Catch the Light Correctly

Last week  I painted the catch lights on my collie's eyes and nose.  I had to be sure the paint was well dried before dragging it around under my needle.

Do you know how to do catch lights?  They are the reflection of light or flash from the shiny cornea of the eye.  If you quilt, draw or paint people or animals they are very important.  They make the eyes come alive and look at you.  In people the catchlights are in the same place in both eyes.  That is, they are both at 2:00 or maybe 11:00 depending on the position of the head or the light, but always the same in both eyes.

Digital painting of my grandaughter.  Catchlights at 11:00.

Dogs are different.  Their catch lights are the mirror image of each other.  Thus, if the right eye has it at 1:00 then the left eye will have it at 11:00.  It makes them look a bit crosseyed sometimes, but their eyes are positioned in their skulls differently than those of humans so the reflections are different.

Zoey's catch lights are both closer to her nose than to her ears.
(Digital painting)

With dogs I go from a photo.  Lady, the collie has hers really weirdly located, but the camera doesn't lie.  She really looks crosseyed, but collies are like that!

Photo of Lady.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish that your portraits will not be crosseyed (unless they are supposed to be that way).

Happy New Year

It is a New Year and my blog has a new theme.  This will take some getting used to as Blogger has made some changes and I am not up to speed on them.

Sewing?  Not yet.  We spent Christmas in Salzburg, Austria, and it was magical to explore some of old Europe.  We attended Christmas Day service in the old, gothic Salzburg Cathedral.  We walked through catacombs cut into a cliff, toured a Fortress high on a ridge, and joined the crowds at the big, outdoor Christmas Market where vendors sold local food and gift items.  We drove into the Austrian Alps to visit Hallstatt, a quaint, salt mining village.  We rode the funicular up to a high point on the mountain for a stunning view of the mountains and lake. Most of all we enjoyed being with family.

Catacombs

Main alter in Salzburg Cathedral

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Austrian Alps

We came home and immediately came down with the virus that my oldest grandson shared with the family over the holidays.  It was a miserable cold, but I'm feeling better now.  That is why I have not been sewing.  I just didn't have the drive to work at it.  Now I can't move forward until I get some batting for that forever quilt that I have been working on since the beginning of time, but it is ordered.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you health, happiness and finished quilts this year.