Begin at the Heart of Things

I almost always begin with the heart of an image... in this case the face of Father Christmas. White sheer PFD fabric atop the drawing... and here we go. I'm using Hoffman's PFD No 1377 fabric... I can see through it... Yeah!
 My gosh this guy has a large nose... but he is a chubby dude anyway and I think he looks 'friendly.

Steps... I first used a light flesh colored marker to outline the face, the eyes, the edges of nostrils. The eyes usually go in before much else... in this case,,,
1.    for iris...using blue fabric markers,
2.    when  iris is  dried, a black fabric marker for pupil, and when that dried
3.    eye highlights in white using a fine tip art brush. When that is dried,
4.    I usually darken the upper edges of the eyelash area with a darker color
       in this case a darker brown fabric marker was used.

The drying between steps addressed is to be certain things don't BLEED where they shouldn't.  Use a hair dryer or the like... or protect with a pressing paper atop the painted image and iron on a dry cotton setting.  I use a Marvy Embossing dryer (a very hot heat focused artists version of a hair dryer available anywhere scrap booking or card making supplies are found.) Be careful not to scorch fabric by blowing heat too close to fabric for too long.

Now for the face area:
A.a flesh toned  skin BASE ( I used Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 95 ( Tuscan Beige)

B. atop a dried skin tone base, a very dry brush fantastix application of Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 52- (Sand) to create simple contour around eye, nose, cheek edges.

C.   a very dry brush transparent fantastix application of Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 33- (Rose Pink)in his pudgy cheeks



  
Now the step by step process of adding the fun elements...