I offer my tutorial for those who do not have artistic skills, but still wants to have abstract drawings on his/her work.
Firstly, you need to find a suitable picture. I like to use watercolour landscapes, or drawings made with "thick" strokes, because they are easiest to make with wool. Colour schemes for cross-stitch embroidery are also suitable. I choose a simple pattern, with a few small details and you may use anything — prefelts, pieces of silk, viscose yarn, wool or textured yarn etc.
Here is a scheme I found on the Internet, I decided to use it for "Provence" scarf. I will not dwell on how I make the scarf itself, I will pay my attention to the picture. All the recommendations below will be useful when felting with a slight shrink.
For the picture to be bright, you should have 2 or more layers of wool that can significantly increase thickness of items in this place. So I leave space for design, making fewer layers (usually, for a scarf I put 6 layers, but in the picture I have only 4). Before laying out the picture, I moisten the base covered with a mesh, lather thoroughly and grind wool. Work with the picture begins after this stage. Firstly, lay out the contours with woollen strands, which are gradually filled with the necessary shade of wool. Note: it is convenient to lay out the adjacent parts, alternating the direction of the wool (one house — horizontal layer of the lower, vertical top, the neighbouring opposite — vertical layer of the lower, horizontal top). This kind of lay out is easy for large solid surfaces — mountains, sky, walls etc.
To make it more volume, more natural, you can use a different technique. To do this, take small strands of several shades and cut them into fragments, about 1 cm long and less, and then spread them on the picture with hands or tweezers.
Road
Tiled roof
Note: very small pieces during felting spread across the canvas, blurring the contours. I suggest experimenting on a small works (cushion covers, decorative panels etc.) and choose the size. It is convenient to put these parts into bundles (as you cut), spreading them in a thin layer, letting the wool be in different directions. This gives an interesting optical effect in the finished product. The advantage of this method is that you can quickly set off some details, for example, the road. Disadvantage is that the segments are small, they may stray, and since being thick, they do not adhere to each other (because wool fibres go in one direction). To prevent this, I cover such fragments with loose clouds of silk fibres. They stabilize wool fibres, keeping them in place when felting with a machine. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't show it well.
For lavender field, I use the same technique. But, to make it more volume and to shape the bushes, I laid out dark blue and light blue arcs.
Trees and shrubs:
Alternating shades and shapes, you can naturally depict and slender cypresses, and spreading fruit trees and flowering shrubs. For adding depth, it is sufficient to use 2-3 colour in the same plant (scheme embroidery helps you).
At this point, I cover all the mesh, carefully grind in a drawing, prepare it to be painted in details.
Doors, windows can be cut from prefelt, posting wool strands. In this work, I used small pieces of rarefied silk. Initially rectangular, they are well drawn diagonally and stacked to convey the perspective. The edges are better to cover with small bundles of wool, they will look like window frames. To get clear angles when felting, you need to take bundles of the same length as the side of the rectangle or a little more. It is better not to outline one long stripe of wool, because when felting it will round the corners. At this stage, you can add highlights — strands of wool — to lay the shadows, to emphasize some details.
Again, cover with a grid and rub well. Now you can start felting in a convenient way.
Here is a photo of the finished product:
As you can see, one end depicts the landscape, and another has lavender bush, made in a familiar technique.
Ask your questions in the comments. If you like my work, I am ready to share my experience further.