New art work: In his image

In his image

'In his image' is a piece of work in my new series 'The family'. It explore the image of Adam and Eve the first Man and Woman on the earth.  I am painting a whole cloth quilt and them quilting it.   In this piece of work I want to look at more texture and detail in the clothing for the viewers eye to come back to look at more of the quilt. 

The ideas I am considering to add more texture are

• Adding small quantities of text
• Using layers of transparent materials 
• Painting texture by printing and stamping
• Adding different layers of colour

When I start painting a whole cloth quilt it is important to iron the material as flat as possible and then to stretch it flat so it won't move or crinkle as it is being painted.   I do this one of 2 ways.  Either by using masking tape on the edges or as in this case small bull dog clips around the edge of a thin wooden board.

I like using bull dog clips as they are so great to reposition as needed,  they don't leave any sticky residue and they hold the fabric quite flat and taut.  It doesn't work as well for quilts that I don't have the right size board for.

If the bull dog clips are evenly spread along the edge of the fabric the fabric will sit flat all ready for painting. Once the fabric is flat I take a mechanical pencil (below)  And draw the basic out lines of the quilt.  In this case I have drawn the border lines,  the head, eye, nose and mouth out lines and the outlines of the body. Only the basic out lines are needed as my original sketch is my most important guide. 

Once the guide lines are sketched in it is time to paint.  :)