Paper and Threads

Fabio Consoli, one of the faculty from the Sketchbook Skoolhouse Stretching online class, wanted us to explore "child's play," combining a child's drawing with ours.  My grandson Zach made the figure on the right and I completed the picture with figures from my own imagination.  Here is the original blog post about this homework assignment.

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2015/05/sketchbook_skool_homework_for.php 

I was doing a 100 day challenge at the same time - drawing from my imagination - and eventually Axel (the figure on the left) was featured in many of my drawings, and he even acquired a girl friend.  I asked Zach to help me create a back story and he said that Axel and Alice were from the moon and their head shapes were determined by the phase of the moon at their birth.  They were playing in Axel's Mother's space ship and accidently started it.  They are very confused by Earth.

I sketched Axel and Alice many times over the next months, eventually leading me to "draw" Axel on Fabric. 

During July I spent part of every day dying fabric and one of my projects was to create Axel and Alice on fabric by drawing and painting the fabric with Procion MX dyes. 

I make many Christmas ornaments for family and friends, an annual project since my own 3 children were born more than 40 years ago.  Now I'm making Axel ornaments for our 8 grandchildren + one for our tree.

I scanned the dye painting of Axel and resized him (6 inches long) in Photoshop.  The JPEG was transferred to a piece of fabric on a plastic support (EQ Printed Treasure Premium Cotton Satin) and 9 copies were made using an Epson Artisan 50 Photo Ink Jet Printer.

Each Axel was then sewn to a backing and lightly stuffed to hang on our family Christmas trees.  Here is a finished ornament. 

And here are all 9 that I made - for 8 grandchildren + our tree. 

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I still clip photos from magazines and periodically select one for practice drawing hands.  I've been doing this for a number of years.  These are my last 3 sets of drawings.  The last one has interlocking hands and that is my new focus.  I keep hoping that this practice will make it easier to draw hands during longer poses at figure drawing, but it is a slow process.

These were all drawn with a watercolor pencil - but none of them were painted with water. 

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The cooking is well underway and this afternoon my 2 oldest grandchildren helped me make mushroom barley soup.  The tables are set for dinner for 19 adults, 8 children, and one baby.  The turkey is ready to be put in the oven.  And many of the Macy's balloons are already inflated according to my daughter and granddaughter. 

Our family wishes you a wonderful holiday with Family and Friends!  Let us all hope for a safer world!

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I went on an amazing one hour Gallery Tour with an exhibit Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Friday.  The exhibit is called Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520 to 1620.  The Met collection of 60 Design Books from the Renaissance is the 3rd largest in the world - and I had no idea that even one of these books was created for needleworkers and other artisans during those years.  The first books were made using woodcuts, then later etchings, and they spread rapidly throughout Europe.  The books are on display along with representative pieces of embroidered fabric and lace made from the designs. 

http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/fashion-and-virtue 

I did some drawings in my sketchbook as I was walking and listening and added additional ink with a Sakura Pigma-micron brush pen later.  There is limited information in this above link, but approximately 1000 images from these pattern books were scanned and said to be available on the Museum website.

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This is the last of my sketchbook pages from our vacation in Spain - this time drawings done while we were visiting the fantastic art museums.

The collection at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid is extraordinary, and even more amazing because it is a single collection.  I've been drawing more sculpture lately and this was a beautiful Rodin sculpture from 1906-7 entitled "The Birth of Venus."

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The Reina Sofia Museum is the home of Picasso's painting Guernica.  I remember seeing this visual record of the horror of war at MoMA as a young girl before it was returned to Spain.  I didn't draw any of it, but after our Museum visit, my husband and I sat in the quiet courtyard and watched the Calder mobile slowly twist and turn in the wind. 

Our visit to the Prado was enriched with a running commentary by our traveling companion - a professor of art history.  After our husbands left the museum, I went back to sketch 2 pieces of art to remember this wonderful visit.  I love Goya and in spite of the horror, will never forget seeing, in person, his famous painting The Third of May.  I chose to just draw the soldier the soldier in the front and then sketched a piece of ancient sculpture before our hour was over. 

It was a special treat to visit the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.  I've always loved the very early drawings and paintings which were done in Barcelona when he was a young man.  There were many inspiring drawings, and my husband managed to take this one photo with his phone so I could remember our visit.  He sketched with a very loose style, in pen widths of varying size.  I used a Pigma Micro Brush pen to try to capture the feeling - but who can really duplicate lines by Picasso?

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