I did not have an easy time with this challenge topic! And I have to confess that as I puzzled over what I would do, I was somewhat affected by the musings on this blog. I rejected passion flower and passion fruit as likely to duplicate someone else's effort -- and anyway, they just didn't thrill me. I rejected all sorts of ideas, until at some point the phrase "crime of passion" occurred to me. And maybe it's the lawyer in me (not that I'm into crimes, let alone crimes of passion!), and maybe it's that I adore mystery novels, but that's the one I knew I wanted to try to illustrate.
Ultimately, I decided to give this a double meaning. As those of you who read my blog or know me in "real life" know, I'm passionate about reading. I can talk books and browse bookstores and read for ages and ages and ages. Because of that, it seemed especially appropriate to make my piece a book cover of a mystery thriller about a crime of passion!
I could picture it in my mind, but oh, getting it translated into fabric! (Isn't that always the way?) I snapped photos of paperback books until I found a position and composition I liked. But then, how to create the cover? I tried various methods -- hand drawing letters and a bloody illustration .... the effort was fun but the result was just not what I wanted. Finally, I realized that I could set it up with Photoshop, and that's the method I followed.
As a side benefit in all of this, I have now learned how to create a curved-line path and place type on it in Photoshop! I wanted the book cover's text to curve to show a bent paperback cover. I tell you, just the type part took a full day. (And only at the end did it occur to me that I should have called my brother, a graphic designer and Photoshop expert, to just do it for me... duh.) Ah well, I was satisfied with the result. The bloody knife is adapted from a photo of a halloween decoration!!
Once I had my cover, I fused it down and then machine quilted it. You probably can't see it too well in this photo, but on the black background I tried to machine quilt fingerprint-like shapes. You know, crime evidence! You can click on both photos to see a larger, detailed view.
Here's a detail shot:
All in all, I was happy with the result and I feel like this really does illustrate one of my passions!
13 comments:
Ooh goody! Knowing your love of reading and a good detective novel, I secretly hoped you might go down this path.
And like all good novelists, you kept us in suspense until the very end!
YES!! I love it! This is so you -- or at least the part of you we know that is a voracious reader! The book, laying mid-read, and teh fingerprinty background have that graphic simplicity that you do so well (like my other fave of yours, Chocolate). Great great great. This is teh one i wish I'd done, but of course, it's perfectly you.
I love it! I love the graphic quality.Great quilting. And of course this is your passion. It was great to talk to you just now. I realized how much I miss you in person.
Oh my goodness, a technical tour de force! And that's just the photoshopping!!
Love the crispness. I can smell the new book smell.
Incredible, Diane! Early on I wondered if any of our lawyers would think of Crime of Passion, and if so, how it might be portrayed.Technically terrific, but I must comment on the composition and great use of color. Just wonderful all the way around.
Amazing and perfect for you. Outstanding graphic presentation. Bloody good.
Fabulous! I was really stunned when I saw on it on my tiny iPhone screen... and now as I look at the details on the desktop monitor, I am so impressed. Great job.
I see you added Gemma's name in the back blurb. A detective dog! That sounds like a book our girls would like.
I did have fun writing the "copy" for the back "cover" -- and my detective is named Gemma. I'm pleased you noticed that, Deborah!
I love the ISBN # on the back, that cracked me up! This looks so technically dificult and you really pulled it off!
I LOVE THIS! I totally love this one Diane! You did a superb job on it and I'm wishing I had thought of this. Isn't it great to see your name on the cover of a book??? LOL!
I love it! I am very impressed with how you technically mastered the book down to the last detail.
What fun! Crime of passion came to my mind, but I really had no clue how to picture it.
You did really great. I love it.
This is how realistic your quilt looks: when I saw it, I assumed you hadn't completed the challenge and had just substituted a photo for your missing quilt's spot in the gallery. Great job! and so imaginative!
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