FFFC Challenge # 32

Alphabet of Ferns

I am happy to say this challenge piece is done, late, but hey it is still May right? This is another of my FFFC Yahoo Group challenges, number 32 to be precise, issued the last Friday in April. Of course number 33 has already been issued and so far that one is only in the thinking stages, and I have missed doing 2 others, though one of those has fabrics pulled and some templates made so hopefully I will get to that one eventually.

Our challenge for Thirty two was to use analogous colors, I used blue, blue green and green with a complementary color. I used Orange. Seems like I have been doing a lot with orange lately. Obviously I like this color combination. The composition element was to use grids or frames. We were supposed to continue our series, mine is structures, but not sure this fits that theme. Maybe if you consider letter forms structures.

Earlier this year in my Typography course we created strokes and designed some letter forms, at the time I thought they would be fun to use on a quilt and even went so far as to create some stamps and purchase some Lumiere Paint. I even played with it a bit but had no time to actually do anything with the results. So when this challenge came out I thought, perfect way to use my letterforms and stamps. The stamping isn't very good, not as clean as I would prefer, partly my lack of skill in carving the stamp, and partly the material I used. I think I would have done better using a stencil as I did with the ferns. The fern design was done using home made stencils and Shiva paint sticks. I like how they came out. The lighter ferns are actually two colors a light cream overbrushed with a green.

I had designed 9 letter forms and used all 9 to create this small quilt. Size is approximately 17 X 19 inches. As always comments are welcome.

School 8th Week

I just finished the 8th week of school. I am finally making progress on the portrait project for color and design, since I have been working on it at home in the evenings. I have also started drawing shoes for the shoe project. We are supposed to draw 20 views of shoes, so far I have 5 done. Can you tell that all of the Color and Design projects tend to take a long time to do?

In Computer Graphics we are moving onto Quark Express. Had a test on the tools on Wednesday. Since I don't have Quark at home I don't think I will be focusing much of my energy or time in trying to master it, although some of the publishing industry is still using it, some book and newspaper publishers I have heard. Still many others are starting to move the Adobe's InDesign, which is Adobe's publishing program that works a bit more seamlessly with Illustrator and Photo Shop. Since I have the full suite of Adobe CS3 I think I will focus on using InDesign.

Oh yes in the Computer Graphics class we had to pick a theme for our final project, I am going to do a brochure on the Eastcoast Quilters Alliance fall Show which will be held in Nashua, NH, in a couple of weeks. I should be able to get some pictures there that I can then edit for the brochure. I may also borrow some images on-line. Since this is a project that won't even be printed I feel that in this circumstance I can borrow, though if I thought I would publish it I wouldn't. Note that the final project will be too large to publish here in any case. I may print it and show just a picture of the cover, but we will see.

Drawing class this week was was doing silhouettes and just black and white high contrast drawings, no shading at all. We used black markers and boy do they stink. The instructor had to turn on the fans and open the windows to keep us all somewhat functional. Still by the time I left I had something of a headache. I won't be using the markers at home, I think I will use ink and brush or pen instead on my homework. Below are the drawings I did in class:

The image is from clip art, I think I don't have him leaning quite enough so he would probably fall on his butt if he were real, but otherwise isn't bad for a first try.

Basketball player this time, and he isn't too bad

This is my high contrast drawing, her head should be tilted up a bit more but otherwise I like her.

I started a 4th high contrast drawing, but didn't get that one finished. May work on that one later, though it will need to be done with marker since I started it that way, so it is more likely that I won't finish it.

My last image for you this week is the homework I did for 2 weeks ago. This is a white chalk on black paper drawing. The image is from a photo in the October 2008 issue of 'Smithsonian' magazine. The article is on the Italian sculpture Bernini. I used the photo of the bust of Costanza Bonarelli, the wife of one of his assistants, whom he was having an affair with at the time of the portrait. I worked very hard on this image, and I feel it turned out quite well.

Last note for today is that the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group has issued the 2nd challenge for this year. We are to use Monochromatic colors, and perspective in our design. I think I know what I want to do, doing it though will keep me busy along with all the other work I am supposed to be doing. I need to go sort through fabrics and see what color will be best. I plan on using my hand dyed fabrics, either the Cherrywoods or the Primrose Gradations that I have on hand. I may also sort through the batiks to see what else will work, though batiks with patterns tend to not be monochromatic, they are more likely to use 2 colors so those won't work. I am planning on using a photo I took in Chicago a couple of years ago. It is along the lake front, and has some high value contrasts which should make it work well for this design. Since my theme is structures, there is a bridge, some buildings in the background, and the lake breakwall.