Distant Buildings and Oil Paint Stick

I thought I would show how I use oil paint stick on my fiber art pieces. In this black and white landscape I decided to put some adobe like buildings on the hillsides. I have sketched buildings like these on trips to Arizona.
















As you can see in this photo, I used a printed light brown fabric for the buildings themselves. I drew the buildings first, laid the fabric over the drawing on my light pad, drew the outlines on the fabric, and then cut out the shapes. I turned the edges under on most of the sides of the buildings. I also layered them or placed them next to each other to give the look of many different spaces in the structure. The windows or doors were cut out of the light brown fabric. I placed a black fabric behind the opening and glued it in place to hold it until I stitched.





I wanted to add a lighter side to the buildings to give a more true appearance, so I used an oil bar in a lighter value to that side. Oil bar is a semi-solid oil paint in a stick. The part open to the air hardens and you have to cut it off each time before you use it. After I cut off the hardened end, the soft paint is available. You can apply the bar to the fabric directly or use a stiff brush to gather some paint from the stick and put it on the fabric.

For this case I used a paint brush because the area to be painted was small and the bar would have been too large for it.









This is the oil bar I used for this project.















You can see me getting some paint from the stick here. I'm using a stiff short stencil brush.











I am applying the oil paint below. I put it on the sunny side of the building shapes and I put some on the black windows or doors to give a little variation.

I like the overall effect of this. It takes three days to dry, so I work on something else during those days. There is an odor of the paint that lasts for a couple of weeks, but it also goes away.  I don't use any solvents with this, just the paint. I've never had a problem with the paint getting on another part of the quilt after I've applied it either.

Perhaps an oil bar will work for you on one of your projects?

Thanks for visiting my blog!

City Scape - Adding Oil Paint Stick

   I  decided to add some color to the background and foreground. I used oil paint sticks for this. Oil paint sticks are just that, oil paint in a stick or fat pencil like shape. The oil paint is a solid, not something that you would be able to squeeze out of the tube. You apply it by scraping the oil stick with a stiff brush and then brushing the oil paint on the fabric, or you can rub the fabric with the stick directly. I do it both ways. I use a stiff paint brush to spread the oil paint around on the fabric. I used a combination of dark and light blue and pale yellow on the background areas. I always let the oil paint set or cure for three days before I do anything else with the fiber art piece I am working on. Below are progress photos showing the stages of the tie scape as I added the paint.































   This is the way it ended up. On my next post I'll show you the next steps for this project. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Ship Sails

Anthem quilt post number 4??? I am getting a lot of mileage out of this one!!

When I started envisioning this piece the feature that stood out in my mind were the sails on the ships. That was why I put the ships in the foreground, so the sails would be larger and more striking.  I made the sails out of a silk fabric I was given by a friend (thanks Sally!).

It's a little hard to see it here, but the sails are three dimensional. I sewed 2 rectangular pieces of fabric together on three sides, and turned them inside out to make small pillow shapes. I then hand stitched the opening closed.

When I first put them on the quilt top they looked too stark and flat, so I added some shadowing to them with a variety of different oil paint stick colors.

They are only sewn on at the corners of the sails. I used a bead on each corner to add a little additional close up "interest".



Batik Vase with oil paint stick flowers

Well, I added some oil paint stick to the flower shapes and it is better. Next I am going to add some Angelina fibers to the base of the flowers and see what that looks like.

But that will have to wait, because I am off to the IQF Long Beach show today! Hope to see you there!

Border for Umpqua Leaves

oil paint stick border

This is the border I am going to put on the Umpqua Leaves quilt. I cut out stencils of one of my leaves and then used oil paint sticks to "paint" the leaves on the blue fabric. I used several different colors of paint stick and blended them. Some were irridescent and some were not.

I really enjoy using the paint sticks. The only down side is you have to wait a few weeks for the odor to completely dissipate. The paint itself is dry after about 3 days and can be heat set then. So this technique is not good for the "last minute"!

Desert Sunset 1



Desert Sunset 1

 This is a piece I am working on that I am calling "Desert Sunset 1". It may be the first in a series, who knows?

I drew a simple desert scene on black fabric, and then thread painted the scene using bright threads. Next I applied oil paint stick to many of the areas in the scene. I may add some more stitching after the oil stick dries.


Oil Stick Painting Supplies

 These are my oil stick painting supplies. I use various oil paint sticks and oil bars, stencil brushes, and of course an old T-shirt for wiping the brushes and my hands. Sometimes I apply directly from the bar, and  other times I use the stencil to get oil paint from the bar and apply it to the fabric. I like the oil paint sticks because they leave the fabric with a soft hand, and come in a variety of colors and effects (iridescent, for instance).

Once I finish it I will post a photo of this piece.