I want to start off the New Year drawing more line of action figures. I started these small drawings in 2018, and only occasional ly sketched them in 2019. I typically draw them quickly if I have a minute after breakfast, using a photo from one of 2 books created for artists. They are drawn on small pieces of scrap paper, and eventually painted and cut out to collage in my working sketchbook. These figures were placed on a monprint made with a Gelli Plate.
I make my sketchbooks for general drawing and this is my newest one. When I started drawing again in 2006, and wanted to learn how to paint with watercolor, I couldn't find any reasonably priced sketchbooks with 140lb watercolor paper. I used several types of inexpensive sketchbooks until #18, including the landscape format one by Moleskine. I finally took a one weekend "cased-in" bookbinding class in 2008 and have made my watercolor sketchbooks since then.
Paper: Fabriano Artistico 140 lb Soft Press Endpapers: Canson Mi Tientes colored paper
Signatures: 6, each with 2 folios for a total of 48 pages.
Cover: The cotton fabric was dyed using a modified shibori technique and then fused to 45 gram Thai Mulbery paper.
I make pen pockets, and rotate them among my sketchbooks, so I can easily carry a pencil, eraser, and several Pigma Micron Pens while sketching.
The open book showing the dyed fabric used to make the bookcloth.
We will celebrate Christmas Eve with dinner at our apartment tonight for our NYC children and grandchildren - carrying on a Christmas Eve tradition started by my parents for me.
Our children had stockings placed at the end of their beds after they fell asleep on Christmas Eve, and whenever they woke up Christmas morning, they could open their stockings IN BED. Then they were allowed to wake us up to gather around the Christmas Tree and exchange presents.
However you celebrate, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year. I just needed a Santa in my daily sketchbook for today and loved this image from a Christmas card.
Christmas cards are sent, ornaments for our 8 grandchildren are finished, Minky blankets, pillowcases, and pillow shams are sewn as requested by 4 of them, and I finally had time very early this morning to draw and paint in my sketchbook. This reindeer came from a drawing I saved from Karen Blados' Blog several years ago and I just wanted it in my sketchbook for our 2019 Christmas. The background was painted with gold gouache to make my reindeer more festive.
These are 8 of the 11 cats I made and are for our grandchildren. Our oldest grandchild already has 16 to take with him when he has his first Christmas tree.
I want to draw and paint at least one Santa before Christmas Eve, but I also want to make Christmas ornaments for our adult children. They have ornaments made by me since 1976 for their trees.
Happy Holidays! And a Happy, Healthy New Year.
I just completed a 14 week course at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). I usually take courses in Fine Arts, Illustration, and Textile Design. This course was in the Fashion department, but was really more illustration for fashion. I learned how to draw a "croquis," the 10 head size elongated fashion figure, and to work with markers and colored pencils instead of watercolor. My end of class project was presented several days ago and this was Board #1 - my models in 2 outfits from my 9 garment collection of clothes.
These were my actual fabric swatches, gathered from my favotie NYC fabric store - B and J Fabrics on 7th Ave in the Garment District.
These are the basic designs for my 9 piece collection. They are called "Flats" in the fashion jargon. and show the details of construction. My boards are 11" x 14" inches and had to be photographed instead of scanned - and even photoshop couldn't get rid of the shadows.
This is my "Mood Board" - prepared to give a feeling about the type of collection and the target shopper.
Everyone of the models have gray hair like me (and my professor), but were dressed in classic styles of clothing. I am in class with young students who are studying to enter the world of fashion, and it was great fun to see all of their ideas for their presentations.