Paper and Threads

I spent the last several days in bed with a horrible virus and only have two more elephants to post this time.

The scratchiness of charcoal pencils and Conte pastels on paper makes me crazy, but I gave both another try in my elephant project.  Each elephant is drawn/painted with one of the many art tools I have in my stash.  This ends the various types of pencils I accumulated in the last 7 years (graphite, washable graphite, watercolor pencils, charcoal, and Conte pastel).  My pencil box is full, but they are all variations on one of these types.

I sketched Elephant #9 with a Derwent Charcoal pencil (dark) and blended it with a tortillon.

I sketched Elephant #10 with a Conte a Paris pencil (sepia) and also blended it with a tortillon.  

Posted by Shirley at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I chose the Long Stitch or "limp binding" for my February bookbinding adventure.  As I walked to Dick Blick last month, I passed a leather store (for shoemakers) and bought some leather scraps.  It is a sturdy leather - perfect for this structure. 

For my first book, which is always lots of trial and error, I chose the smallest scrap.  The leather was easy to cut with my Olfa X-acto knife and to punch holes with my standard awl.  I searched all of my books, finding the best instructions in Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz and watched YouTube videos to learn more. 

The book is 5 3/4 by 4 1/4 inches - with 16 folios of card stock in 4 signatures.  I used LaPlantz's 6 hole pattern for my stitching, but look forward to using other patterns on future books.

This book will be used for all of my research notes.  In addition, I'm adding stitching patterns to the pages by sewing them with a regular needle and thread. 

 I envision 12 prototype books full of my research notes by the end of the year. 

Next month I'm planning to make a flag book!

Posted by Shirley at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm still drawing/painting elephants when I am home for the day and have 3 more to post today.  These were all done with different tools, to challenge myself to use more of the art supplies I accumulated over the last few years.

Yesterday I read Laure Ferlita's blog post about "Luring Back Her Muse" and realized that my elephant project is how I am doing the same thing.  I got to the point during these winter days where I was inspired to draw when out and about, but bored and apathetic when home. 

Elephant 6 was drawn with warm gray and black Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils and then painted with water. 

Elephant 7 was drawn with a Zebra Sarasa Clip 07 Brown gel pen and then painted with water.  I have several brown pens to use for drawing and I tested their water solubility, finally selecting this one for the pale color that I could achieve.

Elephant # 8 was drawn with a black Zig Millenium pen and then "painted" with a black Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastel - the only candidate in my box of 10 crayons.

I still need to try other tools that I have, including inks and dip pens, acrylic paints, oil pastels, pan pastels, and a variety of pencils that I hate using - including charcoal and Conte.  This project turned out to be fun and that was my intention.  These cold winter days mean that I am busy at home and less likely to get inspiration from walks/trips around New York City.

Posted by Shirley at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)