This is my rendition of Contrast. I chose the word, then I
did what everyone else in this group probably does, just go blank and scratch
my head in puzzlement. What am I going to make?
So I played around with the word….black & white is contrasting,
so are a lot of other colors, but I wanted to make something totally different
and out of the ordinary. I decided to do, my daughter Sarah, who has very light
skin and dark hair = CONTRAST.
First I asked permission to use a photo she had which was a
gift for a friend - well she is an adult and I didn’t just want to take her
photo without permission.
Then I did some photoshop stuff with it, like change it to
“posterized” which gives me about six colors to choose from, rather than look
at the subject/colors all at once. It broke the tones up so I could see where
to make transitions.
Because the original pic was square, I had to get this
enlarged somehow, so I used the copier at work and did it in sections. (Since
then a friend has given me an enlarger!)
I then outlined the sections and used a black magic marker
to divide up the colors, and then numbered them. Luckily for me, I found a
person who does fabric dying in all the shades I was looking for (skin tones)
at the Mancuso show in August.
The piece is not sewn, but fused, and I framed it as well. I thought it would look better this way. I
did try some sewing, but it was very distracting and I just wasn’t happy with
it.
A gorgeous daughter and gorgeous quilt! What a great idea for contrast. Outstanding!
ReplyDeleteAgree, both are gorgeous! Love this!
ReplyDeleteCarol I really like the crop, and the limited color palate that you chose for your quilt. The whole quilt really works and I agree that stitching would not have worked as well. It's really one of my favorites of all of your work! Fabulous job!!
ReplyDeleteCarol, I love the hand dyes for the skin fabric. The angle of her head and the contrast of her hair is also wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHi Carol - This is stunning. I really love the result depicting your beautiful daughter. Glad you framed it!
ReplyDeleteWOW ! Stunning ! I loved your descriptive narrative and almost felt like I'd been there with you because of your descriptions. I'm intrigued with your use of Photoshop ... It was mentioned in several of the IQF workshop presentations last year. I've had Adobe Photoshop on my computer for several years, but have failed miserably in trying to understand, layers, saturation, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso... what a great friend to have provided you with an Enlarger !
Your portrait of Sarah reminded me of some of the incredibly gorgeous work by Jennifer Day, and Esterita Austin that we saw last year at IQF in Houston.
BRAVO !
Beautiful quilt of a beautiful young woman. I really like how you put her in the frame of the image at a diagonal and cropped. It gives her the look of someone with high energy "on the go". Great choice of colors and effective use of value to make the face come alive
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt, I like the different angle, anyone can do a straight on shot but this adds so much more dimension. I wish you had included the picture of your daughter. I agree, I think a lot of sewing would have ruined it, it is perfect the way it is.
ReplyDeleteI put in the picture I used. I had also flipped it so we could see her hair on this side.
DeleteLovely lady and lovely depiction of a lovely lady. My favorite thing is the cropping you did of the photo. That was truly inspired! And thank you for including the original photo. It illustrates how truly amazing your depiction of your daughter is.
ReplyDeleteFascinating and very dramatic! Great solution for the theme. Thank you for the informative explanation and also for adding the photo that you worked from.
ReplyDeleteGreat portrait! Also very interesting changes from the original photo. Love the crop and the hair.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a wonderful theme word. I think we all enjoyed it.
What a beautiful piece, Carol! You did a fabulous job on the portrait and the contrast is so well done. Your daughter is lovely!
ReplyDeleteSuperb work! I too love the angle and cropping. So nice that as artists we can turn things, add or delete things to make the piece look even better. Thanks for posting the original photo and explaining what you did to achieve the end results. Your daughter is beautiful and you did a great job.
ReplyDelete