#spruce needles

[michaelnordeman]

In the garden. Värmland, Sweden (March 11, 2016).

[sylvan-memoirs]

[wouldwind]

The map of Alaska is melting | La carte de l’Alaska fond

[someprettynicestuff]

Just finished making the spruce needles for an Amanita fulva sculpture. I scored this commission the day I finished the last one, and let me tell you, nothing feels better.

A. fulva’s habitat is mostly pine/spruce (I don’t know the difference yet) so the forest floor is covered in needles. I made three variations in color for the needles, each is in a different stage of drying after falling off the tree. I made them by rolling out thin clay, making thin cuts, and then baking. I sanded them so each would have a tight, uniform shape and a point on the end. Since I snapped so many while sanding them, I have plenty of bits for broken pieces too. After baking I began giving them color using chalk pastels and water, and acrylics. A lot of subtle details came out here.

Pieces of bark, seeds, sticks, rocks, and other pieces are up next to be made. The mushroom, at least the cap, will be made last because I need to do some problem solving. I don’t have a pasta machine, but I need to make a gradient and to be able to evenly roll some clay out very thin. 

I didn’t pre-bake many pieces on the last sculpture, it was mostly raw clay the whole time. Instead of adding texture to a flat piece of clay, I plan to make each grain of exposed dirt. This way I can control the colors and composition of the dirt, and with that the life of it as well. There can be a lot of opaque grains in dirt, and this is something the past sculptures are missing. The single grains will imply life where flat, minimally textured clay cannot.

[mal-evolences]

how to know ur school choir fucking rules in one image

[crudlynaturephotos]

[paintinginsomnia]

#43. Handling a Monochromatic Scene. The Big Book of Painting Nature in Oils. January 7, 2023.

My goal: not have this look like a creepy Oscar the Grouch.

One up: Per the instructions and my last one improve I thinned the paint with linseed oil, went on like soft butter. Big up on the wood stems; you think to paint them first then overlap with needles, instead you dot them in at the end so they peek out.

One Improve: Schaeffer upped the contrast and randomized the needles. I stuck closer to what I saw and kept it uniform. Adding blue to the edge needles would make it more interesting.

Really bugs me - the needle cluster in the bottom right is straight rather than curved. Now that’s all I can see.

Listening to: Welcome to Nightvale. Recommend their 3-part series titles “A Matter of Blood” - very WTF.

[girlinlovewiththeforest]