.

A few brush strokes 'skipped' across the canvas with black paint broke the canvas up into sections, with the face of a bird appearing in the centre. So I added in an eye  - it is interesting as birds are showing up a lot lately in the paintings which I have been working on. 

Figure 4.

The painting was feeling a little too literal for me - Blue water - Coral reef - Fish... BORING! So I added in some negative space and more drips, splashes of acrylic ink, spots and misting with water spray.

Figure 5.

I really wasnt feeling the corals - I liked them but they were too 'coral -ly' if you know what I mean I wanted to go in a more abstract direction. I loved the fish and how I had captured the rapid movement, flow and chaos of their path. In between while I was waiting for other areas to dry I added in fishy details, eyes and gills with flashes of white here and there. 

Figure 6.

More wiggly black lines, more negative space, more fish details.....

Figure 7.

The white of the negative space was too stark so I began to take the colour down and soften those areas. The bottom of the canvas wasnt working for me so I went a bit dramatic adding a bright sheer layer of Ultra Marine over the whole area. It started to look a bit like Abalone Shell or Paua as it is called in New Zealand. So I went with it and added in some yellow to smooth out the stark blue a bit. It was VERY blue so I went back and dripped some white paint from bottom to top and then from top to bottom. Next came more acrylic ink in magenta and violet, bubbly details in the top right hand corner more wiggly black lines that I highlighted with white and then four circular areas of white dotty shapes. 

The finishing touches to the fish - flashes of metallic silver and shadowy outlines to hint at more and more fish giving depth to the school and adding to the feeling of a tight knit boiling group of tiny crazy fish - completed the painting. All in all I was pretty happy with the finished product!  

The end product - the finished painting!

The finished painting is canvas stretched on a wooden frame and measures 65 x 75cm. 

See more of my work HERE

Hi Five .... Hibiscus!

Ever since I can remember, everywhere that I have lived my garden has always had a few hibiscus trees (except UK!) And my present garden is no exception we have hibiscus of all different colours and species. We have the single flower type along with double petal ones and the kind that looks like a Chinese lantern.

Over the years I have often included hibiscus in sketches for different pieces but for some reason or other they never make it to the finished work.

I have been wanting to put a hibiscus in my work for so long that this week I just went for it! 

I started by painting in a green background. Initially I was going for an abstract leafy look, but it ended up in a swirly pattern!

As I have mentioned before in previous posts I am not so good at realistic perspective so I really took my time studying the flowers in different lights, trying to get an idea of colour and depth.

I did do a pencil sketch and played with colour using coloured pencils - I used this sketch as the outline for the hibiscus on the canvas. 

I painted in the darkest areas of the flower around the base of the stamen and in the creases of the petals using Cobalt Violet paint. This colour is quite transparent and dries very dark - almost black.  So then I continued with a dark pink in Rose, trying to add form and contours with the brush strokes. My plan was that this initial laying down of the colours in light and dark would show through the next 'all over' layer....

As you can see above I started adding in some hints of blue and lighter shades of greens to the background here and there. 

Using the brush strokes as a starting point I started to define the swirls and wavy lines with a very fine brush and black paint. The lines looked too stark however so I found that smudging them with a finger gave a nice shadowy glow. The more smudging I did the darker the background became so I added some white and more lime green and yellow to the background colours.

I filled in the petals with a vibrant bright pink and added a stripe of orange down the center of each petal with touches of yellow midway for highlights to help add contour to the petals. I went back with my dark violet and added more depth to the center and a few veins to the petals. My petals were still looking a little flat so I tried to deepen the shadows by lightening areas of the petals with a lighter pink - at this point I threw caution to the wind and dabbed a little blue here and there and was happy with the  effect. I was scared to ruin what I had done so restraint myself from added too much detail (veins) in the petals.

I outlined one petal with a fine black line but wasn't happy with the way it made the flower 'pop' from the background so I outlined the whole flower with a charcoal pencil that I smudged with my finger especially around the bottom to create shadow and in the points at where the petals overlapped. And then painted each petal with a thicker black outline in paint. 

Lastly I finished the pollen bits at the end of the stamen in ochre, yellow and black and added a few hints of Rose -pink to the background. 

And here it is - the finished painting! 

20x20cm Acrylic on canvas. Prints are available on canvas and Giclee Paper in a variety sizes - simply drop me an email for more info. 

Visit my Facebook page to see more of my work  www.facebook.com/lionfish.seychelles

And.... The finished piece!

More to come soon.... I will give an explanation of my methods and techniques in a following post. 

But for now here it is! 

'Dans le jardin aujourd'hui No.3#'

This is the 3rd in a series of magical garden pieces. 

Mixed media textile art mounted on a wooden frame. 

20 x20cm approx 3cm relief (2D)

Created by layering assorted fabrics into pictures  (collage) and embellished with different textile techniques such as quilting, embroidery, beading and fabric dying

See the whole series on my page.

www.facebook.com/Lionfish.Seychelles

textile art piece created by Michelle Griffiths

Just a quickie to let you know what been up to lately....

Two of my small 2D textile/fiber art pieces sold on the opening night of the exhibition so I am getting busy on some new pieces to fill the empty wall space... Here is a in progress pic. 

Along came a mermaid...

If you remember way back in March I posted this pic of a bubbly background that was finished and just waiting on a cute little mermaid to come swimming by.

I don't know how other artists transfer their designs on to canvas, if they sketch it out straight on to the canvas or just go ahead and start to paint from their imagination. I have never been bold enough or confident enough to sketch straight on to the canvas for fear of making a mistake and not being able to erase the pencil line. 

Sometimes I do draw on a black or dark background in a white chalk (dress makers pencil) that can be removed by water but even then it sometimes leaves a residue. So with trial and error I devised my own method of drawing out my design on ordinary note pad paper ( sometimes any old paper I have to hand - telephone bills, envelopes, newspaper - you never know when inspiration is going to strike!) 

so once I have my design on paper I erase all the vague and unimportant lines so only the bold outlines remain - next I turn it over and draw over all the lines with a black charcoal pencil. With toilet paper or tissue I then rub the charcoal over the underside of the design to fade it so it's not too dark and to get rid of excess charcoal powder that could mix with the paint layer and make it murky. 

So then it's just a matter of laying the paper down and tracing the design onto the canvas. I use a ball point pen that had run out of ink. I don't press too hard because I have learnt from experience that grooves left by pressing hard causes all kinds of havoc if you change the design whilst painting and there are underlying grooves beneath the paint - eg: if you move the mouth on a face or the position of an arm. I guess essentially I am just creating my own "carbon tracing paper" and they can be used over and over just adding more charcoal when needed. That's why I use the pen with no ink as tracing over and over the lines with ink will eventually cause it to tear. 

And with that done I get busy painting...

I usually paint the flesh all one colour and then add contours, shape and highlights with darker and lighter paints - I find it hard to blend colours once one paint layer is dry ( especially in my climate where my paint dries so quickly) so some times I resort to coloured pencil and even aquacrill pencils. If the pencil is too dark or not the right colour this can be corrected with some watered down flesh colour or even white paint to smooth it out and even the graduation.

Facial features are added using techniques I learnt in Suzi Blu's book mixed media girls. You can get it at www.alovelydream.com or as I did on Amazon because she couldn't ship to my country. But just remember it is always better to buy directly from the author so she gets all the money$$$ ! 

The key with painting eyes is to build up the layers slowly slowly until you have achieved the depth you require. As my girls don't usually have noses or mouths I need the eyes to be very deep and hold all the emotions I am trying to convey. 

Et voila! The finished article, look who just swam by...... 

Mounted canvas prints of this painting are available through my Facebook page. www.facebook.com/lionfish.seychelles so stop by and have a look at my other work and if you like what you see please like and share my page 😉

Oh wow has it really been that long??

Seems I have been so busy in recent months that blogging has fallen by the way side. So in the next couple of days will try to catch you up of what I have been up to; including some progress photos of recent paintings, along with a post with step by step instructions on how to make a stuffed seahorse hanging toy. So stay tuned.....