More Portrait Progress

Continuing from the last post, here are more pics from the creation of this special portrait.

I tried something new on this portrait.  Once I had all the fabric pieces fused in place, I used Derwent Inktense Pencils to add more shading where needed.  (My friend, Judy R. told me about these pencils.)  You can draw on fabric with them, then paint over them with a bit of textile medium.  The medium sets them into the fabric and also intensifies the color.

I really like the effect the pencils added.  Below you can see how I added shadows.  See how the khaki dotted fabric has been shaded?
And I was able to soften the edges of this white spot on the dog's chest.
And here's the finished quilt top!  The lettering at the bottom came from the dog's bedding.
Someone asked yesterday to explain my resources in making portraits.  Though many of you already know, many may not.  I developed this quick (and easy) method for creating portrait quilts from photographs several years ago.  My book (which explains the process) is Fabric Photo Play - it was published by AQS in 2005.  I still do it the same way - except for one little thing.  When I wrote the book, I used Microsoft Digital Image Pro software to help create my patterns.  Now I use Photoshop Elements.  But they work the same way and do the same thing.