Found a pack of I-can-only-imagine-how-old “FabricFun™️” pastel dye sticks — the pack contained limited colors and I was inclined to not use the black at all, instead wanting to stick with the actual colors available. Not a lot of options and I eventually settled on the flag of the Borough of Queens — with the twist that instead of using blue for the tri-color bands of the shirt, I would use a blue shirt and use white for the middle band. The sticks go surprisingly far for what they are — I thought I’d use up the whole box in one project, and instead I have a lot remaining.

I made a printout of the main decal of the flag, and opted to not draw the ring of wampum (shells) since I didn’t have the right colors and wasn’t entirely sure I’d be able to achieve the level of detail required to make them out; by cutting out the flowers (a tulip & a rose) and then coloring them in, I was also able to use that cut-out as a positive when tracing the white background area; coloring in the flowers was straightforward using yellow and red, with white, green, and red accents; I then added some highlights and shadows to the flower stems with white and dark blue respectively.

I think the results came out pretty good!

local