Embroidering faces

anne wrote:
says...
Thank you, everyone, for all your suggestions. I had a longish chat
today with the lady who's co-ordinating the project, and she seems to
think that it's best to avoid any facial features.

smart lady -- I'd rather have a piece with an artsy face with no features than
one with simplistic ugly ones

I don't know what size these faces are, but to me that would be rather
ghostly. Of course, maybe that's the affect you want.

Dianne

says...
I don't know what size these faces are, but to me that would be rather
ghostly. Of course, maybe that's the affect you want.

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.

--
another anne, add ingers to reply

anne wrote:
says...
I don't know what size these faces are, but to me that would be rather
ghostly. Of course, maybe that's the affect you want.

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.


You always do such interesting pieces!
Dianne

"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

"Dawne Peterson" ) writes:
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


When I do picture to pattern for my nudes, the thing that decides how big
the picture has to be, is the face. When one looks at different sizes of
pictures, in stitches, then when the face starts losing too much detail as one
goes to progressively smaller sizes, that is the time to stop considering
smaller sizes. Jim.

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



--
Susan Hartman/Dirty Linen
The Magazine of Folk and World Music
www.dirtylinen.com

On 6/11/09 12:29 PM, "Susan Hartman" wrote:

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