When I decided to put garment sewing aside for a bit, this is what I wanted to work on. It is a portrait of my daughter. I have two daughters and hope to make a portrait of each and then hopefully follow up with our grandchildren. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time. It merges my love of oil painting with my love of textiles. There is no oil painting here but there is tug back to a dear mentor, now deceased, who was an amazing portrait painter among the many artistic abilities he had. I was his assistant for three years and learned so much from him. He was also my dad's best friend and best fishing buddy.
Please don't judge as this is only half way done. Details in the face and elsewhere will be filled in with free motion stitching on the machine and a bit of painting as well. This is one of the reasons I built my expansion table for my machine. I will keep you posted as to how it is going. It has been quite a journey and I really look forward to my other daughter's portrait as I have learned so much making this one. I feel her's will be a much smoother journey. This week I will set out to buy threads for the free motion quilting. I think they may all be variegated. There is much more detail to come. She looks heavier in my version. I will have to do something about that. I think just slim down the scarf.
It has been a winter of sewing and searching more casual sewing. I have enough right now. I do have a need for pajamas and a robe but it has to be natural fabrics or rayon. I am searching for those fabrics right now. Finishing this portrait will come first before I get back to garment sewing. Be patient with me....Bunny
Bunny, I am delighted to see your portraiture work. You are doing an excellent piece! This fabric portrait must be more difficult than oils. I think narrowing the scarf will make a big difference and perhaps some shadowing of the left cheek line. Make up artists can certainly create different looks for people. Wonderful art!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rosie. I totally agree with you. With oils you can paint right over your changes of mind. It's not so easy with fabric I find. There is much detail to be added to the face and I definitely need to pull in more color. I worked with a whole set of values but I think my hues in the face were not ideal. I've been using Derwent pencils here and there. I am very comfortable with them and will use them to make a lot of my finishing details. I love those pencils. For those who are not familiar with them they are permanent watercolor pencils and to me just magical, nothing like a regular colored pencil. You can be so subtle with them or very vivic. Thanks for your critique, very appreciated.
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