If you have ever read any science fiction or fantasy, you may remember that in order to enjoy the story, you have to "suspend disbelief". When looking at this portrait, even though it is not a finished work that you may think will change significantly, try to believe that this is a human person. The colors are definitely not what you would expect to see in a healthy individual, right? If you can overlook the unusual complexion, I think you can begin to see me. The majors parts of the face are constructed as much as possible, with a single piece of fabric. The forehead is one piece, nose, upper cheeks, above the lip, and lower cheek areas are all single pieces of fabric assembled like a jigsaw puzzle. We used batiks that have a number of different colors in different values within the single piece of fabric. For example, my left upper cheek (on the right in the picture here) is one piece that changed from a dark green to mid-value blue to white to dark yellow. That change in fabric color is what gives the face contour.
Okay, that being said, here's what I have to do with what is done so far. I am not wearing glasses, but it looks as though I am. I tried to construct each eye orbit with a single piece of fabric. As Esterita Austin pointed out,there are too many shifts in value to accomplish the way I did it. My eye area looks flat; the left eye in particular looks like the lens of a pair of glasses. That needs to be changed.
She also told me the neck area is usually done with one piece rather than the two or three I planned on using. I didn't think I could get the range of colors/values in one piece, but I'll look at my fabric again.
I am happy with my mouth and teeth even though I didn't follow her guidelines with my lips. In order for everything to work together, she wanted us to use only the piece of fabric we had (provided by her though we got to choose the one we wanted from her supply) so the face would have all the same skin tones. If you look at the lips, you probably can tell that color would not be in my piece of material. I cheated and took that lip color from a different source reasoning that I always wear lipstick.
My iris color will also be filched from another source. My eyes are not skin tone (whose are?) so I have no compunction in altering Mrs. Austin's guidelines again.
Then I will go on and finish the eyeballs with iris, neck and upper shoulders, and finally the hair and shirt. The should be a lot of fun!
That does look better than I thought it would with your description of the colors used. And, yes, I have to suspend my tendency to think inside the box!
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