On my design wall – dog portrait – 2013.04.07

 

I’ve been working on a new dog portrait.   This is Courtenay, an Airedale Terrier.   Here’s the starting photo, and the fabrics I plan to use.

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I used Picasa to crop the photo, then used the ‘posterize’ feature to reduce the number of colors.   I printed the posterized image and outlined the colors with a Sharpie marker pen.  The marker pen shows on the back of the paper which gives me a mirror image to use for tracing onto the fusible web.

Courtenay-cropped,posterized  Posterized photo with outlines  back of posterized photo

I took the posterized image to FedEx/Kinkos and enlarged the front and back to the actual size of the quilt.

I always start with the face, as that’s the most challenging part – once I’m happy with the fabrics for the face, the rest will be easy.  I usually start with the lightest fabrics first then layer the darker fabrics on top.  That way the darker fabrics don’t show through the lighter ones.  I constructed the face by fusing it to parchment paper then peeling it off when it was complete.  Here’s the face and one paw pinned to the full size posterized photo on my design wall.

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I’ll construct the other paw and rest of the body before I even think about what colors I’ll use for the background.

Check back in a day or two for more process photos.

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6 Responses to On my design wall – dog portrait – 2013.04.07

  1. It’s going to be wonderful! Great tips too. Good idea to overlap dark onto light. I use picasso but never noticed the posterior feature before.
    Do you use fusible on the back of your pieces?

  2. Courtenay is my heart dog! I am so happy so see the quilt start to gain color and shape under Terry’s clever hands. When this is completed, it will become a family treasure…

  3. Arita says:

    It looks great Terry. Thanks for the tips for this process.

  4. Barbara says:

    Terry, it always amazes me when I see one of your portrait quilts. The choice of fabrics is perfect. That’s what I would have trouble with if I tried this. You’re so generous to share your technique with us. Thank you. I can’t wait to see it finished. : )

  5. P watson says:

    Amazing. Love it and your artistic skill.

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