I am simply blown away by some of the examples of rug hooking. This beautiful picture was on Gene's blog today and it is amazing. The lion, not even finished, almost looks so realistic that you can hear it breathing.
I received my two reference books from my NS friend, Susan and they are great. I couldn't resist diving into Deanne's Fitzpatrick's-Hook Me A Story. Because I have listened to both her videos on youtube, the book came alive and I could almost hear her voice reading the words. I even picked up a great tip about yarns!
I eventually I put the books down and took time with my chickens-the sad little dears. It gives me hope that someday, I pray, that I have even half the skills of all my hooking pals.
Hi Julie,
ReplyDeleteI'm never too sure where to reply to comments, so I've left it on my blog and copied it here as well.
Re the portrait....
It was based on a picture from my 40th birthday. Isn't it a joyful shot?! I can't remember such a great picture of my family - and it was a great birthday.
I used the program that I told you about to blow it up to the size I wanted. Then I did an outline tracing and marked position of key features like eyes, etc. And they I used the colour picture (which I blew up to an 8 x 10) as my reference for highlights, shadows, etc.
And I guess all those years of painting must have paid off, since I find this is very much like painting with wool.
You can also use the computer to create "posterized" images from your picture - lots of photo software has that and you can play around with it, if you're interested. But that's a neat way to create hooking patterns too.