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The power of the gaze.

The power of the gaze.

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Hello Reader,

Here’s looking at you

We have all experienced the feeling that somebody is watching us – even if we are not looking directly at their eyes. And when we turn to meet the gaze and find it to be an animal, the eye-to-eye contact can feel almost magical, so long as the animal doesn’t see you as prey!

It happened to me when I was cycling in the Pyrenees. I had summitted the col du Tourmalet, made famous by the Tour de France, and I was barrelling down a steep grade when I sensed I was being watched. I glanced over and there, hanging in the air just meters away, was an enormous red-tailed hawk gazing at me as it glided over the treetops. We were eyeball-to-eyeball, descending in unison at 35 mph. And then, just like that, it was over. This was no time for birdwatching!

Eye-to-eye contact like this can be profound and even life-changing for some. So, perhaps it is no surprise that locking eyes with a subject in a piece of art can affect us deeply too.

It is worth considering this as you work on a pet portrait. You can fuss over fabrics to mimic the body shapes and search for textures to imitate the fur, but the eyes are the magnets that grab our attention.

Naturally, it begs the question, how do you make eyes look realistic with fabric?

The truth is, making eyes is not intuitive and, since many collage lovers have a quilting or sewing background, there’s often little or no previous experience to tap into.

There are endless tutorials online for painting and drawing eyes but they are not particularly helpful for making eyes on fabric, which behaves differently than paper or gesso-ed canvas. Add to the mix that little inside voice inside says:

“I’m not an artist and I don’t have a clue how to do this.”

…and it’s easy to lose your mojo.

The struggle

Making realistic-looking eyes has become a highlight for me, but I struggled for a long time. Believe me, I still have a bin of half-finished eyes to prove it.

You see, the first time I saw a quilted animal portrait with realistic eyes, it stopped me in my tracks. Quite literally. I stopped making portraits for well over a year. It became my mission to master the eyes but try as I might, I couldn’t pull it off. That is when I knew I had to go to the source and learn from the best.

An ah-ha moment

I booked a flight to Colorado for a 3-day workshop taught by Barbara Yates Beasley, a master of fabric collage animal portraits. The eyes in her portraits are mesmerizing. She calls them windows into the souls of animals.

Watching Barbara bring them to life with marker pens was a game-changer. It marked a new beginning in my portraits, as it has for many of her students.

Naturally, there is no right way to make eyes for a portrait. Some artists capture the eyes by layering fabrics, some thread-paint and others paint fabric with inks, dyes or coloured pencils. The eyes in my portraits these days are dyed and painted with ink.

If at first you don’t succeed

As I was cleaning up after my last collage project, I found a note pinned to the design wall that I had scribbled on a piece of paper some months ago. It said, ‘if at first you don’t succeed’. While it is true we learn from our mistakes, why stop there? As Groucho Marx famously said,

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”

With that in mind, here are my top 5 mistakes and the lessons learned.

Mistake #1 Start with the wrong base colour for the eyes.

Lesson Learned: Irises come in many colours, but black is rarely one of them. If you only see a black eye, open the image in a photo editing app and lighten it until you can see the true colour. Choose a fabric colour slightly lighter than the true colour and then apply shading to darken it.

Check the photo to see where and how much shading is needed. It will introduce dimension and make the eye look round.

Mistake #2 Lay the eyes down after the face is in place.

Lesson Learned: It seems obvious to say this, but remember to place the eye fabric on the foundation before adding the eyelids. The eyeball rests in the eye socket and is covered by the eyelids so don’t place the eyes on top. If by chance the eyelids are placed down first, gently lift the edges and tuck the eye fabric underneath.

Mistake #3 Make assumptions based on what you know.

Lesson Learned: We assume a round pupil is perfectly round but is it round in the photo? We dismiss a reflection as a dot of white but is it round, or is it another shape? We assume the iris is all one colour but is it?

The shapes you see in a 2-dimensional photo are affected greatly by the angle of both the shot and the light striking the eyes. Study each eye individually and take note of what you see. It may not be what you expect.

Mistake #4 Make your best guess.

Lesson Learned: This is not the time to guess where the pupil goes and where the reflections are. If you miss the mark, your pet’s gaze will be off-kilter and out of sync with the rest of the portrait. And the viewer will notice it right away.

Trace the eye onto a piece of mylar/acetate and use this as a placement guide for painting or drawing the features onto the base fabric.

Mistake #5 Pray for a home run on the first try.

Lesson Learned: Learning to make eyes is not a one-and-done process, so push that notion to the back burner. Find a high- resolution photo of an animal’s eye online or use your own. Then practise making that eye.

Trace it upside down and right side up, and then try to perfect the eye, preferably over several days to allow your own eyes to rest and re-set. Hold it up to a mirror to check your work.

Below is an example for you to try. This photo is from Pixabay. If nothing else, look closely and imagine how you could apply these lessons learned.

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Your animal’s eyes might be a small part of your portrait, but they are no less important. So, if you’re after some realistic eyes, why not adapt these these tips to your own photo and, with some practise, you might find those eyes looking right back at you.

Next month, I will delve deeper into eyes and showcase the ways that collage artists use fabric, thread, and inks to create wondrous eyes for their portraits.

Learning

Learning

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I’ve been teaching Pet Portraits to quilters and non-quilters alike at in-person workshops since 2014 but when the Covid pandemic hit, everything changed. One of the positives that emerged was discovering that we don’t need to travel to take a class. Who knew that learning online is actually better in some ways than in-person learning? Yes, we can be in class while we’re still in our jammies! More importantly, we can learn at our own pace at convenient times without having to keep up with everyone else in the class. In short, Covid-19 made online learning more than OK and it’s officially blossomed as a way of learning and connecting with others.

Without further a-do, my Pet Portrait Fabric Collage classes are online! Learn from the comfort of your home at a time and pace that suits you.

Online Classes

There are 3 phases to making a fabric collage so I have created a course to match each phase. You can sign up for any or all of the Pet Portrait courses, depending on your needs.

… if you are beginning or have already tried making a pet portrait, start with From Picture to Pattern.

… if you started a pet portrait but need a nudge to finish, start with Fabric Collage.

… if you’ve finished a collage but don’t know how to quilt it, start with Quilting and Finishing.

Each course guides you step-by-step with photos, written instructions and videos. For individual coaching, enter your question in the lesson’s comments box and I’ll answer it as you work through the course. You’re welcome and encouraged to join our Facebook group for support and to see what other students are working on.

Once you register, the course is yours to access whenever you want and it doesn’t expire. You read that right! Life intervenes and changes our plans sometimes, so you will be able to work at your own pace.

From Picture to Pattern

In this course, you will learn how to make a pattern from a photo of your favourite pet or animal. This includes choosing a great photo, preparing your photo, enlarging and printing the full-size photos and how to see like an artist as you trace. You’ll learn what and how to trace as you discover your own style.

On completion, you will have your own unique pattern and a foundation with a placement guide for your pet portrait collage. As a bonus, you will also have a “photo sandwich” to use as your guide in choosing the ideal fabrics to build and assemble your collage.

Learn More

Fabric Collage

In this course, you will learn how value, colour and texture play important roles in fabric collage. You’ll learn how to identify value in fabric using a value finder (free download included) and how to select fabrics for your portrait. You’ll see how to use Steam-a-Seam Lite to cut and fuse the fabric shapes and how to properly layer them to improve the sense of depth. And the eyes…oh, the eyes. Yes, you’ll learn how to make those beautiful eyes and noses in this course. You’ll be amazed when you see your pet’s eyes peeking back at you from your collage. Finally, you’ll see how to choose and construct a background to really make your portrait pop.

Learn More

Quilting and Finishing

Are you hesitant to stitch through your collage after all the work you’ve put into it? Conquer your fear in this class. Anne will lead you through the process step-by-step so you can build your confidence to quilt your collage.

We’ll start by making a plan for quilting your portrait. Make all the changes you like at this stage. You’ll keep the final design close by the sewing machine for reference as you quilt the portrait.

Then we’ll explore different types of thread and how they affect the final appearance of your quilted collage. This will take care of the question: which thread will I use and where will I use it? Next, we’ll tackle the elephant in the room: how do I quilt it? You will conquer your fears by quilting on a small fabric collage sample with a selection of threads before you touch your actual fabric collage (…this makes a great set of mug rugs when you’re finished). With the quilting plans at your fingertips and some practice under your belt, you’ll be ready to quilt your collaged portrait.

The only thing remaining at this point is the finishing. You will see four ways to finish the edges of your quilt, including how to mount it on a stretched canvas. For a final touch, you’ll see how to add an internal border that really sets off your portrait.

Learn More

I am available by email or text message to support you and answer any questions you have along the way. Or, post your comments or questions in the Comment box for that lesson and I will pick it up and answer you. Of course, you can email me at collagequilter@icloud.com.

I hope you’ll sign up and start creating a fabric collage of your favourite pet or animal today. If you’ve already started a collage, there’s no better time to get re-connected with it and finish it off with some expert guidance.

There’s more….a Facebook group for students who wish to share and enhance their experience with social media. I’ll be answering questions and posting updates there as well.

I hope to see you in class soon.

Anne

Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial – Getting Started

Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial – Getting Started

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So, you have the perfect photograph of your dog or cat that captures their personality to a tee and you’ve decided you want to make your first quilted pet portrait collage. That’s great, but now what? Fortunately, there are many resources on the internet and good books on the subject of fabric collage to get you started. Even so, there are two steps that often stump the beginner. The first is how to create a pattern from a photograph and the second is how to select the right fabrics for the portrait. In this 3 part Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial, I’ll explain the importance of value in making a realistic portrait, how to read value in your fabrics and finally, how to make a pattern from your photograph.

Walk Before you Run

When you think of making a pet portrait, your first impulse will be to collect fabrics that match the colours of your pet. My advice is to resist this impulse. I know this is hard to do because we quilters love our fabric. But before tackling your first pet portrait project, you’ll need to know about one thing: value.

Value is a colour’s relative lightness or darkness.

Shadows on White

We see a white surface or object as white because all of the light is reflected back at us; conversely black is seen as black because the light is completely absorbed. It’s why we wear white in summer to reflect the sun’s rays and and black in winter to absorb the sun’s warmth and stay warm. 

OK, enough about science! Here’s where it gets interesting. When we look closely at a white dog or a black dog on a sunny day, there is a good chance there will be shadows somewhere on the white dog’s coat and reflections on the black dog’s coat. In a photograph, these shadows and reflections read as grey. And it so happens that (…insert drumroll) all greys are values of the colour white. They are the reason we see the dog in 3D, aside from contrast with the background. Let’s look at two examples of my canine friends to see how this plays out. First up is my Jack Russell, Tashi.

Even a white dog has grey values in a photograph.

Check out the shadows in this photo of Tashi. Besides a strip of bright white on her forehead, do you see several shades of grey? She is a white dog with bits of brown on her ears but the white, grey and black are what allow us to see her strong neck and adorable facial features.

A black & white photo reveals a wide range of values, even if the subject is white.

In this posterized photo, you can clearly see several shades of grey. Notice the dark grey patch on her throat and the lighter greys on her neck and face. Do you also see white and black areas? How about the ball with its five shades of grey? If you compare the two photos now, you’ll see the greys more clearly in the upper photo.

When you make a pet portrait collage of a white dog, remember it is not all white.

Here’s what Tashi looks like when I remove the shadows from her face and neck and make her all white. If I removed her eyes and nose as well, you would see a flat ghost outline without any depth or dimension.

The grey shades you see in Tashi’s colour photo are five values of white. Similarly, the ball looks perfectly round because of its five values of orange. Luckily, our brains automatically sort out values so we can see our surroundings in 3D. All the while, colour grabs our attention and causes our heads to turn. This is why we say:

Colour gets all the credit while value does all the work.

Reflections on Black

I’ve used Tashi to demonstrate how values do the work of creating dimension because I often hear people say it would be very difficult to do a portrait of a white animal. I hear the same thing about a black dog or cat. The difference when working with a photo of a black animal is that the values come from reflections on the animal’s coat. This is why it’s best to take a photo of a dark animal on a bright day if you’re planning to make its portrait.

Photo of a shiny black dog.

Here is my friend, Tank. He is pure black but look closely at all those reflections on his face and head. Your brain will trick you to think they are black, but do you see their light to medium grey colours? How about the light grey on his nose?

A black & white photo reveals a wide range of values, even if the subject is black.

This is a posterized version of Tank’s photo. Notice the greys on his muzzle and top of his head. There are even a couple of dots of white on his head, nose and tongue. If you zoom in, you will see six values.

When you make a pet portrait collage of a black dog, remember it is not all black.

Here, I have replaced all the greys on his head with black. This looks quite hilarious, but it shows you that if you interpret a black dog as just black, you won’t capture its features.

I hope these examples have helped you see how important value is to our perception of depth. If you focus on seeing what is actually in your photograph and not what you think you see, you will be one giant step closer to creating a realistic pet portrait collage.

Are you ready to put this knowledge about value to use and make a stunning fabric collage Pet Portrait? This is one small part of the comprehensive online course which you can learn about here: Pet Portraits: From Picture to Pattern.

Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial – Reading Fabric Values

Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial – Reading Fabric Values

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Welcome to the second part of my Pet Portrait Collage Tutorial. In Part One we learned that a range of light to dark values allows us to see depth and dimension in our world. Similarly, the secret to making your collaged pet portrait look real is applying the same concept to your fabric choices. In other words, to make a fabric collage of a white cat or dog, you’ll need fabric values that include white, light to medium grey and black. And for a black one, you would probably still use white and black but the range of greys would be much darker. Regardless of your colour choices, a wide range of values is needed to create depth and dimension in any portrait. You can even include purple, blue, pink, or orange in your portrait, as long as you pay attention to value.

How to Read Value in Fabrics

Once you understand you can use a variety of fabric values to create a dimension and realism, here comes the next hurdle: putting this knowledge into practice. The urge will be to find some nice colours that you think will be suitable. After all, most of us are quite happy choosing fabric colours for our quilts, but not so comfortable reading or judging the relative values of fabric (how light or dark it is). In reality, you need to find fabrics with values that match the values in the photo. But let’s focus on finding the values of your fabrics for now.

Match the values of your fabrics to the values in your photo.

If you’re a quilter, you no doubt have light, medium and dark fabrics in your stash. You may even own some of the tools for identifying values in fabrics (check out your colour wheel for the value finder feature). The challenge we all face is seeing and reading the relative values in our fabrics. That is, how light or dark is a fabric compared to another one sitting next to it? The difference is obvious when comparing very dark to very light fabrics, but for all those fabrics in the ‘medium’ range, it can be more difficult to discern.

Quilter’s Fabric Value Finder

I have been working on this problem since I first learned the importance of value in quilting. Recently I developed a 7-step Quilter’s Fabric Value Finder for reading values in fabric. I use this to teach students how to select fabrics for collage. I can almost see the light bulbs going on across the room when their eyes light up after sorting fabrics of all colours using a tool like this.

Ruler for sorting fabrics by value

The Quilters Fabric Value Finder is a 3 1/2″ x 24″ value scale with 7 squares ranging in value from white to black. It helps you quickly sort your fabrics in order of value, from lightest to darkest. Think of it as a ruler for value, where white = value 1 and black = value 7. The greys in between are values 2 to 6.

A value finder purchased from an art store will serve a similar purpose. Or, if you are computer savvy, you can draw a series of squares in Word and colour them in with gradations of grey. Then print it out and cut a hole in the center of each square.

Think of the Value Finder as a “ruler” for measuring relative value.

Here is a group of fabrics that I sorted using the Fabric Value Finder.

This is how it works:

  1. Hold a fabric swatch over the hole in the white square and look for any contrast.
  2. Move the swatch slowly along the Value Finder one square at a time, looking to see if it contrasts or blends in. You may find it helpful to squint.
  3. You will notice that your swatch blends best with one of the squares but contrasts with all the others. This is its relative value.
  4. Repeat with all of your fabric swatches.

Note that your fabric may not exactly match the values in the Value Finder, because only 7 values out of an infinite range of greys are represented. This is perfectly fine because value is relative. That is, value 4 is darker than values 1-3 but lighter than values 5-7.  Just place your fabric swatch where it blends in the best. That’s all there is to it. Your fabrics are now sorted by value.

The hole in the centre is a great feature for finding the value of larger pieces of fabric. Just drape the Fabric Value Finder over the fabric and you’ll notice that one of the peekaboo views blends better with its surrounding square than the others. In this example, the green circle with the least contrast is the middle one, value 4. The circles on the right look comparatively lighter while those on the left look darker, making this green fabric’s relative value a 4.

In the example below, I’ve placed a fabric swatch of matching value over the centre hole in each square. Laying a small piece of fabric on a square of the Value Finder like this helps you see whether it blends or contrasts with the value surrounding it.

Although the swatch in the value 1 square (white) is not a perfect match, it is still lighter than the swatch in the value 2 position. This means its value is 1 relative to the others in this collection of fabrics.

The Quilter’s Fabric Value Finder works for any colour of fabric. This example uses brown fabrics. Notice that while the fabrics do not always perfectly match the values on the Value Finder square, they are sorted in a sequence of light to dark.

The last piece of the fabric collage puzzle is learning to read values in your photograph. In the next post, I’ll show you how to do this as you make a pattern from a photograph.

Are you ready to put this knowledge to use and make a stunning fabric collage Pet Portrait? This exercise is just one small part of the online Pet Portraits course, which you can learn more about here:  Pet Portraits: Fabric Collage.

Pet portrait from photo to pattern
Pet Portrait Collage From Picture to Pattern

Pet Portrait Collage From Picture to Pattern

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In the first two parts of this Pet Portrait Collage tutorial, you saw how values are essential to seeing depth and dimension and how to sort fabrics by value. The next step, making a pattern from a photo, can be a stumbling block for many. Follow along to see how it’s done.

Prepare Photos

To begin, have a good quality photo enlarged to the size of your finished portrait. You will also need a black & white copy, identical in size but reversed (flipped horizontally), for making a pattern.

I used to start by tracing from an 8 1/2″ x 11″ photo and enlarging the pattern afterwards. However, a full size photo provides you with far better information for selecting fabrics and makes the process more enjoyable.

There are several printing options. One option is to print your enlarged photo on your home printer (select ‘poster’ in the printer options) and tape the pages together. Similarly, you can use www.blockposters.com to convert it to a poster, print it and then tape the pages together. The other option is take your photo to a copy centre and have them print the enlargements for you on regular printer paper.

Pet Portrait

This photo of Gibson, an Airedale, has light coming from the right and shadowing on the left. You can see fine details in his black and gold colouring. But if you look past the actual colours and consider the relative values of those blacks and golds, you’ll see that this photo has a good range of values.

Dog art

I have posterized and reversed this black & white photo of Gibson so you can see the full range of 5 values: black on his nose, eyes, inside the ears and on his shoulders and chest; dark, medium and light greys in his coat; white on the top and side of his head.

Zoom in to see if you can identify all five values.

Posterizing your photo reduces the colours or values to a set number and is usually used to simplify the photo. It is certainly not essential for making a pattern for collage, but can help if you’re struggling to see the shifts in value. There are apps, programs and websites for changing a colour photo to black & white and for posterizing, such as Gimp (dowload for free), Photoshop Elements ($$), Postershine (free app) and Pixlr Editor (free website).

Once you become tuned in to seeing and reading values, you’re ready to begin making your pattern. When it’s completed, you’ll have a paint-by-number pattern to use for making your portrait.

Set-up

Gather your two photos (a colour original and a black & white reversed copy), masking tape, a fine tipped black permanent marker, a colourless blender pen (available at art stores) and a sheet of mylar plastic (also available at art stores) large enough to just cover your portrait.

  1. Place your two photos side by side, colour on the left and black & white on the right. 
  2. Place a sheet of clear mylar plastic over the colour photo, about 1/2″ from the right side. Tape the right edge of the mylar to the colour photo. 
  3. On the mylar plastic sheet, trace some registration lines by tracing around the eyeball, iris, pupil (if it’s visible) and the fleshy part of the nose. Use the colourless blender marker pen as an eraser, if needed.
  4. Flip the mylar onto the black & white photo. Tape the left edge of the mylar to the colour photo. 
  5. Lift the mylar slightly so you can align the black & white photo with the eye and nose tracings.
  6. Carefully flip the mylar back onto the colour photo. Apply tape along the left edge of the black & white photo to secure it to the colour photo.

You should now be able to flip the plastic mylar page freely from the original colour photo to the black & white photo without anything shifting. Adjust and re-tape if necessary.

Making a Pattern from a Photo
Mylar tracing is over the Original Colour Photo
Making a Pattern from a Photo
Mylar tracing is over the B&W Pattern

Tracing the Pattern

Now that your mylar sheet is secure, you can begin making a pattern from your photo. You have a choice of tracing from the colour photo and/or the black & white photo. Whichever you choose, you can flip the mylar to the other side to check your work.

If you’re wondering where to begin tracing, here’s a good way to tackle it.

  1. Look closely at your black & white photo, taking note of the different values from lightest to darkest.
  2. Now look for areas that read as the lightest value (white/light grey) and trace completely around each area. Mark these as 1’s.
    • Start with the easiest shapes and gradually tackle the ones that look harder to define and lasso.
  3. Now look for the next darkest value of grey, and trace around those areas. Mark them as 2’s.
  4. Continue working through each value until you have traced and numbered all the areas that read as the darkest value (black).

Tips for Tracing

As you trace, think of each area as a puzzle piece that you are going to lasso. Your tracing line needs to completely encircle the piece so try to keep your pen down until it returns to the starting point. You will eventually cut each puzzle piece out of fabric so it’s important that you completely lasso each one.

As you trace, think of each area as a puzzle piece or a blob that you are going to lasso.

If you’re unsure of how to trace a particular area, flip the mylar to the other side to help you decide.

When the shape becomes more like a wandering amoeba, stretching right across the page, make it into two or three separate shapes to keep the size manageable. Ignore tiny blobs smaller than your baby fingernail. Remember, you can always erase unwanted lines with a colourless blender marker pen.

Once you’ve finished tracing, slip a piece of white paper under the mylar to check your paint-by-number masterpiece. It might look more like a ‘mess-terpiece’, but fear not as this is the scariest point in the process. Check your tracing carefully and close up any disconnected, dangling lines. Make sure all of the shapes are closed and have been assigned a value.

Tracing to Muslin

Pattern shapes are outlined on plastic and assigned a value.

Next, you’ll trace this pattern onto a piece of light muslin.

  1. To ensure the correct orientation, flip the mylar plastic onto the original colour photo.
  2. Slide a piece of white paper underneath the plastic mylar to reveal your pattern.
  3. Drape the muslin over the mylar plastic, covering the entire pattern. Now, tape down the four corners and smooth the muslin so it is taught.
  4. Use a light touch to trace your pattern onto the muslin, omitting the numbered values. If you’ll be using very light fabrics for your portrait, trace with a light coloured marker.
  5. Transfer the muslin to a portable design wall.

Now stand back and admire your masterpiece. Notice how it looks just like your photo? Amazing, isn’t it?  A little bit intimidating, maybe? Not to worry, you’ll be working on one puzzle piece at a time.

You’ve earned a break so be sure to have a good stretch and rest your eyes. When you come back, you’ll be ready to dive into your fabric stash.

If you’ve followed along, congratulations on making it this far! I hope you have a better handle on seeing and reading values in both fabrics and photos. With a little practice, you’ll be ready to get to work creating your own unique quilted pet portrait collage.

Send me a message if you have any burning questions and I’ll do my best to answer.

Are you ready to put this knowledge to use and make a stunning fabric collage Pet Portrait? This is just one small part of the comprehensive online course which you can learn more about here: Pet Portraits: From Picture to Pattern.