Lady Sunset after a week away

Getting distance from a rug helps. When I returned from Wales and looked at Lady Sunset again, I was still not satisfied. The difference is that I now knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to go in with rainbow, but not as light in value as I had previously tried. This makes the line visible but more subtle so your eye isn't drawn to it instead of the eyes. This rug is about her eyes.

You can see how I work as an artist. I have to hook in my idea and when it fails, I need to try something else. And I keep doing this until I really like it. I have never hooked a rug 'right' the first time. I am always making adjustments to my patterns and to my color and to my lines. I think this is why I love rug hooking so much. It is SO forgiving and generous.

Some have asked about a pattern. Yes, I will be drawing it up. My patterns take so long to develop because I have to hook them first and make adjustments until I am satisfied with the lines. Now I will go back to the rug itself and trace it, working it into a pattern. Hope to get to it this week.

Lady Sunset

I tweaked and bound, and here is the result. I altered some of the values in the left of the face and went back to a dark outline because I felt the eye needed the dark line to bring the viewer into the center of the face to rest. I don't know if I will keep the dark line or not. I'm sleeping on it for the week.

A note to my readers: I am leaving for Wales today for five days. Not a vacation, unfortunately. It is for a professional conference on the Gospel of John where I am delivering a paper. So I will be back home next weekend and will begin posting again at that time.