It’s a Wonderful Life – Face, Hair and Hands

"It's A Wonderful Life"

My last post showed how I created the drawing of me holding the fish. Once I had the drawing completed and enlarged, I had to figure out how to create it with fabric.

I decided to paint my face, hair and hands on white “prepared for dyeing (PFD)” fabric using Tsukeniko inks. A Frixion pen was used to draw the major features of my face, hair and hands on the fabric and then I put "No Flow" on the fabric to prevent bleeding of the inks.

face drawn on PFD

The inks were mixed together to create a flesh-tone that is close to my coloring.  I mixed the paints so that I had some light, medium and dark flesh values. The flesh tone inks were applied going from lightest value to darkest value. I am a watercolorist and that is my natural progression for painting.

One Hand

The Other Hand

I added some blue to the shadow areas in addition to the flesh tones. I like the look of the addition of cool blues to warm skin shadows. My lip coloring was the red that I used in the flesh tone mixture.

Face Painting

I didn't have to paint eyes since I was wearing sun glasses, so I mixed some dark blues and browns for the glasses and frames. My hair coloring was a combination of light, medium and dark browns.

The paintings of hands and faces were cut out and applied as you would any other  raw edge applique piece.

I should mention that I mix my inks with aloe vera gel and apply it to the fabric with paint brushes. This method is comfortable for me given my painting background. There are many people who prefer other techniques and that is fine. You need to use what works for you.

Thanks for visiting my blog!