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Hello Reader,

Welcome to the November newsletter. This month I have a travel story to share with you and some strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls when making a portrait from a photo.

First, some background: I recently took an acrylic painting class where I discovered that it's one thing to apply paint to a canvas but it's quite another to fully see what you want to capture in your painting while you are at it. It was the second part of that statement that really hit home: the need to fully see what you want to capture. This also happens to be an important aspect of making a pet portrait from a photo.

Now, back to that story. My husband and I are both keen cyclists and we love independently exploring the backroads of Europe on our folding bicycles. We have been doing this, as time and money allowed, for the past 30+ years. In recent years, these two wheeled adventures have started with a direct flight over the polar route to Schipfol airport, near Amsterdam.

Like many big airports, it’s a long haul from the arrival gate to the departure gate at Schiphol. To assist tired passengers and improve the flow of foot traffic, there are moving walkways. Nothing new here. Many airports have these walkways.

What makes this memorable at Schiphol is the walkways are fairly short to allow for entry and exit zones and, at each of these zones, you are ejected ontoa stationary section of walkway but only for, count them... five quick strides. To make it even more fun, the walkways speed up in the middle portion and slow down at the entry and exit. Needless to say, you have to be prepared for the moment when you step off, take five carefully executed strides, and then plant your foot on the next walkway, all without losing a beat because there's a whole crew of travellers following hot on your heels. If you let your attention wander, you risk an abrupt face-plant and you just might take out an aimless wanderer crossing your path at that instant.

OK, it's not a likely scenario, but it’s in the back of your mind and people do fall and injure themselves on these moving walkways. To prevent injuries, a pre-recorded female voice calmly reminds travellers in perfect English, to “…mind your step”. Over and over again, you hear “…mind your step”, as you congratulate yourself for making it across the gap and onto the next walkway. Once you’ve experienced this, it becomes an ear worm and you won’t forget it. I kid you not, there’s even a Facebook group for it.

An Ah-ha Moment

I was musing about this last week when it struck me that we need a jingle to remind ourselves to open our eyes and truly see what we are trying to capture in a fabric collage. Maybe something like "oye, oye, oye" for "open your eyes".

Now here’s the takeaway from all this …

While we try to notice everything we think is important in a reference photo, we can only juggle so many things at once and it’s oh-so-easy to overlook the very clues that make for a more realistic portrait. So, remember to re-focus and look for them. You might be surprised by what you find.

Three Major Pitfalls

Without further a-do, here are three major pitfalls that can sneak up on you when you least expect them. Give these strategies a try and you will be better prepared to nip them in the bud.

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The next time you are working on a pet portrait or any fabric collage for that matter, whether it's making a pattern or constructing the collage, remember to oye-oye-oye.

Want to Learn More?

What I’ve shown you here is just the tip of the iceberg. If this was helpful and you would like to get some hands-on practise while learning how to apply these and other skills, check out Colorblind Collage Essentials. It's fresh off the press.