I wrote on October 26, about a portrait fabric workshop I took with Esterita Austin. I thought I would pass on some book titles I have found since then that might be helpful using fabric and soft textile paint (So Soft, Jacquard).
In the past, when painting oil portraits, if something did not look right, and I had a photo, I would scan it into the computer and use a filter in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to get a fresh look at what was wrong. The Cut-Out filter or the Posterizing filter were amazingly helpful to find the needed emphasis.
Now I am thinking about making a small wall portrait quilt for someone's gift from fabric rather than oil paint. One idea is to take a photo, remove the color and use a filter. You would outline the shapes on freezer paper, cut out each shape as a template for fabric, cut fabric in one of the 5 values from white to grays to black, fuse each piece w an iron to a background fabric and layer the finished piece to batting and a backside fabric...finishing the edges and quilting as inspired. Susan suggested I use this photo of Beth and the girls. Click to enlarge.
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| cut-out filter |
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| original |
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| color removed |
Photo-Inspired Art Quilts: From Composition to Finished Piece by Leni Levenson Wiener
Portraits for Fabric Lovers by Marilyn Belford
Work in Fabric & Thread by Deidre Scherer
Portrait Quilts: Painted Faces You Can Do by Bonnie Lyn McCaffery
Portrait Quilts: Painted Faces You Can Do by Bonnie Lyn McCaffery
and thanks to Sharon (in comments): Quilting Arts Workshop Making Faces: Beginning and Advanced Portraits (DVD) by Maria Elkins
