Doh a dear

In lesson 3 of Jane LaFazio’s Art Quilt Exploration class the task was a painted quilt, using an animal portrait. Try to capture your pet’s aura. OK, not my usual “thing”, but it’ll certainly be different – and stretching – which is what classes are about, right? So I looked at my bookshelves and found a Wildlife Photographer of the Year book, with these images:Which to choose? They’re greyscale here because that’s easier for the next step, but are gloriously colourful in the book. The deer is by Andy Rouse and the seal is by Norbert Wu .
Here’s my improvised lightbox. I’ve already used it, with the photo up on the screen, to trace the creature onto a bit of plastic, and am now retracing it onto unprimed canvas.

Next step is to paint. Why not blue? I used several washes of acrylic paint (the moire effect is confined to the photograph). The small dark areas are due to careless mixing of the paint – bits left in the brush – but that’s ok, we can use those to build the background. Anyway, they remind me of the poppies in the original picture. Then the stitching starts - by hand and machine.

I couldn’t get away from trying to make him look more realistic. And I couldn’t resist adding beads – even if they do look like a swarm of midges!

My big discovery is the “self-framing” effect of using stretchy fabric on the back. Do a “pillowcase” backing, trimming the seams very close to the stitching (zigzag round to stop any unwanted unravelling, then turn). Because the canvas is stiff, the stretchy fabric bends round it, making a thin frame. I used a velour here, and added the beads up the sides to keep that line of darkness in place.