Fabric Painting--Part 5.5 Constructing a Portrait Quilt

I was up bright and early, raring to get back to my fabric painting.  I began with the water.  I made it much bluer and darker, putting a bit of gray in the area that will be behind Dawson's tie-dyed shirt.  I put in a few lines of white paint for the waves, and all of it had a bit of shimmer paint in it, which I think definitely enhances it.

For the sky I painted the new fabric much as I did the first sky, but I was more careful to make the two shades of blue more pronounced.  The first one had two shades as well, but the second color didn't show up well.  I also left more white areas for clouds.

Here are photos of my morning's effort.  I've pinned up "stand-ins" for the sand, just to get a better idea of how the finished quilt will look.  I still so love that commercial sand fabric that I used in my first quilt, that I might go out and buy more, to use in combination with what I paint.  A bit of it is under Dawson, on the far left.  The painted sand is under Locke's feet and one of Malcolm's, in the middle.

[ "Malcolm in the Middle"--huh, funny.  That just now hit me!  (Daughter says she get's awfully tired of people asking her if her sons were named for the TV shows "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Dawson's Creek".  Other daughter wearies of people asking HER if Locke was named for the "Lost" TV show character of that name.  ALL are family names!)]

I've taped up some blue painter's tape to show where the
sides and bottom of the quilt will be eventually.

Why was I so worried about Dawson's shirt not showing up?  Just
by lightening the blue water a bit, it shows up well,
but you can see here that I did put touches of grayish blue
in this part of the water and repeated it a few other places as well.

This shows the sky really well and the lake water, too.
Remember:  I've still not put the shading and shadows on the
boys' bodies.  And shadows will go eventually
on the sand as well.