In January of this year I enrolled in a 5 day on-line animal portrait class with Susan Carlson, an amazing fabric collage artist. Besides being in awe of her artwork over all these years, I wanted to stretch myself as an artist by learning a new fabric collage portrait technique and creating a larger-than-life art portrait.
The Beginning: A Photograph, a Line Drawing and Susan Carlson’s Master Class
I went back and forth regarding my reference photo. Would it be a stunning red fox, a great horned owl, or a barn owl?
While I have done birds before, the fox seemed like it wouldn’t be that much different than the pets I do now. Of course, there was the possibility of making it in blue or purple. I eventually settled on the great horned owl because of the multitude of feathers and its vibrant colors.
In preparation for Susan’s Pre-Class Coaching session, I traced an outline from the reference photo. The balance of not enough details versus having too many details took me a couple attempts to master. I felt like Goldilocks. One attempt had pieces too big, another too small and then, just right. The screenshot below on the left is from my pre-class coaching session with Susan.
Too little detail, then just right
The other parts of the pre-class homework were to gather up a palette of possible fabrics, enlarge my line drawing, trace it onto muslin, and to watch the videos in Susan’s Fabric Collage Online Master Class. I can’t possibly put into words how invaluable this series of videos was. Susan adeptly breaks down each of the steps in creating a fabric collage. While familiar with some of her techniques from her blog, this master class put it all together with step by step videos.
In spite of having created pet portraits for over 12 years, that whole week prior, I definitely had a case of the new student/new school jitters. There were moments of “could I do this?” and “what happens if I’m too slow?” and “what if I can’t combine the colors correctly?” Yes, those mindset gremlins that delight in blocking my creative process were running rampant.
There was a “meeting” the evening before class started. After introductions, I felt as if I was in the presence of the Sorting Hat (Harry Potter reference) as I waited nervously to hear which group/room I would be with. Turns out there were 5 of us who were creating creatures that flew – two owls, two butterflies, and one bee. (Spoiler: this was the perfect group for me.)
Great Horned Owl Head: Day One
Each morning and afternoon began with a mini-lecture/ demonstration from Susan talking about a certain aspect of our creative collage journey. She would then “go” from room to room, commenting on our progress individually, answering questions and providing encouragement. In the course of a day, she came to each room three times minimum. At each break, her husband Tom would “call out” for photos of our progress and he’d quickly take everything we sent him and place it in each of our individual folders for Susan to reference when she came to each of us.
Susan had us start with the eyes/nose area of the face, if there was one. (The bee portrait had a great bee butt instead of a face, as that was deep inside the flower.). As the day went on, there was a huge shift inside me. I went from “Can I keep up/ do this?” to “Look at me. I’m doing it.” I think that evening I sent photos to all my friends and family. I was just so excited by this new technique.
The morning session, and by the end of the day
Owl Face Crown, Ear Tufts, and Beak: Refining Everything
Screenshot of areas to be corrected
By day three, I realized there were things that, in my vision, just absolutely need changing before I worked my way down to the chest feathers. And if that meant I didn’t finish Olivia completely in class that would be fine. I needed to work on and receive feedback on those areas.
Not sure if you can spot things besides Susan’s correction (marked in white in the photo above) but here is what I focussed on:
- The direction of the crown feathers (dark blue) was wrong. They were vertical and should be horizontal.
- There were no lightish color feathers to define her face.
- Ear tufts were too tropically yellow. It needed muted color there and more variation in the darker colors.
- The owl’s left side (our right) of face wasn’t built out enough. She had no neck at all there.
- There was too much black on one side of her beak and the surrounding feathers were too dark.
In the first photo below, you can see that I shifted the direction of the loons in the crown (dark blue fabric) and added small golden pieces that matched the golden part of the ear feathers. In the second photograph, I lightened up the area all around the beak. (FYI – I changed it up a third time after class was finished.)
Ear tuft and beak close up
Adding depth to the eyes was an interesting process. It was a freeing experience to create an eye that was 3 to 10 times bigger than my usual size. The level of detail often called for tweezers for the correct placement. I remember exclaiming outloud “wow” when I stepped back to look at the revisions.
There are 17 different pieces of fabric that make up this eye.
Creating Feathers from Fabric
Part of Susan’s technique is to cut the individual pieces following the markings from the original enlarged outline. Having the markings on the muslin meant all one has to do is place the fabric piece over the area and lifting up the edges, slowly cut along the marking lines. While the picture below appears to follow my outline, there were times when I took a shortcut or two and didn’t exactly follow every single line.
The picture below shows when I was working on the white feathers that distinguish Olivia’s face from her chest. Here you have a better view of the blue loons that are in her crown. I also deliberately put in several pieces with additional creatures. Can you spot one?
This also is an excellent example of how one can use unrelated patterned fabrics to achieve a particular look. The ruffled fronds of the ferns give a layered and fluffy appearance. It also was important to have several particular fabrics appear throughout her body. The fabric at the base of her crown (see above left) is repeated on the side of her head and again as a feather.
Creating her chest feathers was fun, almost like a treasure hunt. Glancing at the reference photograph, I would begin a search amongst the fabrics on the table. Once found, I’d hold different pieces up for their “audition.” At one point I realized that if I kept on going, the overall work would be 36 by 48 inches (.9 by 1.2 meters) and decided to shift to working on her background.
Closeup of feathers of Olivia’s neck and lower head
Background: Where Will Olivia the Owl Live?
During this creation process, I kept “listening” to see if I could hear where Oliva came from. The more of her that appeared in front of me, the stronger the call of the forest came through. She wanted to be in her home habitat but not specifically where she nests.
What I like about the chosen fabric is that the variegated colors remind me of the light filtering through the trees, complimenting the golden colors of Olivia.
Olivia is tacked in place with glue (Susan’s technique). The next steps for this piece are to quilt her. I am unsure if I will then stretch the art work over canvas (similar to below) or make it as a wall hanging.
Follow-up: In Susan’s Blog, Going to the Dogs, and More
As part of her class process, Susan always creates at least one blog about her classes. And her online class was no different. Imagine my utter delight when the blog that featured our ”Winging It” group appeared in my inbox one Saturday.
In the end, I was thankful that I didn’t create a dog, cat, or the red fox. The Great Horned Owl stretched me artistically. What is helpful is that the blog posts of the two other groups, “The Colorful Canines” and “Crazy Fur Sure,” are there to give me inspiration for when I do my first feline or canine using Susan’s techniques.
Size comparison to previous pieces, partial fabric selection, and adjusting feathers for photo shoot.
Taking Animal Fabric Collage with Susan was an awesome experience. Besides being a skilled artist, Susan is also an inspiring teacher, who is extremely invested in her students. The teamwork between Tom Allen (her husband) and Susan was incredible. Tom orchestrated receiving multiple photographs from each student, multiple times each day, and getting our work set for when Susan came into each breakout room.
Interested in seeing more techniques? I already have written a blog post, The Making of Cooper, about the technique I had used for over 12 years.