A Very Blue Man

Before painting

Have you heard of the Blue Man Group?  It is a theater performance that we saw years ago in Chicago - quite spectacular.  Several Blue Men (completely painted blue) performed various acts with no words ever spoken.  This new quilt reminds me of them a bit.
This was my next adventure with this new technique.  Can you tell that I am having a lot of fun?  And am obviously working in my studio again.  Hurrah!!
Anyway - I decided the next challenge was to take a photo and make a pattern for myself.  And see if the quilt would actually  work without the pattern from an expert like Teri.  Here is the process:  Find or take a photo with a lot of contrast in the light and dark areas, trace the photo on clear plastic and trace the different values areas and mark them with L (light), D (dark) etc., make the drawing larger (I used Rapid Resizer (a web application), make a pattern and then use Teri's technique.

After painting

I wanted to use a less than natural color selection so I used some of Jan's marvelous blue fabric.  I actually sort of like blue portraits even though some folks think they look like zombies.
Once I had the fabric pieces selected and fused to the background, I was rather worried.  It looked pretty disorganized and confused before the painting was added.  I am not certain that I could have ever learned this technique without the hands-on class and personal coaching from Teri because at this point - I started to lose confidence.
BUT - I kept going.  I like the finished piece (not yet quilted).  And I learned a LOT about pattern drawing - there are some definite areas that I will do differently the next time.  But I won't tell you which ones because then you might spot some of the problems instead of focusing on the overall effect.