Pixeladies classes and abstracting photos

I know, twice in two days, really, what is going on!!  I have been working today on the course offered by the Pixeladies and since I'm trying to not watch so much Netflix I seem to have time for other things (quelle surprise!!).  Not painting today, which I also want to do, but perhaps tomorrow.  Ok, ok, I did watch a BIT of netflix this afternoon (I'm often up by 4 and the days get SO long), but I have also done a bit of photoshop elements as well.  Baby steps.

I have been working on a photo I took in Arles last year (one year ago right now, I cannot believe how the time has flown!).  Anyway, here is a series of photos.

Starting with the original (after straightening it a bit, something else I'm learning).

And then with a few tweaks to work on gradations and ideas for fabric and stitch.

And finally a piece that might be more accessible using hand dyed fabrics in gradations of greys and that could be highlighted with stitch to enhance the finer details suggested in the pieces above.

Such a lot of fun, with tons of possibilities.  I could take out quite a lot of the details in the windows (using some of the editing ideas that the Pixeladies explain) but am thinking of other ways that one could create the look of curtains using cut back applique and stitch.  The beauty of fabric is its tactile quality and I think it would be fun to play that up here.  Now, who knows when I might ever get to this, tied as I am to my kitchen table, but at least the brain is starting to turn over a bit.  That's a start, right???

Such a fun course (you were so right, Margaret!!) and I would really recommend it.

I'll be back.

www.pixeladies.com

Rose hips and small steps

I haven't been too busy lately and here it is almost the end of October already.  Fall is moving through the garden, along with the raccoons, squirrels, deer in the front yard and (new to me, good grief) several rabbits.  Does this mean the end of my vegetables I am wondering??? I hope not. I have been told that the rabbits are after the clover in my lawn (no herbicides or pesticides, happily for them) but I am wondering about my vegetables come spring time. We shall see.

But today a friend invited me over to her place to do a bit of painting, to sort of spur each other on since we both seem to be in a bit of a slump!, and I was entranced by the rose hips outside her window.

I was delighted to see them since I had arrived at her place with absolutely no direction in mind.  But after a lovely lunch we settled down to do a bit of painting.

And then I found this pic that I did a while ago in one of Jane Davies' classes.  I am enrolled in another of her classes for next month..,hoping I can accomplish something at that time.  In the meantime I am enjoying the Pixeladies class and am starting week four tomorrow.  Which happily is a review.  I am gong to have a go at abstracting some photos in the next bit, something that they teach in one of their lessons.  We'll see. (Quite a lot of 'seeing' in this post, not a lot of doing.  Alas.  But I'll show you if I get to the 'doing' part!!)

That's it for now.  I've decided that I've been watching too much Netflix so I am cutting myself back to evenings only.  Makes for some very long days but I'm hoping to re-establish some sort of art focus.  We'll see (again, already) how well I do with that one.

I'll be back.

Photoshop Elements 14 and Pixeladies

I spent a lovely evening last week with my elder son and his family.  And my computer.  My son is a computer whiz and he spent about three hours with me uploading Windows 10 and PE 14 and other related bits and pieces.  At the same time, I was able to spend some time with my grandkids and my daughter-in-law.  But mostly it was being able to hang out with my son, bless his heart, because he is usually such a busy guy with work that the three hours were an absolute joy and very precious to me. We had a lovely visit whilst we were waiting for things (see how computer literate I am!) to download to my computer.

I had signed up for the latest beginner classes with the Pixeladies (link below) that started this past week.  And so here is my first effort with adding a watermark to one of my pics.

This is a page from a little book that I created a while ago.  I started with painted Lutradur and added all kinds of bits and pieces, then hand and machine stitched onto the work.  I'll show you some more pics next time.  In the meantime, I'm pretty chuffed with the results and really pleased with the classes (thanks, Margaret for the recommendation!).

Not much else happening, still shackled to my kitchen table with these wonky hips of mine, but each day that goes by brings me closer to my surgery (the date for which is still far away and unannounced, alas).  But I'm taking this class for the moment, then the part 2 follow-up, and I am signed up for a class with Jane Davies in November that I am determined to have a go at, even though it means standing up to do it, but I'm going to try.  ( My pharmacist tells me I can always add Tylenol to the other mix of painkillers I'm taking, but I am really reluctant to do that).  You will know if I succeed with the course because I'll post!!!

I'll be back.

http://www.pixeladies.com/

The True Cost. A documentary.

I recently watched a documentary that I think should be required viewing for everyone.  So I'm going to go right out there and suggest that you watch this one.  It's a life-changer, to be sure.  It's called The True Cost and it's about who pays the true cost for the clothing we wear.  It's about Fast Fashion, throw-away fashion, it's about Rana Plaza, and it's about the last two decades especially of the disaster that has become our consumer-oriented approach to the clothing we wear.  Did you know that the fashion industry is the second largest polluter on earth, just next to the oil industry? Shocking.

The movie is available on Netflix.  Watch it.  Watch it with your kids.  They need to know too. Check out the movie's website and watch the trailer.  Please.

www.truecostmovie.com

I have also purchased, from Amazon, the book Stitched Up.

From the back cover:  Moving between Karl Lagerfield and Karl Marx, Stitched Up delves into the alluring world of fashion, exploring class, consumerism, advertising and garment factories to reveal the beneficiaries of exploitation.

Ok, that's it for today's rant.

In other business, there hasn't really been too much other business!  I have sort of stumbled somewhat. and am still stuck at my kitchen table.  I have been doing and not doing.  Sort of in survival mode.   With this little one.

And exploring the possibilities offered by my world.

It's all good.

I have been doing lots of life drawing, but I don't expect you want to see those.  But I promise to be back shortly with more.  I'm starting to work again and so, I'll be back....

www.truecostmovie.com

Playing about with apps.

This is a version of a picture I took some time ago in my kitchen, but changed (A LOT!!) in Megaphoto, one of the apps suggested by Susie Monday in her most interesting course, Art on the iPad.  The colours were even more vibrant in the 'original' re-worked photo, but I'm still not sure how to post to my blog from my iPad, so I had to send this pic to a friend and then scoop it from that email in order to post here....how very convoluted...there must be an easier way.

I'll keep working on it.  And I'll be back.

Classes with Susie Monday and Roz Stendahl

I am so enjoying my classes with Susie Monday  (Art on the iPad) and Roz Stendahl (Drawing Live Subjects in Public).  Well, to be perfectly honest, I haven't been out in 'public' so much lately, except from the front seat of my car, but hey, that works.

This is a piece that I printed today onto fabric.  I started with one of the photos that I took last fall in Avignon and printed it onto a piece of silk fabric.  Before I did that however, I layered the image with another image of a piece of fabric that I had rusted several years ago.  I can see lots of potential for this particular technique.  And I am so very excited about this because I can take the image I have printed onto fabric and go directly to my sewing machine without having to dye fabric, rinse it out, cut anything out, bend, reach, etc,....basically anything that involves a lot of movement, because that is something I cannot do much of these days. So I have lots of experimenting to do in the next while, but I'm pretty excited!!  This isn't actually what we are doing in class, I sometimes get off onto a different path, but that's ok.  This is an idea I've been working on for a while, so I am going to continue to explore.

In Roz's class we are working just at the moment on seeing values within shapes so that's pretty interesting as well,  Yesterday I set up some shallots that I had purchased and had a go at drawing them.

I am pretty excited about this class as well.  Roz is a wonderful instructor and very insightful.  And I can see that the 30 minutes minimum per day is really going to pay off.

It is interesting, this business of being stuck ,basically in one spot for the next 18 months.  It is as if the universe has set some pretty definite parameters on what I can work with and in a way I am finding that this is very freeing.  For some time I have wanted to develop my drawing and it seems as if this is going to be the perfect opportunity (but do be careful what you wish for!).  This, combined with the stitching of my drawings onto fabric, without a whole lot of steps between the idea and the finished product, seems as if it has the potential to be the beginning of a new series of work for me.  Certainly a new way of working which in and of itself seems pretty do-able to my hobbled self.  I am going to make this enforced stillness as good as I can.  Bring it on!!!

I'll be back.....

Roz Stendahl class and Susie Monday class: Keeping busy

This morning Roz Stendahl's class began and I am quite excited about it.  She is asking the participants to commit to drawing at least 30 minutes a day in order to develop a new habit, working on the theory that it takes 30 days to establish any new habit.  And she is giving up suggestions for keeping the inner critic's voice down to a dull roar!!  This class is going to be a bit hard going for me at times, since I am not at all mobile these days and the class does involve sketching in public, but I will do my best.  I believe it is a truly worthy habit to cultivate.

This is part of an exercise that I did this morning.  Roz had posted a video of some chickens that she was drawing at the Minnesota State Fair and suggested that one could complete today's drawing exercise from the video by simply rewinding the 'chicken' part of the video until one had been drawing for 30  minutes.  I did about 7 pages of drawings which was totally fun.  And concentrating so hard on capturing the gestures of the chickens kept my inner critic at bay for a spell.  It's going to be a great class I think.

I am also working away on the class with Susie Monday called Art on the iPad.  Learning about lots of different apps.  I'll try and upload a couple of pictures from that class as well, but it will mean a bit of juggling between my PC and my iPad to retrieve images.  And hi-tech does not exist around here, most certainly not in my head, so we'll see.

So, I was able to bring this picture in from my iPad because I had sent it to a friend the other day and I copied it from my email to her.  But the other three I tried to download don't seem to have come through.  This  is a watercolour of a picture I took the other day....I did not do the watercolour myself, it was done in an app called 'Waterlogue'.  It's a fun app, but one doesn't really have to do anything, just import a picture and the app does the colouring all by itself.  I like the result, but all I did was push a button....still, it does give one ideas for doing an actual painting, so I will continue to play with it.  I suppose that if nothing else, the composition is mine!  Early days.

Another appointment at the surgeon's office yesterday where I got the news that my surgery will be in 12 to 18 months.  Trying to be positive about how I will use my time between now and then but I confess it seems a bit daunting.  And judging from how I have deteriorated just in this past month, there is every likelihood that things will get worse before getting better. More drawing and painting I am thinking.  More Netflix.  I can do this, dammit!

So that's it for today.  I do like being busy, I must say.  I'll be back...

www.rozwoundup.typepad.com; www.susiemonday.com

Winter, spring, summer but hopefully not fall(-ing)

So, it's been a while....are you still there???  It's been one hell of a ride these last few months.  Read on if you're interested.  If not, wait for next time.....I'll be back posting art stuff again very soon.

How I Spent the Last Six Months  (kind of like a school essay)

I fell ill in February with the worst head cold I have ever had, and since then I have totally lost my senses of both taste and smell.  It's interesting, in a way, but I'm ready for this experience to be over, let me tell you!  My roses, I cannot smell my lovely roses....not to mention my dinner!  I am learning to eat for colour and texture only. I had my kids over for dinner the other evening and I had to ask my neighbour to come over and tell me if the sauce was ok!!  It's a quality of life thing, to be sure!

And then, whilst recovering from that nasty bug, I was getting back into the workout routine that I do at home here, introvert that I am.  I'd finished the elliptical trainer workout and was doing my pilates/yoga thing....one of the floor exercises hurt but I pushed through the pain...it's what we do, right??? Wrong!!! Since then I cannot walk and x-rays have indicated that I need to have both of my hips replaced...they are in terrible shape.  Lovely!! It is presumed that I have broken off a piece of bone and that it is floating and dancing its way around my hip joint...perhaps it's having fun but I most definitely am not....super strong pain killers (which I hate taking) and the likelihood of at least a one year wait before surgery....gotta love our system here.... Alas, I have been unable to do any fibre art since then.  Big loss, let me tell you!

But fortunately, I had enough prepared for the Oak Bay Studio Tour in April and was once again lucky enough to show in my artist neighbours' studio.  It was a fun event and wonderful to see all the lovely folk that came out for the happening!  I'm hoping I'll be able to get something ready for next year...we'll see.

Since I am unable to stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, and that only with the aid of my walking sticks, I am also unable to do any painting or dyeing of fabric.  So then, I mean, come on, what's a girl to do.....well, online classes, of course.

So this month I have started two new online classes....one is with Susie Monday, called Art on the iPad, for which I had to purchase an iPad, what fun.  Very exciting and a lovely distraction.  The second class is with Roz Stendahl and it starts this friday.  It's a sketching class that looks pretty amazing.  I will have to go out and sketch in public (yikes!), and one has to commit to at least 30 minutes of drawing daily, but I am going to do it.  I will have to do the sketching from my car, but I can still drive (thank goodness!) and my neighbours (the artists) have chickens in their yard, so I'll be able to set myself up there and draw those little critters to my heart's content.  And I shall.  I am signed up for another course with Liz Steel this September and a course with Jane Davies in the fall as well.  Going to be busy and suitably distracted!!

I am frustrated beyond words that I cannot walk and quite frankly,  I am hoping that I can get a surgery date before a year is up for at least one of these non-functioning joints!  Imagine looking forward to surgery! And I'm using my walking sticks all the time, so I don't fall....nope, definitely don't want to fall.

So it hasn't been all fun and games around here and I admit to having been quite down for too long a spell.

But lately, I have found renewed energy for my life and for where it may take me.  I'm not going to stop doing my art....I am excited about these new courses and in fact, about all the new directions my life has given and continues to give me.  I am blessed with dear friends, lovely, kind children, my sweet daughters-in-law, my precious grandchildren and a lot of love.  Indeed, my life has always been about abundance and I see no reason for it to stop now!

If you managed to read this all the way through, yay!!!  Thanks for sticking with me!  For sure, I'll be back.....

A bit of a cliffhanger.....

I am continuing to work on my little piece from my earlier post, but I'm also working on another collage that I've put together from another printing session with my gelatin plate.  I am enjoying playing with all the printed bits to come up with another image.  This one reminds me of those little wee plants that hang onto the edge of hillsides.  At this point, I think I'm calling it "Outcropping" but of course, everything is subject to change!!  What hasn't changed is how much I'm enjoying the hand stitching with the machine stitching and trying to marry together all the little bits.  Oh, but the pinpricks, I can do without the pinpricks!!!

This is a pic from when I had it all basted together but before I got out the Aurofil and Genziana threads.  I'll keep stitching.  I love a good murder mystery and I'm using my hand stitching as an excuse to watch "Jack Taylor" on Netflix.  It's a good use of my time, don't you think???  Multitasking!!

I'll be back.....another episode awaits.....

Summertime

Well, ok, it's not summer yet, but soon.  I cannot believe how quickly the time is passing.  The classes with Linda Germain and Liz Steel have both come to a close and while  I have some catching up to do with the Liz Steel class, it was such an excellent class that I'm quite looking forward to it.  (Liz' class was so good that I won't hesitate to sign up for any further classes she might offer....really worth looking into if you haven't yet.  www.lizsteel.com )

And in the meantime, I am working on a little piece that I printed onto fabric after completing Linda's monoprinting class last spring  www.lindagermain.com.   The class had a paper focus, it is true, but you know how we can be!!  I am calling it Summertime, which is why you were perhaps confused by the title of this post (what with it still being winter and all).  So far I have done just a wee bit of machine stitching and quite a bit of hand stitching.

I have to get back to the machine stitching now.  Balance in all things.  (well, we try, don't we?!)
I'll be back....

Painting, printing and stitching

I spent a busy day yesterday finishing up some more of my stitched cards and painting a few extra ones.  I'm trying to build up some sort of inventory....imagine!!!  And I prepared two little pieces for stitching, pieces that I printed last year following another class I took with Linda Germain.  While last year's class did not focus on fabric printing I couldn't resist giving it a try.  I have already completed two of these little prints but wanted to do more.  These two were printed using Jacquard fabric paints.  So far I have only layered them up with batting and backing but I'll start stitching them today and see where that takes me.

At the same time, I finished the other little quilt that I started a couple of weeks ago after printing some more fabric whilst doing a second class with Linda.  I dyed some fabric for the binding and am pleased that the black I chose (this one was from ProChem) had a purple cast to it so that it was a perfect fit for the quilt.  It is stitched quite intensively and in fact, I still want to put some french knots into the upper left hand side.  I'll do that tonight in front of the telly.

The colours are the most true on this final image, my poor old camera being fooled by the main colours in the pics.  And my poor old brain not knowing how to remedy it.  Sigh.

NOTE: I am so impressed with Linda's classes, she is very knowledgeable and super generous with that knowledge.  I've learned lots and have thoroughly enjoyed both last year's class and the one I am currently enrolled in.  Do check them out: www.lindagermain.com

I have some more stitching to do....I'll be back...

Versatex inks and heat setting

I took a piece of fabric that I had printed with Versatex yesterday (one I'm not crazy about, I confess) and ripped it in half.  This had been printed onto previously scoured fabric but it had no other treatment after printing other than letting it dry completely.  I wanted to see if I could get rid of some of the heavy handed plastic feel that the inks leave.  I washed out the lower half of the piece and you can see how some of the colours have come out....the piece has lost its plastic feel but some of the intensity of the colours as well.  Which is fine if I end up with colours that I want.  Then I tore the top part in half and ironed the left hand side really well to heat set it.  I then washed out the piece that I had ironed (left hand top), in the same way I had washed out the bottom piece.....no colour came out this time, but the heavy feel of the fabric remained.  The piece on the top right is just as it was after the printing....no heat setting, no washing out.  You can see that the vibrant colours are retained with heat setting, which is good.  I need to work on getting a deep intense colour without a heavy application of ink....in all fairness, it's possible that this problem is mine alone....I'd love to hear if you've tried them and what your experience was.

This morning, I did some more printing onto some of my earlier stamped fabrics, following Linda Germain's lesson suggestions for today.

And finally, I've nearly finished the little piece I've been working on and I'll show you that in a bit.  (I have to dye some grey for the binding.)  It's hard to hand-stitch through the Versatex inks, especially in a couple of places where I have several layers of fabrics and therefore, several layers of inks.  I think when I'm all done with the class I'll re-do the lessons, using the Jacquard fabric paints, just for comparison.  I have printed with the fabric paints in the past but I want to see if I can get the fine details that are possible with the Versatex inks.  I'll report...

More Gelatin Plate Printing with Linda Germain

I have done a bit of printing this morning using some of the stencils that I cut last week.  I also cut the gelatin plate up to use as a smaller size.  We were to use a circular plate but the one I had made had shrunk to a very small size (who knew???) so I cut a rectangle from one of my reconstituted plates. This is all inspired by today's lesson in Linda Germain's Monoprinting onto Fabric class. I think I could have used a bit more restraint but once I got going I wasn't quite sure where to stop.  Oh well, it's all learning!!

I'm still stitching away onto my little quilt piece but I took a break from that to do some printing. I think I'll get my threads out again and see where that takes me.  Life is good!!!

I'll be back.....
www.lindagermain.com

In Progress - Stitching onto gelatin printed fabrics

I have spent a couple of days starting the stitching onto a piece I've put together using some of my gelatin plate printed fabrics.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the Versatex inks.  I find that some of the applications have resulted in a very plastic-feeling fabric and I find the hand of the fabric has been altered in a most unpleasant way!  I have had to experiment using different feet on my sewing machine because some of them tended to drag quite badly on the fabric surface.  Not fun.  But I seem to have settled on a foot-fabric combination that is working for the moment so I have made a start.

I have also been doing some hand sewing onto the fabrics but once again, the plastic-feeling layers are not much fun to stitch through.  The sewing machine is much more successful and my fingers don't hurt so much!!

I am also experimenting a bit with how to put all the disparate pieces of fabric together into one piece without actually doing any piecing.  And then how to marry all the various images so that they work as one larger piece.  It's kind of a fun challenge and I hope I can rise to it.  You can see the edges of the fabric in the second image.....I'll show you another image later on and you can decide if they have come together well or not!!!  A friend has a wonderful saying, that I think she said she got from her father:  'It's far from good but good from far.'  Works here!!

I'll be back with more thoughts on all this.....

Linda Germain class, printing onto fabric and more stitch

Yesterday I printed some fabrics to use as backgrounds and think that they might be quite useful.  Still not ready to vote on the Versatex inks but I am getting to know them a bit better.  Sometimes that's all it takes.

Then today I sort of went off, right out of school!  I printed onto silk organza and put together what might become a small appliqued piece using some of the organza plus some of the little pieces I printed the other day.  You can just make out the organza, under and over the various bits.  I think it will provide some stitching ideas and also take away somewhat from the stark white in the background.  I love organza, so great for layering!  I think it has potential, don't you?

And at the same time I am working on some more of the stitched pears for my little cards.  I still have to sew on a gold grid and then add the bobbin work to complete these wee fruits, but it's a fun process and Leonard Cohen was singing to me as I stitched along.  Nice!!!

And of course, I'll be back.
(Oh dear, I'm falling behind in the Liz Steel class.....hurry, hurry.....)

Gelatin printing with Versatex Inks and more with Liz Steel

I spent some time yesterday doing another set of prints.  This time I wanted to play with white and black (and so some greys as well) plus red.  I am trying to play with different values.

I am finding that the Versatex inks work well with some of the Extender added to it.  Seems to improve, for me at least, the consistency of the inks.  I also find that the inks take quite a while to dry and so I have them spread out on the hearth in front of the fire.  The cat is quite confused, bless her heart!  I haven't yet put an iron to these prints and am sort of waiting until all of the stickiness of the inks is gone.  The instructions are to iron them from the back and I think I'll put some parchment paper underneath them, just to protect my ironing surface.  I'll let you know.

I also found that because I was printing two days in a row, that is to say, using my stencils two days in a row, that the paper stencils didn't have enough time to dry between printings and most of the paper ones have disintegrated.  In addition, the stencils that I had made out of tyvek separated, so I am going to have to replace them as well.  I had spent a couple of hours yesterday cutting some new stencils out of plastic stencil material with my Xacto knife and found that these new stencils are working very well.  Some of the paper stencils had retained the colour from the day before and I inadvertently printed some of the previous day's colours onto these new pieces.  Not a big deal but it would have been a nuisance if I definitely didn't want that.  (The little vine image is from a wooden item that I bought somewhere, I think in a scapbooking store.  All the images are my own.)

I am also posting one of the little pages I did for Lesson 8 of Liz Steel's class.  Looking at various ways of drawing using inks, inked crosshatching, or just paints.  Different ways to portray texture.  It is such a great class and really does make one consider how they might want to portray an object (or a building, I have yet to get outdoors) and with what sort of detail or emphasis.  Lots to think about.

I have yet to get out amongst 'real people' to draw and paint but I am considering a 'drive and draw' afternoon, but not necessarily at the same time!  But perhaps I'll just draw a pic from my computer taken on holidays....good place to start...I'll put away the car keys and get out my paints!

I'll be back.

Linda Germain, Gelatin printing onto fabric.

Oh my.  I have started yet another class.  Yes, I know, this way madness lies!!!  But my guy is in India for the winter and I have the time.  And I don't have TOO much stuff to push out of the way so I can eat my meals at the kitchen table!! Just my computer, and my paints, and my pens and pencils...oh, yes, and occasionally the cat.  Oh My!!!

I have sewn, painted and prepared a couple more cards for the studio tour in the spring.

I have also made several prints onto fabric, based on the lessons in the class that Linda Germain is offering.  Another good class, for which I have added the link below (I took her gelatin printing onto paper class last year, really great.)  I am using Versatex inks for this class and I'm still not sure how I feel about them.  The fabric printing I did on my own last year was with Jacquard fabric paints and I feel they were quite successful (the paints, not necessarily my efforts!!!).  Linda feels the Versatex inks are a bit better and I wanted to give them a try. But as I say, for me, the jury is still out on that one....I'll let you know as we go along.   Here are some of my first efforts.....

And I have prepared another piece of work for the Liz Steel class but I forgot to take a photo of it.  I'll do that and get it to you next time. I'm feeling slightly manic, trying to juggle all these classes and my other commitments, but I'm sort of enjoying it....trying to make it all work. And I don't think my screaming is bothering the neighbours.... just yet!!!

I'm pretty sure I'll be back!!! In the meantime, here a couple of links....

www.lizsteel.com
www.lindagermain.com

Stitching onto soluble fabric

I really like stitching onto soluble fabric and enjoy finding different ways to use this fabulous stuff.  I bought a ton of it (more or less) on Whidbey Island a few years ago at a shop that was going out of business.  I had stopped there for the very first time to have a look around and the sale was happening....needless to say, I stayed (and shopped) longer (and larger) than I had intended.  But I always feel a bit guilty when it might seem that the only time I go into a shop is when they're going out of business....maybe if I'd shopped there more, etc. etc.  (Never miss out on a chance to beat myself up!!!)

I am carrying on with my 'pear' theme and continuing to have fun.

This one is done with watercolours and I wanted a pastel look to go with the pale silk yarn I used for the pear.

This one is painted with Derwent Inktense pencils.  Nice rich colours with little effort!  This one had just one layer of gold thread to form the grid and I think the top version (with a white cotton grid first and then gold overtop of the first grid) was more successful, since it sort of held its shape better.

And then for the Liz Steel class for last week we were to draw an article of clothing,  I sort of went crazy here but enjoyed the challenge.  Not great, but done!!
 

I'm sure I'll be back!!

Pear cards - Painting and Stitching

I am continuing to paint onto the cards I recently purchased from Dick Blick.  They are Fabriano watercolour paper and are quite nice to paint onto.  I am repeating quite a lot of the same images (these are all my own photos) and am learning something new each time I paint one.  I am loving the learning and will carry on until I'm bored with these images and then see where it takes me.

At the same time, perhaps a bit of boredom creeping in here, I am painting onto silk organza and using some of the images that I had stitched earlier onto silk organza.

I have some more ideas that I am going play around with in the next few days based on these experiments in my sketchbook.  I'll show you those when I get them a bit more resolved.

And I am playing catch-up with the Liz Steel class.  We have had two weeks over the holidays to get caught up.  Apparently I need more than that!!! Oh well.  Catch as catch can!!  Here I am trying a little one- and two-point perspective.  One drawing from life and the other a pic from a photo.

And as usual, I'll be back!!