A Bevy of Bison

My Baby, 20" x 24", #3 cut wool on rug warp.  Wall hanging designed and hooked by Sibyl Osicka, Parma, Ohio, 2010. 

Editors' Note: Known for her phenomenal fine-cut, finely shaded hooked animal portraits, Sibyl Osicka has shared with RHM the "road map" of how she hooked one of her latest pieces, My Baby. We are pleased to have this behind-the-scenes look into how an accomplished artist tackles such a complex project. Sibyl hooked this masterpiece in a #3 cut, using a selection of eight-value swatches.
 
My Baby is a composition picturing portraits of five bison, from a very large adult to a very small baby. The smaller bison emerge out of the neck of the large center animal, from the hump on its back and from the body. What I was trying to achieve is to have the smaller bison fade into the background and slowly become visible to the viewer while not detracting from the large bison.

This article is from the June/July/August 2011 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.