Idaho Skies-endless reference material. One of the benefits of living in Idaho is the incredible skies which we can view at any moment. The other day my hubby and I took Jet the dog out for a run. Our usual location is across from the Ice Caves on a road just off highway 75. A storm was rolling in that day and In a half hour, I captured quite a few incredible shots. I love designing and painting skies, especially when creating quilts for the Big Sky Series. My ratio is three-quarters of the creation is the sky and one-quarter the ground. Here is a couple of sky shots.

One of my next art quilts will probably be another Halloween scene with a stormy night as the background. I put these shots into my adobe photoshop program and changed them to black and white. I can either use tracing paper and trace the outlines or just use it the way it is. For this purpose I want all the detail to be in my pattern.

Which one of these pictures looks the spookiest in black and white? I believe the top picture fits the bill. Can’t you envision ghosts, bats, or maybe a witch flying across it? It also has a good front-to-back proportion to add stuff in the front which will eventually be the focal point. How about gravestones? After saving it as a smaller file it was imported into the Easy Poster Printer program to blow it up to a larger size. Ok, what size is this finished art piece going to be? I am thinking 36″ x 30″. More on this art quilt design in another post.

Here are some more reference shots from my shoot. How would these look in your next art quilt creation?

I hope you are inspired in some way to create more skies in your next quilt design. Aren’t we blessed to live in Idaho which I lovingly call the big sky state?