Ray Applique (Self Portrait)

     This is a self portrait that was inspired by The Victor Project. I was working for a sportswear apparel company and I began (with permission) doing a handful of art projects in applique after hours. I originally envisioned this project as being a culmination of all the techniques I was using to design with at the time. I wanted there to be embroidery, applique, screen print, laser etching, and maybe even 3D puff. Unfortunately, the company came on hard times and went out of business. Needless to say I lost access to all the equipment I had become an expert in, and I wasn't able to finish my self portrait showcasing my abilities.
  
    For the new year I decided to do a self portrait, and I wanted to revisit the project I was never able to finish. I had the original mock-up in illustrator, as well as the first test sew out. I had no choice but to simplify my original vision (which was probably for the better), and decided to stick with applique being the primary technique.

 

    
     The image above is the initial Illustrator mock-up that was used to create the appliques. This stage was basically just trying to get shapes accurate with a composition I liked. The colors did not matter to me. It was also designed to scale so that there would be no issues with the various limitations that come with embroidery and applique. Due to these limitations I was always going to have to sew it in sections, and later put it together in Photoshop. The actual size of the head is 9.5 inches tall.

 

     The picture on the left is a screen grab of the Illustrator file imported into the embroidery software, Tajima Pulse. The picture on the right was my first (and only) test sew out. It is 5 layers of applique. This is where this project initially came to an end when the company went out of business. It was also my starting point for the final version at the beginning of this post.

 

     As you can see a lot of work went into this project. I had to fake a lot of the techniques with varying degrees of success. I'm happy with the way the final version ended up. My only regret is that I wish I would have found a way to sew out the eyes for real, instead of settling for the digital version.