Quilled Picture Landscape- Red Hooded Cranes By The River

Here is a quilled landscape picture of sand, water, stones, greenery and birds. Nature is my favorite topic for quilling and, combining diverse techniques to make something different from others, is something I have always striven towards.

I have used graphic quilling for the water and sand. The stones are made with 3d quilled shapes. The grass is hand husked and stands above the birds' feet and sand. The cranes' feathers are made to look realistic with shaped 3d quills.

The design is typically Chinese/Japanese. and the idea came to me from stencils.

Its been a long while... but I hope you find the time to visit my blog and tell me what you think.

Quilled Flower Frame - Daisies & Jezebel Butterfly

This quilled picture of a Jezebel butterfly alight  a daisy was made quite a while back when I was experimenting with quilling 3d flowers plants. I have not used coiling  technique to make the butterfly as I needed to interweave the yellow and red. I adopted my own folding technique here.

Here is a closer look.

I have made the fringed flowers and affixed stems which I made using the method given in my tutorials here. I have wrapped the leaves around the stems to get a realistic look. As you can see the leaves come out of the frame. I got the idea from my graphic quilled piece Sunflower and Swallowtail.

Those of you who like my butterflies can find heaps throughout my blog for which I have used numerous techniques. just type butterfly in the Search object  on the sidebar.

Remember making butterflies is pretty easy. Just use the method I have describe in my How to make a landscape - part 3 Section. Just use whatever basic shape is best suited for the wing sectors. Using an image will enable you to get better shaped wings and more accurate color sectors.

When deciding on the shape and method to use,  think ahead about how you are going to combine colors and get the patterns on the wings. My Tree nymph butterflies are good examples. Take a look at this tree nymph as opposed to this one. As you can see the technique chosen makes a big difference in the outcome.

Tell me what you think of this post.

A Quilled Nature Scene Landscape Painting - Autumn Forest Waterfall

I love the colors of autumn. The hues of red and yellow are so vibrant and full of life. Autumn to me is the very lifeblood of the seasons. Winter somehow seems such a waste, sort of a season of waiting for a new beginning. A time to gather strength and rest before the whole cycle of life begins again. But autumn is when the flora goes out with a bang in all its glory and majesty!!

This quilled painting is in honor of my favorite season. 

I have used folding and beehive techniques in combination for this project.

I read somewhere that the grass in the foreground should be long and the farther grass short to show distance , so that is what I have done. I have added a dark shade to give depth to the foreground grass.

As for the water, I have added green and brown to make it dark and give it a hint of reflection to the left. The waterfall has more white and I did not use beehive for the froth as the shape does not blend well with the waves. So I used strips to create the contours.

I have used beehive quilling for almost all of the background work. And this time I have got 2 layers for the trees.The shading comes through better as I have used darker color for the first layer of trees.

I have been using textured board for my backing paper but this time I thought I'd try may hand at creating the sky myself. I didn't want to quill the clouds, like in Flowing  River,  as I wanted the viewer to focus on the scene . So I have used oil crayons and colored the sky.

I looked up a video on YouTube and then drew the sky. Since Oil pastels smudge, the layering of the sky had to be done in the proper order and I don't have a clue about painting. So as always, I did a bit of research and analysis!! ( Old habits die hard I guess!!) I am glad it went well with the whole scene.

Initially I thought of using an orange sky but then thought blue  would bring out the quilling better, so that is the color I used and  I am glad I did.

Some of my other scenes are
Palm Beach
Cherry Blossoms
Flower Fields
Forest Walk
Flowing River
Tree and Water
Waterfall 
Sunset & Silhouette
and One Tree Hill

As always I'd love for you to take time to comment. Don't think you are too new to quilling or to young to comment. We are always learning and are rookies at something which in time we master. All comment are appreciated.

Quilled Dimensional Nature Picture Frame - Chickadees on a Pine Branch

Well, I posted a tutorial on making pine branches in my last post and you may have been wondering how I came about making pine branches when I had not used it in any of my posts. Ta Daaa!!.... here it is!! I was so excited at the way they turned out I could not resist posting the tutorial ahead of the quilled frame.

 I saw some pictures of Chickadees and thought I must quill them. Since Christmas is almost upon us I decided to use pine leaves. Further I wanted to  give it dimension and this gave me the opportunity to go on a journey of creative discovery.

Here is a different perspective to show the dimensions in this frame.

I have used fiberglass cloth for the background and was forced to use the glue gun, much to my dismay as I could not get the PVC glue to adhere to the background.


In order to shape the pine branch and have it come out of the picture, I used very thin gauge wire for the skeleton of the branch.

As for the Chickadees, I have used black, white, grey and orange 3mm strips.The method is the same one I have been using  for quilling my birds for some time now and involves folding the strip to get the thread like effect. The finished product looks like embroidery with paper strips in place of thread. This method allows me to grade the colors when required.As you can see in the lower bird,  I have got a light orange shade at the breast between the white and the orange.

I have made the feet using quilled stems as in my tutorial here . Take a closer look.

All in all, I am thrilled at the results. I would be honored if you take time to comment  on my posts.

Quilled Nature Landscape Painting - Flowing River

It has been a while since my last post, but here I am once again with a quilled riverside landscape. This time I have tried out chrismas trees .

For this project I have used several techniques and concentrated on getting the shapes to fit the element it represents. I think you need not stick to basic shapes but  hand make any shape that you think represents the item best.

The whole frame is 3mm thick  is 8x11 and I have not layered it to create dimension. I have used dark and light and size to create depth just like in a painting.

I have also tried quilling clouds for this one and have used grey, blue and white to give depth to the clouds.

For the water I have just used torn strips the same as  described in Tree & Water. The addition of white gives it a beautiful effect.

I am unable to give a step by step description on how it is done as I change my method and shapes from scene to scene and can't quite tell you what I did once it is done, but what I can tell you is that I have not quilled any basic shapes for this project except for the trees in the horizon for which I have used beehive quilling like I did for Flower Fields  and Quilled Tree. Most of the others are hand folded or rolled.

When an idea hits me I just draw the element like for example the tree canopy on a rough sheet and then take a few strips and follow my idea and see how it looks from a distance. If I do like it I will use that idea in the scene. Further, I would use different basic shapes for each tree so that the dissimilarity is clear.



Would love to know what you think as always as you are my inspiration.

Quilled Picture of Nature Landscape Scene - Bird Among the Bamboo

Its been a while since my last post !! I have been exploring Chinese and Japanese paintings and I came up with the idea of quilling some bamboo as it looks so elegant.  Then I thought I'd add a bird to break the monotony and ended up with this quilled nature scene.

The bamboo shoots are made by folding strips of many shades of green. I am quite delighted at the results as it looks quite similar to the actual shading of the bamboo.

The leaves too are made with folded strips which I have glued three dimensionally with some curving out of the background.This effect is more noticeable on the leaves on the right of the image as the idea struck me when I was doing that part of the quilled picture. Now that I am more experienced in quilling landscapes  I usually try and pay more attention to perspective to get a more natural look.

If you  take a look at my other quilled birds like my Swan Lake, Parrot , Bird in a Bower, Humming Bird and Robin, I have always used the background elements to create the 3d effect rather than curving the body of the bird.( maybe that's what I will try out next!!)

I previously quilled bamboo too for my piece called Sunset & Silhouette  but used basic tear shapes and was not too thrilled at the results, so here I folded the strips as I mentioned before and got much better results.

If you wish to create your own designs, my advise to you is, take a concept you like and come up with ideas of how best you can quill it!! Try to do something different from what everyone is doing. Then go ahead and do it. If it turns out bad, just tip it into the bin!! After all nothing creative is a waste of time, we all learn far more thru our mistakes.

Here is a closeup showing more details

Would love to have your comments as always

Graphic Quilled Picture Frame - Sunflower and Swallowtail Butterfly

I have been meaning to blog this graphic quilled picture of a butterfly among sunflowers for a long while but never got down to it till today.

As you can see I have graphic quilled the flowers while the butterfly is made with basic shapes. The leaves are made with fan folded strips. The flower centers are fringed flowers.
 I have used similar techniques for
Bird in a Bower
Tinkerbell
Bambi
Thumper, to name just a few of my graphic quilling projects.

The design was inspired by a free pic available on the net, which I decided to quill. I think  this type of quilling is good for cards too, and would be different from the quilled card that everyone makes.

I would love to have your thoughts on this project.

Quilled Nature Landscape Picture - A Walk Through The Forest

Its been a long while since I quilled  a nature landscape using only basic shapes, so I did this quilled picture of a pathway through the forest. It took me quite a while to make all those basic shapes and create this scene but in the end I liked the way it turned out.

Even though the photograph does not show it, the quilled picture gives a sense of depth and you get the feel you can look into the horizon when you stare into it.

I have used only color to create depth as the shapes are glued flat on the backing. I have used beehive quilled circles as I did in quilled tree landscape for the yellow tree in order to differentiate it.

My other,similar landscapes are Water Fall, Sunset & Silhouette, Tree & Water, Flower Fields, and Palm Beach . But I have used different quilling techniques for each one.

For those who are first time visitors , I have done several tutorials on quilling landscapes, some of which are listed below:-
How to Quill a Landscape
Some Basic Shapes Used for Landscapes
How to Blend Colors for Landscapes

I would love to have your feedback.