My concerns...
1. the arm doesn't have enough quilting, but how to quilt it and keep it looking nice.
2. the face might be 'ok' but probably should get a bit more (her right cheek is slightly bigger than my fist...so thinking it needs a bit more some how to stabilize it)
Long lines Lines coming from the sides, but not in the shadow.
Lines coming from the sides in the shadow too. Lines only from the outsides.
Removed the contour lines in the lower arm
In the face, I'm afraid that stitching it down too much will make her look 'old'....but don't want to create weird shaping either.
This one stitches down around the eyes and a few contour lines between the nose and mouth.
The second one (right) adds more in teh shadowing around her chin.....makes it seem like she has a gotee or something.
This tries to stitch even more on the shadows, would probably need to do the forehead too and her cheek looks weird with the spiral. And I'm feeling like the bottom is a 'beard'.
HELP!!!!!
I'm no help - I'm so new at FMQ, but just wanted to say she's fabulous already.
ReplyDeleteI personally like the face just as it is now. It has so much detail that you don't want anything to detract from that. On the arm, I like the first example the best... More long lines from fingers to elbow... The last one would be my next choice. Have you Googled portrait quilts and seen what others have done? Tough one!! If you do anything at all on the face, I'd keep it very similar to the forearm, just to balance it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/10060630@N06/8152661605/in/photostream/ to show an example that I have found. It is completely stitched down in a natural contour sort of way, but really tightly stitched. I was hoping to have some 'soft' relief with not overquilting it, but maybe I should go for it. ??
DeleteI'm going to second the long lines because it was my first thought even before I saw the samples you came up with. Not sure anything can be done with the face without ruining it. Or, at least, I know I couldn't be successful in that area. What to other pictorial quilters do?
ReplyDeleteI recently posted on my blog how difficult it can be for me to decide what to quilt sometimes. This is a tough one!!! My first preference is to match the thread as closely as possible. Have you thought about doing echo quilting for some of the areas? Good luck! I hope you will post again to show your progress.
ReplyDeleteI'll add my twopence even though I'm a total quilting beginner, but from an artist's perspective, I would go with very slight contour outlines of her cheek and leave it at that: you don't want to draw attention to the parts of the face that we normally wouldn't want to draw attention to, if you see what I mean! Especially in the area around the eyes (tiredness) and chin/jawline - definitely too much of a beardy thing going on there!! I think just a few contour lines around the areas that would have the most light fall on them, like the cheek and perhaps the chin, but only around the lightest points. Good luck with it! She's absolutely gorgeous :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah - the face, leave alone unless Chloe's idea sings to you in a sketch-out. The other things kinda make me think of a Sleestack (or whatever they were called). ;D I like the long lines much better for the arms, and maybe not as many of them? - the others make me think of wrinkles on her skin. A
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert, but I do like the longer lines on the arm. As for the face, I think you should leave the area directly under her eyes alone. You're right it does make her look tired. What about stitching just a few "horizontal" lines from the ear to the chin along the chin line rather than vertical like you have them. You know when you apply "blush" you stroke diagonally. Know what I mean?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that less is more when you're stitching Rosie. Remember you want to follow the line of the design not work against it - like her arms -- look at your own arms - do you see horizontal or vertical lines going up and down them? A good way to learn how to stitch people like this is going on line and seeing what other art quilters have done - then you know already what works!
ReplyDeleteoH Wow. I like the stitching for arms on the first one but the face. Maybe just outline but really I'd leave the face alone. The stitching did make her look old and then it looked like a mask around the eyes and she had a 5 o'clock shadow. I'm glad this is you and not me working on Rosie. Sorry I'm not much help on this.
ReplyDelete