fish

After painting, the fish are much more vibrant, but I wasn't satisfied with just creating a painted underwater scene, since, after all, my preference is inserting a sewed element!

I decided to add vertical wavy free motion lines in a light grey tone to suggest the movement of the water.  There is just a layer of felt behind the fish so this is technically, not a quilt.  shhh...don't tell the quilt police!

Normally I would create horizontal wavy lines but these fish are down deep....

 

To create the shadow effect, I used a watersoluble wax pastel crayon called "Neocolor II".  I love this crayon!

 

Not being able to leave the stitching to just the wavy water lines, I also accentuated the details of the water creatures with free motion stitching in variable coloured threads.

another detail shot, this fish is caught in a fisherman's net.

This is an over-all view of the whole piece.  It is quite long, but I have installed it on the wall in a wavy pattern, it undulates like waves on and off the wall.  There are pieces of fishing net and plastic overlayed as the message is our sea creatures are suffering due to too much human interference.  It is called S.ave O.ur S.eas