Here, Kitty Kitty…
A new pet has joined the pack and this time it’s a cat portrait. I’m pleased to say that everyone’s getting along just fine although that’s quite a glare in those eyes!
This time, I decided to make a large portrait so I enlarged the original line drawing by 140% on my Canon printer. As you can see on the fabric reference chart, I chose to use 8 values for this project.
I traced the cat onto muslin with an ultra fine Sharpie pen.
Constructing the portrait is truly like painting by number with fabric instead of paint. I apply the fabric shapes that are anatomically the furthest away first. In this case, the cat’s back and top of the head are the furthest away. Then, the face and neck shapes are put in place. The nose, chin and eyes are the closest so they are the applied last. The eyes are set back in the eye sockets in real life so I am planning to experiment with their placement.
As I auditioned the portrait against a muted pink batik, the pink nose popped out and completed the cat’s expression. I knew right away I’d found the perfect background fabric. Kitty is is up on the wall now and I can almost hear her purr…or is that a grrrr?