New Pieces Quilt Shop offered a special five day class with Esterita Austin. Eight of us created self portraits as she had suggested, with one student choosing instead to do her husband. We each purchased a kit with Misty Fuse fusible. a large piece of acetate, the use of paints , brushes, pens and one yard of our choice of hand-dyed fabric. We studied our faces paying close attention to lights and darks then tried to duplicate that with the lights and darks of the fabric. We then painted highlights with a lot of help from Esterita. Everyone finished there piece to the point of being very recognizable. At home I put mine up on the design wall to marinate a bit. Today I made some changes with fabric and some additional painting. Now that I see the picture up here, it is apparent I need to do a bit more. I think I would like to add some color back in to the face. There is too much white. I did learn a lot about how to create a portrait, something I really wanted to do as I want to build my watercolor portrait skills. I’ve had a bit of practice but have a long ways to go. Like everything else, it is important to really look at the details of your subject matter. Have you ever tried staring at your own picture for hours then in to days. Yikes!
