WATERCOLOR PENCILS: Translating a photo in fabric

While taking a walk down our wooded lane, I spotted a bit of blue and realized that it was a broken Robin's egg perched on top of some dried leaves.  

I especially loved the light on the egg and leaves, so, I whipped out my phone and took a photo. 

It didn't take me long to get it printed, at 8" square,  onto a piece of 100% cotton fabric.  I printed it off at 50% of it's original density. I used my home printer, knowing that I was going to paint over the photo with watercolor pencils, so, I was not concerned about the ink in my printer being lightfast.

After applying a lightweight, iron on interfacing, I then proceeded to layer the printed cotton with a light weight batting. I used a piece of upholstery fabric, that was pretty stiff, for the backing.

I then quilted sections of the photo. After quilting parts of it, I started painting with the watercolor pencils.

Here's a photo that shows the log, leaf, egg and another leaf in progress. As I worked with each color, I smoothed and sealed with the fabric medium, Golden GAC 900.

 

Since the photo was so pale, I decided to draw in some lines that I could then follow while free motion quilting them.

  

I experimented with painting quilted areas and painting non-quilted areas that were then quilted. I like quilting the area first. There is less chance that the paint will flow out of the lines after being covered with the medium. It also gives a better idea of the area being worked.  

This photo shows the piece coming close to being finished. I ended up using some glitter mixed with medium and a bit of white paint to provide more highlights. You can see a bit of the glitter in this photo. 

I finished the edges with  several rounds of satin stitch using Madiera FS20 Bronze metallic thread.

I then mounted the piece on a 12" canvas that I had painted.

Here is the finished piece.

I made some changes to the shading after finishing the edges.  I also realized that the photo could have been printed a few shades darker and would have been easier to work with.   

This was a great study in light and dark and creating depth in a piece. The quilting gives it a beautiful dimension that could not be done with the painting alone. 

I am looking forward to using this process again with more photos and possibly, working with larger photos.

CREATING ALWAYS,

KAREN