Mary, Matilda and Me - Face, Arms and Hands

"Mary Matilda and Me" top

I thought I'd do a post today about how I did the human skin in this art quilt. I've seen some people use purchased fabrics for skin very successfully, but I've never tried that. Whenever I've had to do skin, I've painted it on white Kona fabric using Tsukeniko Inks. I blend the inks with Aloe Vera Gel to give me control over where it goes.

Tsukeniko Inks all have a number, which is what I know them by. These are the inks I like to use for Caucasian skin tones.















The yellows, browns and red tones (53, 90, 92) are for the main skin areas, and the blues (19, 62) are for shadow areas.  I create a few different intensities and values of each.





I start by doing a line drawing on the Kona fabric of the face or hand. I use a Frixion ink pen so that the line will go away once ironed.




Then I put in lighter values of the mixed colors.




I work my way up to the darker values and blues. I try to "sneak up on the darks", as one of my painting instructors used to say. That means I try to be careful not to use darks too early in the process.



This is how the faces, arms and hands ended up on this art quilt.

Grandma lecturing one last time

Mom listening intently

Thanks for visiting my blog!