Anyone use the japanese ink sticks, prism colored pencils or wax pencils for shading your quilts? I like applique and sometimes you need some shading especially for landscapes. What do you use?
Dillysnana, this is a great question but I'm not one with an answer. I have only done one landscape quilt and I didn't do any shading. I do know shading is used a lot in landscape quilts and one day I'll learn how to do this (and WHERE it needs done, LOL)
I like applique also. What areas do you shade in applique?
Posts: 7495 | Location: Georgia | Registered: Jan 24, 2003
I've never tried this, or anything close to it that needs artistic talent, so I can't speak from personal experience.
But I've seen the results that one of the teachers at my LQS gets using Micron Pigma Pens. She uses the ones with narrow tips and makes very small dots, closer together for heavier shading or farther apart as the shading blends into nothing.
I remember she got wonderful effects using one piece of fabric for fruit like a peach. The shading at the round edges gave it great dimensions.
She worked with black, as I recall, but any color darker than the fabric would work.
eta: Hey, didn't Quiltbea use something on her landscape quilt with the birch trees and horses? Let's wait for her to tell us what she used.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kay-lin,
Posts: 1715 | Location: Maryland | Registered: Jun 14, 2006
If you are making a WH and it won't be washed, you can use just about anything you can find.
As suggested by Nancy Zieman in her Art Quilt books, I used sharpie markers, Painter paint stix, white-out and even colored mascara, and laundry markers on my first landscape WH. There's crayons and colored pencils and dry erase markers as well. I've seen one lady use regular rouge powder on the lips and cheeks of her applique girls on a WH. There are pastel markers and paint markers specific for fabric out there. You can also use schoolroom glue stix to hold down your pieces until you can sew them. Put lots of glue on the pieces so they don't curl up and fall off. If you want to move a piece later, you can pull it up slowly and reposition it. As you can see, its pretty much whatever you can find and that will do the trick.
If you are just touching up a block that will be washed later, there are washable paint markers and pastel markers available to use instead.
Good luck and have fun. quiltbea
My 'Birches in Springtime' 42 by 56 WH top....
Good luck. Its lots of fun making a landscape.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: quiltbea,
that is a great ? and I was just wondering what my little art quilt needs and thought additional color but what to use. a friend just showed us how to use the watercolor wax crayons from Michaels and it was pretty cool and easy. I don't think this is what I am needing though so Quilrbea & geniebird, your info is excellent. I would love to shade a circle to make it look rounded....any suggestions on how to go about that? I do have colored pencils and oil pastels, a couple shiva sticks. Will check in later. Thanks
