illustration Friday Trial

Corgis, an angel and a dress makeover.

This week  I searched my mending box and found this op shop dress, which I then embellished  with  a leaf braid, cut into individual leaves. It makes quite a difference to a boring dress.

The leaves were sewn on with the machine using embroidery thread.

A closeup of the suede-look leaves.

I do a lot of drawing for a textile artist but I think drawing is the basis for all visual art, and  I hope that it will sharpen my   art quilting and sewing machine drawing skills, and some of these drawings will become quilts.  This is our corgi "Scruffin"

This is another one of our corgis, Pixie.

this is the illustration for the on- line weekly challenge, Illustration Friday. The theme this week is "messenger" and angels are "winged messengers".    I wanted to draw a modern angel  with normal clothes rather than a white gown.

Happy New Year to all my fellow bloggers and on-line visitors, and may 2012 bring you much success in your creativity!

illustration friday -"sink"

this is just my sink as I found it this morning... drawing takes priority over washing up!

Gardenias!

My friend Dianne gave me a posy of beautiful gardenias, which start out a rich creamy white and go gradually to a deep golden yellow as they age.
My mission  for the week was to draw a series  of the same  flowers in different media  as they changed, one drawing per day.
This is number 1 - pen and ink, coloured pencil, Kids watercolour paintbox and a bit of pastel for the
white highlights.

 Number 2- pastel on black card. It is very hard to draw cream  flowers  on white paper, so I thought I'd try the black.

 Number 3 - kids watercolour paintbox and acrylics.  The gardenias are changing colour.

 Number 4 - prismacolour pencils.
By now my drawings are getting larger and looser.

Number 5 - my favourite. By now the gardenias are  a deep rich gold and starting to wilt.
Pen and ink with -prismacolour   pencils in 2 shades of yellow with some orange. I enjoyed varying the thickness of the pen line - see the closeup.

Number 5 close - up. Pen and ink and prismacolour pencils.

It was a very interesting exercise.

thread drawing and art journal

My work this week was an exciting and challenging interpretation of a face.

First, lay down some fabrics, I used silks. Then  use free motion stitching to outline the  features.

On this second picture you can see the features starting to emerge, outlined in brown thread on the sewing machine. I chose warm colours because the face in the photo I was working from looked rugged and weathered like an arid  landscape..

Then I added some light sheer fabric where there were highlights and some dark sheers for the shadows, plus some more stitching around the eyes.  A work in progress... needs a lot of refinement but I am happy with  the direction so far...

Also I am having a lot of fun in my daily textile art journal with pen and coloured pencil drawings of the view from the deck..( note the dog in the corner!)

Some "zentangle" type drawings of a flower

and the late Amy Winehouse.

I have never enjoyed drawing so much, and look forward to my early morning cuppa and drawing session.  There is no pressure or expectation so just pure fun and playing.

calling Russian viewers

I note that some Russian viewers have been visiting my blog, please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Textile Art Journal

One of my resolutions on returning  home from Houston Quilt Festival  was to keep a daily art journal. Each morning I head to the sewing room with a cup of tea and fill an A4 page with drawings, doodlings, fabric scraps, remnants of dreams, whatever comes into my head. It  is  easy to do and a lot of fun, and there is no pressure. Who knows, some of the images may become artworks. I have been experimenting with  various inks and watercolour pencils.

My other resolution is to clean up  my messy sewing room. Who needs to watch "Hoarders" when you can see it right here on my blog! Watch this space for the progress  photo  in a week or so.

The current UFO  being worked  on is a miniature quilt, foundation pieced pineapple log cabin. 9 blocks down, 3 to go.

Lastly is a photo of my little shrine in my sewing room - a buddha, my grandmother's Avon figurine, a wine bottle cover, and an antique implement which was used to darn socks on.

My messy room - see if you can find the sewing maching

This is where the art journal happens

a quilt design - trapunto fruit with  a couple behind

A technique of drawing without looking at the paper. Coffee mug, stiletto and pencil sharpener

The  blue paint was put down as blobs, paper folded in half and the rest of  the design was  then added.

Sketching with the sewing machine, feed dogs down, free motion stitching, using a photo from the newspaper as inspiration

sketch of our corgi Pixie

The miniature quilt in progress

My little shrine.

Apologies for the sideways photos.

If you visit my blog, would love to hear from you, Pleeease  leave your comments!