A Slice of the OC - working on the buildings

The photo to the right shows the general layout of this reduced version of my Orange County city scape. I have numbered the buildings (the pink pieces of paper have numbers on them) and then photographed the layout with the numbers showing so I can figure out where the building goes when I remove it from the background fabric. I had a print out of this photo next to my work table and I relied on it quite a bit as I worked on the buildings.







My next step is to add some details to the buildings. I like to have the edge of the building that faces the front stitched so that it stands out and gives more definition to the building shape. I placed the buildings on stabilizer, as shown below. Then I stitched along the building edge lines. I used a straight stitch and went back and forth about 3 times on each line to make it stand out. I also chose a color for the stitching that contrasted and was part of my color palette for this piece. The next step is to tear or cut off the stabilizer paper and put the building back in place.

I also like to add some shading to the side of the building that is in shadow. I decided the sun was coming from the right, and used oil pastels to add a shading color to the building sides. I pressed the building between paper with an iron to blot/melt away the wax in the oil pastels. I had to reapply the oil pastel in some cases, but I find it is better to apply lightly and build up to a stronger color.  You can see the shading on the brown buildings in the lower photo.  It gives a subtle effect and adds some dimensionality, I think.  I choses oil pastels for this because I am going to be teaching this in a workshop and wanted to use materials that are inexpensive and readily available to the students. I prefer inks for this type of shading normally.

Next blog post will show the trims that I used.

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