September 2021 Live Online Fabric Collage Class—Part Three: Dogs, Dogs, Goose

This completes the series of three posts written about my September 2021 Live Online Class. The three parts are based on the three Zoom breakout rooms students were divided into. The posts began with the Leaping Lemurs. Then continued with the Furbies group. This week I feature the last group of four students who named themselves “Dogs, Dogs, Goose.” LeahGrace Kayler’s dog Baayla, is pictured above.

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If it isn’t clear how a Live Online Class works, please visit the link to my March 2021 Fabric Collage Live Online Class. That post explains the process in detail. You may also like to check out April’s class post and May’s (three part) Online Class posts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

If online classes are an option for you, I am collecting expressions of interest for another 5-day class running in January or February of 2022. Let me know by dropping an email to Tom ([email protected]) with the subject heading: “Expression of Interest: Live Online Class.” You’ll get advance notice in a separate email, when we’ve firmed up any dates and are getting ready to open general registration.

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Dogs, Dogs, Goose

Made up of members Gayle Hosek, LeahGrace Kayler, Ros Pettit, and Sylvie Aguilar, this group’s subjects include three dogs and a goose. There were in fact six dogs in the class as a whole, but we couldn’t put them all in the same breakout room. However, in a 50/50 split, three dogs happened to have tongues sticking out, three didn’t. So, three of the ladies in Dogs, Dogs, Goose did, or will, learn how to analyze and collage a dog’s tongue.

Sylvie and her goose also landed here since after she and LeahGrace met in my May Live Online Class, they created their own online collage study group with another student, and have become friends. So I put them together again in this breakout room.

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Gayle Hosek—When Gayle and I first chatted in the pre-class coaching session, she knew she wanted to capture two of her dogs in a single collaged portrait, but wasn’t sure who would be first. Though she began with beautiful Bella, her Brittany spaniel (no tongue displayed), Bella will later be joined by Remington (and his happy smile, with tongue).  You can see Remington’s beginnings off to the side of Bella, in photo below.

Gayle used two separate photos (bottom left, below) to create Bella’s image. The pose of her body is taken from one photo, and her head, which shows her at a younger age, was taken from another. I like that even with the realism of Gayle’s color choices, she also chose some bolder and distinctive prints in her fabrics to beautifully create the sense of form—the ins and outs, shadows and highlights—of Bella’s anatomy and the visual texture of her fur, not to mention her ultra soulful face.

From Gayle:

Breakout rooms—liked the background noise it provided as I worked.  They provided the energy you feel when taking a class in-person.  Everyone needs a member like Ros—her sense of humor seemed to squelch the moments of frustration.

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Ros Pettit—Ros is a returning student from my March 2021 Live Online Class. She significantly upped the difficulty level with this, her second collage—progressing from a Blue Morpho inspired mega-butterfly to a shaggy blue portrait of her black golden doodle, Lulu. Yes, that is a type of dog, who knew?

Having had experience this spring working with a fabric palette of blue fabrics for her butterfly, this fall, Ros used those skills to launch right into creating the illusion of dark curly fur on Lulu. It was a calculated move. In March, Ros confided that what she really wanted to create was a portrait of her black golden doodle, but decided to pick a potentially less stressful subject instead. But it was one of the reasons that her butterfly was blue—it was a warmup for Lulu.

Ros used the different variations of color and values in the blue fabrics to her advantage in Lulu—the lighter values are coming right at us, and the darker values recede quite nicely. Lulu has quite a defined separation in her fur as it travels up the bridge of her nose. Ros had a seemingly perfect fabric to create that spray of fur (below right). That bit of fabric evolved over the week—ending up getting cut into, separated, and overlayed—a great example of the collage process. What you first put down is not necessarily meant to be in that same form by the end, but it’s a start and a direction to move into, and that’s always good.

I love how Ros dealt with choosing the fabric for Lulu’s tongue. She cut out a tongue-sized hole from a piece of paper and arranged the cut-out over a variety of fabrics, and then took photos of each option. When I got back around for her consultation, there was the line-up of tongues to assess—very funny. Even after 37 years of teaching fabric collage, there can always be something new.

From Ros:

It was marvelous to have my fabrics nearby… to add in and change out what wasn’t working. I was able to get a quick cup of coffee and not miss anything; have lunch brought to me to eat as I worked, and enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the week! I was able to listen to the music I love or a book on tape and not miss a single comment [made to the others in the room].

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LeahGrace Kayler—LeahGrace is a three time returning Live Online Class student. Her sense of color and form are already highly developed, so I’m very flattered that she continues to return for my instruction and feedback. Click the links to see her black cat and her pair of ravens.

Her dog Baayla is the other half of her pet-pair with Archie the cat (linked above). Sorry to other class dogs Lulu and Remington, but Baayla get’s the award for most prominent tongue in the group—she’s the Mick Jagger of dogs (as Ros remarked). That 12 inch long tongue takes up half the height of Baayla’s portrait! It is the very definition of “lolling.” I love it.

I do tell students that single-colored animals are more difficult to define in a collage, since you can’t just use the same color or value or fabric over and over and expect to create depth of form. LeahGrace had already successfully interpreted a black cat and black ravens with a variety of black, grey, purple, and even aqua fabrics—now she tackled a creamy white dog, and the challenge was on. It took some time to come up with the right colors to become Baayla’s shadowed areas—and especially around her sweet, sweet eyes—but what’s a few days in the grand scheme of things? LeahGrace brought out both the gentleness and playfulness, and maybe a bit of goofiness, of this happy pup. Another success.

From LeahGrace:

What a gift this class is! I got to immerse myself in the learning process every day with similarly-dedicated fellow students, each of us on our own journeys, but all together. We don’t talk about it much, but there are many life lessons in working with Susan on fabric collage in this way. To name just a few examples, I’ve had to wrestle with my need for perfection, with feeling that it’s o.k. to cut into a prize piece of fabric because if I use it, I won’t have it anymore, and with trusting the unknown, like “ What happens if I use green fabrics to make my dog?” Not that it’s all about challenges – there are tons of “oohs and aahs”, lots of laughs, and much good companioning in both small and large groups. Susan is the best of sherpas, while Tom maintains the base station admirably. I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to travel with them in this way.

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Sylvie Aguilar—Sylvie also returned, after attending my May 2021 Live Online Class. Her aqua blue and green elephant was beautiful and majestic. In this class, Sylvie used her elegant touch to dress this lovely goose, Claudette.

I think it may have been the afternoon of Day One, when Sylvie asked if I could believe it took five hours to create one beak. My answer was yes, I can. I’ve been there myself, on other seemingly simple body parts. But I also told Sylvie that the time was totally worth it—Claudette now has a fabulous beak.

The softness and subtleness of values in this goose could have been daunting, but Sylvie was so drawn to this photo that she was able to tease out every shade and nuance of texture that was possible to see. With the exception of one fabric, all the other fabric prints aren’t feathers at all, yet there’s no doubt there are layers upon layers of feathers on Claudette. Note how the purples at the front of her are “warm” with tints of magenta and aqua, and the feathers along her back and tail are “cooled” with blues—another example of using color to it’s full advantage—warm colors appear to come forward and cool colors appear to recede.

From Sylvie:

Having Susan draw on your pictures, sent to Tom ahead of time, is really helpful in visualizing where you need to be going. I always take a picture and then print it so I have a reference with me while I work. It also gives me a place to write notes before I forget and/or future questions I need to ask Susan at our next one on one meeting. The 2 sessions, morning and afternoon, have worked great for me. You get enough time in between the 2 sessions to work on a different section of your project and then get guidance on it from Susan to see if you are on the right track.