Quilting Arts article FIGURE IT OUT!

Quilting Arts June July 2011 ...page 62

I used carved eraser pieces to stamp proportionately

correct figures.  Making

different poses is fun!

tiny house

Just a tiny carved house makes a whole street!

This print is ready for lots of embellishment now.... stitching, a bit of paint.... fun.

Flower linocut prints

I just finished some new hand carved flowers for printing.  I tried them
out on plain muslin to start.... with red, orange and purple.  Acrylic
paints will allow me to heat set them on the fabric. Oh.... springtime
in the garden and in the studio!

 

how to draw tutorial

For my own drawing and in work with students both young and old

I continually go back to these basic drawing techniques to begin the 

process.  They are easy and encourage fluent drawing with no 

need for erasing. By doing all three we build the techniques of 

contour, geometric shape and mass drawing. Best of all this can 

be done with simple plastic figures.  A bag of these from the dollar
store can supply hours of easy drawing practice. Here is a picture

of my chosen plastic animal. 

Contour drawing focuses on the edge of the object or the outer 

line of the object being drawn.  Begin with a small plastic figure.

(I used a dog) Observe the edge of the figure and begin drawing,

frequently looking back at figure to confirm detail in the contour edges.  

The writing tool should remain on the paper  working in a continuous line 

 until the figure outline is complete.

Geometric Shape Drawing:

This type of drawing entails looking carefully at the figure and drawing 

component parts using only two dimensional shapes such as ovals,

triangles, rectangles and trapezoids. 

Mass drawing shows the weight of the thing being drawn. It requires depth

to add a 3d quality or weight to the figure.  Draw in a series of connected

ovals to show all parts of the body with more and more ovals drawn in the 

heavier  portions of the figure. 

I would love to hear what you think!   

start with a drawing

Every lino print I create begins with a drawing.  

The contour drawing below is 

the drawing which morphed into my blog header. My closet 

seems to be full of black shirts so...............................

coneflower buds!

Finally the coneflowers have peeked out of the soil in the
garden.  They are my favourites and it is always exciting
when they begin to grow. 

This is a portion of a linoprint of
coneflowers.  Below is the whole
linoprint.

 

altered book 2 "Samples"

I'm doing a series of altered books for an
upcoming summer class and am posting
them as I get them done.  This one was
prepared by brushing a very thin coat of
white gesso over each page. I then used
water colour washes in cool colours
over parts of each page. The gesso and
paint took well in  this children's hard cover
book. 

I added light bits of leaves to some pages as well.  When dry I
glued on sampler muslin swatches of paint application
techniques (spattering, sponging, crumpling, wiping)

The cloth cover already had a funky cat blowing bubbles so I just added
the title.   I'll use a fun font to add children's song lyrics later 
 I see the letters flowing over the pages..............

published!

The new Quilting Arts issue is coming out in just two weeks and I have 

an article in it!  I'm quite tickled.  That magazine has been something 

special to look forward to.... this time it's doubly exciting!

 

This figure was printed with a carved eraser. 

self portrait made easy

I recently worked with a group doing self portraits and we
tried a very simple but effective method for beginning the
portrait which bypassed the challenge of drawing one's face.
We simply taped a transparency on a large mirror and
got close enough that our face was contained within the
transparency sheet.  Hold head steady and trace facial
contours onto the transparency with a sharpie marker.
(Hold one eye closed to aid tracing). The resulting
outline can readily be used for painting or silk screening. 

This is my traced portrait using
a transparency on the
mirror.

I put some old sheer drapery fabric over
the transparency and used masking fluid
with a small paintbrush to mask the
negative space areas and the face
(leaving the drawn facial lines
unmasked)

The drapery scrim was stretched in a round embroidery hoop
to enable silk screening.  This result was a first pull. It is printed
on muslin fabric.

non dominant hand portraits

I love the drawing exercise of Carla Sonheim where she
uses the non dominant hand to draw portraits. When there
is no erasing, little control and lowered expectations the
work becomes much easier.  More about seeing
than trying for realistic copying.

new brushes

I joined a great little group in my new home town.  It's held at the old train
station and is a full day of watercolour painting every Friday.  The teacher
is wonderful and full of ideas and fabulous techniques.... 90 years young!

I obviously need a few new brushes to continue with the group!

layering and embellishment

Working with printmaking I often have to break away from a
limited palette and play with multiple layering and embellishment
on fabric.  The following two pieces involve lots of different
materials.

Swirls of blended acrylic on a scrap of
canvas are highlighted by curls of
hammered wire and clusters of seed
beads.

A red acrylic base is enhanced by layers
of tissue soaked in white glue followed by
shavings of oil pastels and crayons.
A light application of heat with the
embosser melted the shavings just enough
that they adhered well to the tissue.

woodpecker visitor

Each spring we are visited by a male woodpecker looking
for a mate.  He taps (very loudly) on the metal chase of
our chimney about 5:30 am each morning.  Our wild arm
swinging and shouts mildly amuse him but then he continues.
Luckily this year he chose a tree well behind us for his
mating calls..... hopefully his work will bring imminent success
in locating a female.

This is a section of a two colour lino print dedicated to our feathery
spring visitor.

Nudge your creativity

Hub Bub: Nudges {Creative Revolutionaries)

Diana Trout is the inspiration behind the Creative Revolutionaries.... lots of great nudges to inspire new creative paths....... I love Nudge 22 which is included here.....

Nudge 22: Inspired by Children

"One of the challenges here will be to try to work intuitively and organically. Kids are fearless. They don't wonder if they can draw a tree or a butterfly, they simply draw it. Can you free yourself up to do this? There is much symbolic drawing with kids. A house is a rectangle with rectangular windows and a door. The ground is on the bottom of the picture and the sky is at the top. Simple, right?

Here is a link to the Global Children's Art Gallery. You may get inspired there. Or maybe inspiration is right underfoot? If you have a little one around, get out the crayons and draw together right in your journal."

2d shape drawing

A great drawing exercise is to draw a figure, animal or other object using only
2d shapes.  I did several of these little drawings using my dog Molly as subject.
They had to be quick drawings because she never stays still for long!