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I am done, well almost done with school for the year. I have my final drawing critic tomorrow where I will get my grade for the semester, but the classes are done. I had the last Color and Design class on Monday where we did the final critic's for that class (I think I have an A) The computer class was done last week, and yesterday I had my final drawing class. We did more figure drawing so I have more nude figures for you to look at. There aren't any guys this week though, only females. And for the most part the poses were a bit more standard. I think the instructor was able to spend more time with the CD figuring out what he wanted to give to us to draw.

I also have images for you from my Drawing homework from 2 weeks ago. I really like the 2nd drawing and feel I did her quite well. The pity is that I did the drawing on newsprint so it won't keep, but still I really like her. The other is ok, but even though she took twice as long to do I feel she doesn't work as well.

My last picture for you this year is my Drawing final, we had to do a self portrait, I used a photograph taken by a friend about 30 years ago. I think I did a fairly good job, hope the instructor thinks so. It is pencil and I know he would have preferred charcoal, oh well I semi did it to please me so it is pencil. It took a while to finish to my satisfaction. It doesn't take that long to lay down the basic image, but to get all the shadows and details the way I want takes a bit. I tend to sit and stare at it, decide what needs fixing work for a bit then stare some more. I like the result, but it isn't quick.

Sorry for the photo quality this week. We are having an overcast gloomy day so had to use the flash, which makes it harder to get a good photo of the art work.

So long until Next Year, sending seasons greetings to all my friends (and readers) Hope the holidays are good to you,

Color and Design Final Project

Just a quick note this morning, this is my Color and Design final project. We had to do something with eggs. I browsed on-line for all the pictures I could find with birds and eggs, and then just eggs in a nest. There aren't a lot of pictures of nests with birds in the picture. Probably because most fly away if you get too close, and you have to be relatively close to take a picture. I sketched six of the pictures as possible finals, but when a fellow student suggested that I make a quilt for the final project I selected the one of the pictures with just the nest, eggs and a few leaves for my final project. The size is relatively small since I needed to get it done quickly, 9 x 11 inches. I found a hand marbleized fabric in the stash that I decided was perfect for the base of the nest, and picked fabrics from my hand dyed stash to go with it. I used a satin stitch machine applique to sew down the pieces. Shadows under the eggs are fabric paint, also on some of the leaves. The white highlight on the eggs and some of the green on the leaves is from shiva paint sticks. I used a fiber for the reddish stem, and zigzag quilted over it to hold it down. I am still contemplating whether I should add some more embellishments to this, lighter threads to simulate the light straw (grasses) the robin used in its nest, but I am going to leave alone for a bit and think about it.

FFFC Challenge #27

Even with all the homework I have been doing for classes I managed to finish my small quilt for the 27th FFFC Challenge. Our Challenge this month was to work with values, light lights, dark darks and mediums. The second part was to work either close up or a distance view. My original idea was to do a close up of a windmill, or wind turbine. So I started an internet search for pictures that I could use to design my quilt. I looked at lots of pictures and even downloaded a couple before I came across an image of pinwheels. You remember pinwheels don't you? made out of paper a stick and pins, they spin in the breeze and are fun. When I saw them I though oh my I could use some of my Japanese fabrics for that. So I changed my mind about the subject of my challenge piece and went with 3 pinwheels. I drafted out 3 different sizes, created templates, picked fabrics from the stash, for the pinwheels all Japanese fabrics, and for the background purple hand dyes. Fabrics are machine appliqued down. I used shell buttons from my button collection as the centers of the pinwheels, and added beads along the inner bright fabric edges. I used Black beads for the two smaller pinwheels and white beads for the center larger one. I was going to add some additional background embellishments, either more beads or some fiber but decided to leave it as it is for the moment. It was machine quilted.

If you feel strongly one way or the other about additional embellishments let me know, I am interested in hearing opinions on this. I am calling this one Spinners. The approximate size of this quilt is 16.5 x 14 inches, a bit larger then I usually work.

2nd Week December

Well this last week is almost the end of this semester at school. I have the final critic in Color and Design on Monday afternoon next week, my final drawing class on Tuesday and my drawing critic on Thursday. On Friday I fly out to Chicago, so I am not sure there will be a blog update next week. Maybe Wednesday if I can manage to get myself organized.

I finished the Computer graphics final on Wednesday this week, burned a CD and turned it in. For anyone reading who is a MAC lover I apologize, but right now I have no love for I MAC's at all. It destroyed my extra credit project, making my photo shop file go poof, and then it didn't like the blank CD I brought to burn my files onto. I will take my PC over that MAC any day. I had to borrow a blank from another student. I was not a happy camper. My final project was a brochure, and not really something I can post here since we didn't even print it. The purpose of the project was for us to demonstrate that we knew how to use the publishing program to do various tasks. I think I did OK.

This week in Color and Design I finished my last regular project which is the line value drawing that is below. It is really supposed to have been done in pencil but I and several other students did them with ink. I used mechanical pens with different nib sizes, the outlining black was done with a very fine point and I had to do lots of lines, a pia but I like the way it looks so it was worth it. Then I spent the rest of the week on my final project for the Color and Design class which for me was to make a small quilt with eggs as the concept. It is almost done, but not quite so you will get a picture next time I update the blog. I spent my time in Wednesday's class drawing the basic design so that on Thursday I could jump right into the project.

By the way the drawing is rectangular, it is off in the photo because I took it at a slight angle sorry.

Lots of pictures for you this week from my drawing class, first are the 4 drawings I did for homework 2 weeks ago. The were supposed to be quick studies about 10 to 15 minutes each. I think I spent a bit longer on each, so it took me over an hour to get all 4 done. I quite like two of them, as they actually sort of look like the person I was drawing. But 2 aren't as good. I will put the better two first then the not so good ones.

These two aren't too bad


His mouth/nose aren't right, and I am just not fond of her.

In drawing class we have moved on to the whole figure. We don't have a live model this term, we will in Drawing II next Term. So the instructor brought in a CD and projected photos of posed models for us to draw. I think we did 7 poses total, but I am only going to show you 3. We did 2 poses for the male, one the front version of what I uploaded, I decided to leave that one out. And there were a couple of poses of women that I either didn't draw well, or aren't what I want to post so you only get 2 of the women drawings I did.

I had a problem with the charcoal on the rear hand of the seated woman, but other wise I am pleased with her.


This is our male model, we did the same pose from the front. They airbrushed out details but still I think I will pass on uploading that drawing for you. He had lots of muscles and a skinny butt.

That's it for this week. My other project for the week was the FFFC group challenge. I have it done but will post it separately.

December Already

How time flies, first week of December has come and gone. With it more classes and a cold for me. The cold I could live without, but it isn't as bad as it could be and I am happier to have it now then later in the month. It did make my drawing class on Tuesday not much fun but I survived and have some drawings to show you. We did more portrait work on Tuesday, and looked at a lot of self portraits by various artists. Can you guess where this is going? I get to do another self portrait, this one for my drawing class and he wants more shading so I will probably do this one with charcoal, but I don't think I will use the vine it is too soft and smudges too easily to do really nice work to keep.

I did use the vine charcoal for the studies we did in class, first we again did each other. While there are a lot here there are still a couple I left out, one where the instructor was giving me some suggestions and another that I just don't care for all that much. Still here are the rest of the ones I did.

Some aren't too bad, and almost look a bit like the people I was drawing. I think I am getting a bit better. Just have to do more of this. Please keep in mind that these are approximately 10 minute studies, so they are sketchy and the vine does really smudge easily.

Our last study was of my friend the roman bust, which I did earlier in pen and ink. Here he is in vine charcoal.

Last image for this week is my last stamp for my color and design class. This one was my sports figure. It was supposed to be a person but the instructor is giving us some latitude so I just did Olympic Sports, in this case gymnastics.

OK, I am going scream, I just realized that I spelled Gymnastics wrong on the stamp. Bother now I have to decide if I want to fix it or leave it. I know I should fix it, and this stamp isn't very complex so it shouldn't take all that long to replace. I have to think about this for a bit. Though since I now realize the problem you don't have to leave me notes about it.

My other activity this past week when I have the energy for it has been working on my next Challenge for the FFFC group. This one is supposed to be either a close up or a distance view using various fabric values, dark dark, light light and mediums. I have mine designed, though it isn't that much of a close up still it is a closer view then I usually work. I have the background pieced, and pieces are glued down waiting to be sewn. Not sure if I will finish in time (deadline is noon this coming Sat) this month, but hope to get it done before I leave for vacation.