Playful Portraiture: making faces from photo to fabric

Course
33 Lessons

Learn the secrets of making quilted portraits, from whimsical and cartoon-like silly selfie postcards to accurately proportioned quilted portraits. You will discover that it isn’t nearly as hard as you imagined. Learn to choose your photo, draft a pattern, and create a fusible appliqué quilted portrait.

Let's Get Seriously Silly

In this online course you will have immediate and permanent access to all lessons as soon as you sign up.

You Will Learn

Placement and Proportions for making realistic shapes
What makes a photo good to work with
How to trace a photo to make a pattern for appliqué
How to use apps to speed the pattern making process
Tips for quilting human faces
A process of playful exploration

Hi Lyric!

I want to tell you how much I REALLY enjoyed the Playful Portraiture class! You made it SIMPLE and FUN! You started at the beginning and broke down our blinders and self doubts, and EACH of us made a FANTASTIC portrait! It’s great how you provided a few portrait pictures for your students to practice on so we aren’t ruining a treasured love one. You covered every detail of making these portraits and I look so forward to doing one of my grandsons! I also love how you went over some Apps used to help out in the process! WOW! These Apps make things much simpler and are user friendly, especially after your explanations! I’m just so thrilled I took the day off to do something I’ve been wanting to learn! I highly recommend taking this class!!! What a GREAT FUN DAY!!!

- Nina Clotfelter

How This Course Works

This course is an online on-demand workshop. You will need an internet connection to stream each video.

Each lesson includes space for you to share your pictures and get feedback from your classmates. The more you contribute, the livelier class will be. Lyric will pop in to give feedback on each picture posted. This platform provides a safe space for a lively and sharing creative community to explore without judgement and competition.

Just like in a live classroom, you'll be able to see your fellow students work and discuss how things are going. You'll get encouragement and instruction from Lyric on all the work you post.

Supplies

For making silly postcards

5" x 7" postcard base: peltex, stabilizer, muslin, paper
Small pile of fabric or colored paper scraps
Glue stick
Very sharp, pointy, scissors
Optional tweezers for handling small pieces of fabric

For creating your own pattern by tracing

Pencil
Black Sharpie (fresh is best)
Tracing paper
Photo (practice photo provided in lesson)letter sized print preferably black and white, the face filling the page. You will read much more on this in the lesson so wait until then.
Light table or LED Light Box Tracer

For creating a fat-quarter sized fusible appliqué portrait

Pattern (11 x 17 practice pattern provided in lesson)
Baking Parchment
More parchment or Silicone press sheet
Black sharpie
Opaque silver sharpie, or light table and white pencil
1/2 yard Fusible Web (Wonder-Under, Misty-Fuse, Steam-a-Seam)
Scraps of solid white and black fabric
Iron and pressing surface
Scissors (still loving Karen Kay Buckley's 6-Inch Perfect Scissors)
Fat-Quarter of fabric for "skin" (be wild and creative!)
Scraps that are a little darker than your skin fabric
Various other scraps that might work for hair and shadows and eyes
Fabric for background (can be chosen after face is formed)

For using a smart phone and tablet to take photos and create patterns

You don't NEED devices to create your patterns but I find they can speed the process if you are comfortable with using technology. This class will not cover how to turn your device on and charge it and take a picture, so it is best if you are comfortable using a tablet or camera first. That said, it really isn't hard and the lessons here include step by step instructions and videos.

Smart phone with cameraDownload Snapseed app (free)
- Download the Paper Camera app ($ - you can wait until you see what it does first)
- Open the apps and give them the "permissions" it needs to access your photos.
Tablet
- A stylus or smart pencil is very helpful
- Download the Adobe Illustrator Draw app (free) or any app that allows you to create layers, import photos, and draw. You will need to create an account and register with Adobe to use the Draw app. It's worth it
- Open the app and give it the "permissions" it needs to access your photos.
- Turn it on and mess around with it - you can't hurt anything!
- The ability to send your finished photo to your computer or a printer

Frequently asked questions

You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers.

How much interaction is there from the teacher?

Lyric will comment on each posted assignment. The more you post, the more you get out of the class. Make sure to read comments on other students work as well. There is as much to learn from each other as from the course work.

What are the lessons like?

Lessons include short videos, written instructions, and supply lists.

Will you include links to suppliers?

Absolutely yes! If you are an international (outside of the US) student and have bead supplier links to share, please do!

How long do I have access to the course?

Once you've enrolled and paid, you'll have access to the course material for one year. So devour it all in one weekend or take things slow. It's your choice!

What do I need to know about using a computer?

You'll need to photograph or scan your assignments and save them as a jpeg. You can upload your pictures from your computer or device to the online lesson.

Is this class refundable?

Since all of the content is immediately available on payment, this class is not refundable. I do want you to be happy though so send me an email and let's talk. lyric@lyrickinard.com

Welcome!

Introductions

2 mins
16.6 MB

Course supply list

How This Classroom Works: a few tips for navigating this course

Let's look at faces

Silly Selfies: cartoons and caricatures

Faces are all about proportions and placement

Supplies for making silly self portraits

Make a silly selfie

13 mins
133 MB

Tracing a Photo: it's all about shapes

Choosing a photo: the good, the bad, and the goofy

Supplies for creating a pattern

Trace your photo to create a pattern

11 mins
112 MB

Enlarging and marking your pattern

Fusible applique and choosing fabric

Supplies & practice patterns

Choosing Fabric: value is more important than color

7 mins
176 MB

Grouping your pattern pieces

7 mins
63.3 MB

Fusing your fabric

Building your face with fabric

Transferring your pattern to fabric

6 mins
60.6 MB

Cutting and organizing your shapes

2 mins
13.3 MB

Positioning and fusing your features

5 mins
48.9 MB

Choosing a background

Sewing down your shapes - or not

6 mins
58.9 MB

Tips for quilting faces

Facing a quilt

Using a tablet or smart phone

What you will need for digital pattern making

Paper Camera app for making clear "value" photos

8 mins
53.8 MB

Snapseed app for altering existing photos

5 mins
87.4 MB

Snapseed app for altering existing photos 2

4 mins
56.7 MB

Adobe Illustrator Draw: Basic use and creating a pattern

9 mins
135 MB

Adobe Illustrator Draw: Basic use and creating a pattern 2

19 mins
287 MB

Wrapping up & a few extras

Student gallery

If you want to learn to draw a face

Ten books to read if you are an aspiring artist

Course Evaluation

Learn with Lyric

Lyric Montgomery Kinard is an award winning artist with a passion for sparking the creativity that she knows each of her students posses. She was recognized for her talents as the 2011 International Association of Professional Quilters Teacher of the Year.
With playful support and gentle encouragement she will take you through your first steps on a new path, seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. As an artist, author, and educator she transforms cloth into art in her studio and timid spirits into confident creatives in the classroom.

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