Another Thread Painting Finished

12 X 12  
Before I go into my thoughts on working on this piece, I'm in a bind on what to name it. One of the things that attracted me to this gentleman, enough to ask his permission to take his photo, was his smile and the twinkle in his eyes.

That lead me to think of titles like, Sparkling, Twinkle, etc. I'm at a standstill, anyone have a good suggestion?

Sometimes, make that often, when I am working on a piece it takes me a while to get it finished. That doesn't mean I'm physically working on that piece the whole time.  I often will put a piece on my design wall that I am having trouble with.  That keeps it in view, which keeps it fresh in my mind.  I can then mull it over until I'm ready tackle the problem.

This doesn't happen with every piece I work but generally it does with more detailed work. I began working on this gentleman months ago and finally decided last week that I WAS GOING TO FINISH HIM this week.  So here he is.

 The biggest problem I had when starting out on this piece was finding the colors of thread that I felt represented the beautiful copper colors of his skin tone. I began a piece and discarded it because of this reason. Every where I went I shopped for brown tone threads. I finally found enough that worked to my satisfaction.

I usually begin a portrait with the eyes and then work out from there. In the piece I discarded, the color of thread wasn't the only problem I encountered. I was very unhappy with the eyes.

( Bad photo lighting shows his skin darker here.)

My second start worked for me, and as I began to work on the piece I could see where changes, or details, needed to be added
.
I wait until I have the piece all but finished to go back and create the details.

As I move forward I realize that the background is not working. In order to thread paint the hair you must finish the background first. This allows you to create the hair in the foreground. At this point I had to make a major decision. I had to fix this background, and I didn't have a clue as to how, or I had to cut his head out and attach him to another background. I had never done this and it was one of those heart stopping moments.

 After I cut his head out of the original background I auditioned different fabrics until I found one that I felt worked. Once I decided on the fabric I zigzagged the head to the background using a thread color that I would be using in his hair and beard.

I forgot to mention that I quilted the background before I added the head. I then finished his hair.






Notice his eyes, nose, teeth,  mouth and beard  here.

After carefully studying his eyes, nose, mouth and teeth, I added details that made those features look more like him.

One of the things that I feel is really important when you are working on a portrait is the high-lights and, of course, shadows that show on the face. This really shows off the nostrils, creases, and curves of the body. Last but far from least is the catch light in the eyes.
Without that the person, animal or insect will show no life.

I will be teaching Fabricating Faces with Thread  at the NCQS  in Wilmington, NC the weekend of May 29-June 1.

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

A Great Week in the Studio

I gave myself a gift for Mother's Day.  I haven't had a lot of time recently to create.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I've been creating, as in creating a new class, but not art work.  So for Mother's Day I gave myself a week to create.

I really wanted to get a piece ready for the Annual SAQA auction.  They are due June 1 so I decided it's now or never.  I still have some work to do on this, I am going to add some beads.  Don't usually do beads but decided this was a great candidate for some beads.


 12 X 12
A Study in Green

 Close-up of A Study in Green

 Another project I've been working on this week is a portrait created using thread painting.  I think I have a good start but it is so hard finding the right color of thread.  I have blended threads in order to get just the color I want but this is not an easy job.  I do love to do this through.  Can't wait to get the wild white hair in his eyebrows and hair line.

Okay, here is my dilemma.  I belong to a wonderful fiber arts group.  We have a challenge where we are to make a monochromatic quilt. I love this group and I want to be supportive and make a piece for this challenge.  I took a wonderful photo last Summer of a sunflower. with the sun shining from behind the flower.

I've wanted to make this into a quilt since I took the photo.  Easy, right?  Not quite.  I dyed fabric last week in graded colors using Tangerine. It turned out beautiful and with a little added brighter yellow the flower develop beautifully.

Now I need a background.  If you know my work you know that I favor bright fabrics.  However, I am trying to follow the guidelines and make this monochromatic.  The piece to the left would fit the bill.  Do I like it?  I'm not sure.

So I auditioned some different backgrounds.  If I used this one it doesn't fit the bill for monochromatic but if it's better then it doesn't matter. Right?

Then I tried this piece of hand dyed multi color.  Not quite as good, in my opinion.

I feel like this is me.  I need to add some leaves and a steam.  I plan to do some hand-quilting in the center maybe add some beads.  No way does it fit the bill for the monochromatic challenge.  I have to make a decision.













Tomorrow is back to work on prepping for my class.  Which by the way is June 2-8 at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  There are still a few openings in case you would like to learn something new and exciting.

This post is long but I hope you will bear with me I want to add two more photos to give you an idea of what the students will be learning in this class. .

Spirit of the Kive

The technique I used to create the image for this piece will be part of my class presentation.  Included in this process is creating a four-value portrait.

A is for Aubrey


Typographic Portraits will also be taught in this class.  I will also be teaching other techniques as time allows.  Would love to see you there.  




I am linking this post to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com