Creating a Portrait in Fabric

Dad's 85th birthday is coming up in a few days. I wanted to create something really special for him, something that he wouldn't expect. I've had this photo of him at age 9 on my bookshelf for a long time. A couple of days ago I was finally inspired----to create this photo as an art quilt!

I have begun the project and will chronicle it here. My first consideration was color. The photo is in black and white. I could copy this, but aside from not being very inspired, I don't think it would reflect what I want it to. I want the piece to be interesting and reflect his long life. I

thought about doing it in life-like color, but I don't know what color Dad's hat and coat actually were. I have been looking at challenging myself by doing a monochromatic quilt, focusing on shade and tint, texture and line. I have decided to do the picture in sepia tones. This will give it an old-fashioned look, yet being a very contemporary style of art.

Next I had to enlarge this photo to a size I could manage. The original (something like 4X6") is too small to replicate. I used my photocopier to enlarge it (in sections) 200%. The main figure itself is now about 24" X 14", so it will finish to

about 30" tall. This will be manageable (I can finish it in 10 days) and large enough to be substantial (otherwise, why bother, right?)

The next step is to create a pattern. I have laid tracing paper on top of the enlargement and traced areas from

which to create fabric pieces. I kept in mind that I can't have pieces too small to cut and place successfully. I also know that I will thread-paint details, so that will take care of some of the small issues.

Now......fabrics! I keep my fabric sorted by color, so it wasn't too hard to pull out lots of shades of brown. I didn't bother to research "sepia" to authenticate my color choices, instead I'm choosing shades and tints of yellow-orange. I've learned something about the importance of contrast to add interest to a piece, so I tried to find my very palest and very darkest pieces. I did discover that I have some browns that are more green-brown, and some are more gray-brown, so I tried to keep with the yellow and red-browns. I also got out a bit of solid black. There are a few prints with other colors in my piles....you never know, they might be interesting somewhere in the picture!

More to come.................