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Posted by ellice on June 15, 2009, 5:35 pm
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> Dawne Peterson wrote:
>> "anne" wrote
>>> Different strokes for different folks ;-)
>>>
>>> One of the first pieces I did when I started stitching again was several
>>> fairies from a Dover book. I had great fun doing everything except the
>>> faces.
>>> The faces turned out ghastly!!! Maybe I didn't choose good colors for
>>> outline
>>> and features coupled with using more than one strand of floss or maybe the
>>> faces were just plain ugly from the git go. I never hung the finished
>>> piece and
>>> just recently decided to use the frame for something else. I actually
>>> threw the
>>> stitching away. Do I hear a collective gasp?
>>>
>>> I bought Sophisticated Lady <http://www.jdr-be.com/JDR6018.htm> I wanted
>>> to
>>> practise working with edmar threads but hated the face as drawn. Thanks to
>>> Christine Hause's tip about Biz removing printed lines, I've got a
>>> faceless
>>> lady that doesn't look quite as evil as she could've.
>>>
>> I do find that some patterns do a poor job of the face. As Pat pointed out,
>> the proportion, especially the placement of the eyes, is critical.
>> Sometimes the perspective shifts, so that a face is in 3/4 view, but the
>> artist draws a mouth or eye "symbol"--a feature the way they "know" it
>> looks--rather than the feature as it would be viewed from that angle. I
>> just redraw them if they bother me and I otherwise like the design, but I
>> know not everybody is comfortable doing that.
>>
>> Dawne
>>
>
> The face is the make-it-or-break-it in my decisions. So many designers
> have lovely everything else, but just can't do faces. Often it's because
> they're "overdone" - too dark, too detailed. Usually the less detail,
> the better, IMHO. That's probably why I don't stitch people much.
>
> Sue
>
>
I second your observation, Sue. I find that a lot of Needlework (mostly in
XS) designers seem to be missing some figure drawing/portrait basics about
faces, heads, necks, shoulders & how they join up. As Pat pointed out -
that little "eyes are at about the half-way" placement often gets missed.
What troubles me is the awkward position of heads on necks - not having the
slope of the neck, but rather having the head sitting like an egg on an egg
cup - which I notice on some otherwise quite pretty Mirabilia or Nora
Corbett pieces. And speaking of faceless - the little Pixies or Faeries of
recent years - either faceless or with truly minimal indication. I think
the minimal better than nothing, but....OTOH - there is a reason I tend to
more figure/architectural/landscape drawing as opposed to portraiture -
definitely a limitation I try to recognize and work with.
Ellice
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>> "anne" wrote
>>> Different strokes for different folks ;-)
>>>
>>> One of the first pieces I did when I started stitching again was several
>>> fairies from a Dover book. I had great fun doing everything except the
>>> faces.
>>> The faces turned out ghastly!!! Maybe I didn't choose good colors for
>>> outline
>>> and features coupled with using more than one strand of floss or maybe the
>>> faces were just plain ugly from the git go. I never hung the finished
>>> piece and
>>> just recently decided to use the frame for something else. I actually
>>> threw the
>>> stitching away. Do I hear a collective gasp?
>>>
>>> I bought Sophisticated Lady <http://www.jdr-be.com/JDR6018.htm> I wanted
>>> to
>>> practise working with edmar threads but hated the face as drawn. Thanks to
>>> Christine Hause's tip about Biz removing printed lines, I've got a
>>> faceless
>>> lady that doesn't look quite as evil as she could've.
>>>
>> I do find that some patterns do a poor job of the face. As Pat pointed out,
>> the proportion, especially the placement of the eyes, is critical.
>> Sometimes the perspective shifts, so that a face is in 3/4 view, but the
>> artist draws a mouth or eye "symbol"--a feature the way they "know" it
>> looks--rather than the feature as it would be viewed from that angle. I
>> just redraw them if they bother me and I otherwise like the design, but I
>> know not everybody is comfortable doing that.
>>
>> Dawne
>>
>
> The face is the make-it-or-break-it in my decisions. So many designers
> have lovely everything else, but just can't do faces. Often it's because
> they're "overdone" - too dark, too detailed. Usually the less detail,
> the better, IMHO. That's probably why I don't stitch people much.
>
> Sue
>
>