I tried fitting “Stargaze” into the frame I had in mind for it, but it didn’t work. The frame was too much of a light cool silver and did not look right with the tone of the graphite, which is a dark warm grey. So it’s back to the thrift stores. I’ll provide an update of what “Stargaze” looks like in its frame once… I find its frame, haha.

Before I start the luna moth fabric collage, I wanted to experiment with fabric by doing a small fabric collage for one of my 5 x 7 inch frames. I decided to do a portrait of a snowshoe hare since they are quick and simple to draw. I figured doing it wouldn’t take long, and that ended up being true – this collage only took 2 days to put together (3 if you count sketching time).

Here’s my process and the final result!

1. Sketched the rabbit, scanned it into Photoshop, mirrored it so it looked completely symmetrical (since the fabric print was a symmetrical pattern), and printed out two copies in the exact size of the frame opening. One copy I placed in my frame to test that the size of the rabbit looked right. The other copy became a part of my collage.

2. Translated the rabbit sketch to fabric. Since the fabric was somewhat translucent, I was able to glue it on top of my sketch and draw on the fabric while using the sketch underneath as a guide. I glued a second layer of fabric underneath the drawing. This gave the rabbit a nice weight and also made it solid (rather than translucent). I also added these eyes and for a minute this rabbit looked really freakin’ creepy, lol.

3. Started rendering the rabbit using pencil, colored pencils, and pastel pastels. It’s incredible how much drawing on a cotton fabric feels like drawing on a piece of paper. It helped I also had a piece of paper underneath, which kept the cotton fabric firmly in place. I found drawing like this very fun, and I want to do it again! I also experimented with using this sparkly gold tulle. I liked the soft and sparkly effect it created when placed on top of the fabrics.

4. Continued to render the rabbit, building up its values. On and off, I tested the rabbit and fabrics against the frame to ensure the colors were complementary to each other.

5. Experimented with the eyes. While I didn’t mind my rabbit looking creepy, the eyes I had were just a tad too much, lol. I tried these smaller eyes and almost considered using them instead.

6. Ultimately cut down the original eyes to be more proportional to the hare’s face. They looked better once I did that. I also cut out a nose with a more interesting pattern. I took out the frame’s glass and placed the frame over the collage to test how everything was looking. When I did, I noticed the lighting of my lamp against my frame made the edges of the collage look super dark and shadowy. I really liked that, so I decided I’d try to create that effect using a black pastel pencil.

7. Used a black pastel pencil to create a shadowy effect on the edges of the print, and I sewed a layer of the sparkly gold tulle on top of the print. This isn’t pictured, but I also cut out an additional circle of the sparkly gold tulle and placed it behind the rabbit face/ears, just to give that area more softness and sparkle.

8. The thing I enjoy most about how this collage turned out is its sparkle. Every time you change position or pick up the frame and move it, the tulle sparkles similar in the way water sparkles in the sunlight. It’s so satisfying to look at. This is me trying to get an adequate picture of it sparkling. (Still better to see it in person.)

9. All done!

This was a fun experiment. I especially enjoyed drawing on cotton and using sparkly tulle. I may try to do more of that when I do the luna moth.

Bye!