Chiaroscuro

Wikipedia definition of Chiaroscuro (English pronunciation: /kiˌɑrəˈskjʊəroʊ/, Italian: [kjarosˈkuːro] "light-dark") in art is characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for using contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body.

Last month I joined an on line group, Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/. The idea of this group it learn, help each other, do a project fast, this is the hard part for me and one of the reasons I joined the group. A challenge is issued on the last Friday of the month and is supposed to be done by the following week or not. There is no pressure.

This month Cynthia Morgan issued a hint several days before the first challenge. The word was Chiaroscuro. After looking the word up on line, I had slight knowledge of the word but wanted to make sure, I immediately started noticing how the light struck the trees outside our window, how it played on the clouds and water. In other words it made me notice light.

We were spending a few days at our friends house at the beach and the light play on the clouds was spectacular. These photos are from their back porch.

The photo I chose for this project was one of my granddaughter, Aubrey. It was taken by her mother at the beach when the sun was low in the sky. The photo was full body so I chose to crop her head to a portrait size. While in PhotoShop I went to filters and applied cutout to get the abstraction. I used this as my pattern. I used four values of fabric to achieve this look.

On the critique section of the FFFC blog Cynthia asked if I had considered using a lighter and darker fabric than what I used on the first piece. I have been working on another larger piece for a while and the second photo is a result of that project. I think it covers Cynthia's question. This is also Aubrey but from a different photo. I have learned a lot by this challenge, it has opened my eyes wider to take in what I actually see around me. I'm looking forward to the next.