Knitting theme design for dala horses

Even the most basic design is going to look different each time depending on the shape or size of the item you're painting it on.

As I worked this out I tried a number of different shapes and sizes of brushes as well to see how that would affect results.

So far I like this one best but as I worked I realized that I'm going to need smaller detail brushes in order to make the size of the yarn more believable compared to the size of the knitting needles that I'm able to paint.

Wrapping it up

These are going to make nice gifts for a couple of my quilting friends

They also made great designs for merchandise in my Zazzle stores so it's fun to be able to share my work with so many people and know that it will make people happy for years to come.

I loved the fact that when I went to finish these there were 2 scraps of ribbon just exactly the right size and color in a box  of ribbon that a friend sent recently so I got to do a bit of recycling too.

More Designs on a woodcarving theme

As I work on these I find that the size and shape of the item you're painting on changes the way a design works. This time I'm working on a wider and thicker horse that will stand on a desk or shelf.

Drawing the wood carving tools smaller would have made them fit better because I ended up making the design wrap around the shape in order to get it all on there. Still, this is interesting and I'll finish it anyway before making any further attempts. There are a lot of things in life that you just learn by doing and this seems to be one of those...Wish me luck!

Wood Carver's design for a Dala Horse

I created this design to thank my friends Dick and Esther for cutting out all of my wooden horses and showing me how to carve them. I'm making this one into a Christmas ornament and I'll be designing something similar in a larger, free standing horse that can sit anywhere.

I thought you might like to see it sitting next to the tools that inspired it.

Sunflower Ornament

Front

Back

There's still a lot of painting and other work to be done on this but I'm already liking the way it's starting to look. I gave up on trying the paint the sky and clouds at the same time and decided to take a 2 step approach by painting the sky first and then dry brush blending the clouds over it.

Outlines seemed like a good idea to balance the black lettering but I'm having my doubts about it right now. It's a bit late in the process to try to remove them so I'll stay on this path and see where it goes.