Originally Posted by
feline fanatic
Wow, Toni Whitney is good...
My suggestion for designing your own pattern is to convert one copy of your color photograph into black and white. This will allow you to see shading and color/value shifts that are not as obvious in a color photo (at least not as obvious to me!). I have found if I reduce a photo to black and white, then trace it (over a light box or against a bright window) only marking the most obvious color/value shifts it becomes less overwhelming to build a pattern, and I am sure to include the lines that are most critical to the composition. You can always add detail back in through fabric choice (batiks are awesome, and
Bug Fabric has a lot of great textural fabrics for doing fur and foliage), embroidery and quilting.
It sounds like an awesome project - exciting and challenging, and I hope lucrative for you! And I totally agree with
retrogirl02's advice about getting customer approval at several stages: a non-quilter can have no idea about how long this project is going to take, and why it is going to (and should) cost a fair bit of gold.
Alison