Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make a Semiphotorealistic Three-Shade Print

Lee Meredith, contributor

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It's a wacky, semiphotorealistic portrait of Christopher Walken!

Lee Meredith

Any object with well-defined lines like this camera will make a great stencil!

Lee Meredith

This three-shade process is so magical because once you put the three stencils together, your image will appear!

Lee Meredith

It's a wacky, semiphotorealistic portrait of Christopher Walken!

Photo: Lee Meredith

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If you really want to speed up the drying process, you can use a hair dryer, but the paint must be totally dry before printing the next layer. Repeat the ironing and painting, making sure you line up the second layer perfectly with the first.

For gray paint: In this print, I mixed approximately one part black with two parts white, and the gray still turned out darker than I'd like. So I'd recommend mixing one part black with three parts white (or 25% black, 75% white).

When stenciling with small island pieces, first iron down the big stencil, then add and iron the islands one at a time.

After peeling and letting dry, repeat the process with the third shade. Line it up carefully, iron it on, and paint.

When there are lots of small shapes, just dab up and down on all those spots; don't brush side to side at all.

After that layer is completely dry, you can heat-set the print according to your fabric paint's directions, and you're done!

It's a wacky, semiphotorealistic portrait of Christopher Walken!

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Comments (7)

Keren_D writes: Hi Lee,

This is a great tutorial. I've seen a lot of craft/sewing tutorials and this one is fascinating, well-explained, and well-photographed. Excellent!

BTW, do you have a blog?

Keren (www.sewlavie.com)
Posted: 1:23 am on December 17th

Jetmuis writes: wooow what a great tute you have made!!!!
awesome too your designs , well done.
love this!!!! thank you too for the sharing, your very gifted and rocking;-D!!!!!!
Posted: 4:54 am on December 12th

christineblint writes: Far away and far out idea and execution. My congrats to you and your creativity--you are a professional.
Posted: 1:33 pm on December 13th

OTorres writes: Lee, this is just so cool, thanks
Posted: 10:46 am on December 13th

crafty1900 writes: this is great! very thorough.
Posted: 7:16 pm on December 10th

ohbrooke writes: Okay, THIS is BRILLIANT. I'm going to do it, and I'll be sure to send pictures. My husband would LOVE this!
Posted: 3:27 pm on December 10th

TipiLady writes: Is it possible to get giddy over crafting? I can hardly keep the smile off my face. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! This is going to save a bundle on Christmas presents and a whole lot of other occassions. This is incredibly generous of you to share this information and your talent. I can't wait to try it.
Posted: 1:00 pm on December 10th

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