Sketchbook Project, 3 More pages

Hope everyone has been enjoying this Holiday season with family and friends. I am visiting my sister in Chicago. The weather since I have arrived has been gloomy, I don't think we have had one sunny day. We did get sun part of one day, I think it was Tuesday, but for the rest we have had clouds with occasional snow. The snow hasn't amounted to much, but I am getting tired of the gloom. Still inside has been warm and cheerful.  I am looking forward to some forecasted sun and visits to some of the Chicago museums next week. I may post pictures.

Santa was good to me and I now have some new toys to play with after Christmas, pastels, Inktense pencils and a new sketchbook. In the meantime I have been focusing on working on my Sketchbook project pages. Today I am posting images of the 3 pages I have finished in the past few days. I will to have to speed up production if I am going to get this book finished by January 15th, but at least I have been making some progress.

The bees above I had sketched out months ago, but never finished drawing, I am semi pleased with the results, I think the honey comb could be better but... Oh well.

Below are the next two pages I finished. Not wonderful, I am not spending a lot of time researching these or even really planning them, so I am sure there are errors, still done is better then not done.

Coming Home, the last page finished so far is based on the small wall quilt I finished a couple of years ago that I called Cozy Cottage. There are some differences but it is pretty similar.  Text could also be reversed and called Home Coming - depending on how you want to think of this. I think I have an idea for the next page then I will have to put my thinking cap back on.

That is it for today, comments, and/or questions are always welcome. I will be updating the Sketchbook site with these new images when I get back home in January.

December pre-Christmas

No Drawings today or tomorrow, the artist whose studio I go to for the drawing sessions also sings, and the group he performs with is singing tonight, a Christmas performance I gathered. I doubt that I would have gone anyway, I have to pack and get things ready for my Christmas trip. In the meantime I have been sewing. No drawing since last weeks session. Above and below are two photographs of what I have been putting together. Potholders, I know not very exciting, but it is that time of year. So I have these 6 finished. Actually I only finished 5 in the past week, the 6th I did earlier in the year. Centers are all hand pieced 6 inch blocks that I did ages ago. They are finished off with batiks from the stash.

 I have also been working on the latest FFFC group challenge quilt, it is further along then this photo would indicate but it isn't finished so I thought I would post an in-process photo. The colors are a bit washed out as I used a flash for this photo. I was in the process of machine appliqueing down all of the pieces on the top. It has now been quilted and I am sewing down the binding. I need to add some hand stitches to the applique pieces, then it will be done. The challenge for this month was to use a single shape, mine is triangles.

That is it for today. But I want to take the time to wish everyone Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas. I hope that all of my friends have a happy and joyful holiday season, and can stay warm and dry despite the crazy weather that comes this time of year.

Last Dwg Session 2010

Last night I attended my last Studio long pose session for 2010. There is one more session for the year, but that will be Monday the 27 and I will be away so will miss it. Anyway above is the drawing I did last night. The foot isn't right, my excuse is that I couldn't see it. Scott placed a heater for the model right in front of me, and while I could have moved it, I don't usually like to do that, after all she has a right to be warm. Besides I had plenty of other areas to focus on. At least this week she looks like she is sitting on the couch.

No other images today, I have been busy sewing Christmas stuff, and working on the layout of a Challenge quilt. Not sure if I will get the challenge quilt done. I have been auditioning fabrics, changing positions of shapes, changing the fabric used in the shapes and am not sure if I have a final design yet. It is a good thing that freezer paper templates can be used more than once.

This morning I had this brain wave, that folks might be interested in seeing some of the in-process stages my figure drawings go through. We take at least two breaks during the 3 hour session, so it would be simple for me to make a photograph of the drawing at the start of each break. Just have to remember to take my small camera along. The photo's won't be the greatest since I will have to use flash to illuminate the drawing but they should be viewable. Course since I won't be attending a model session until next year you will just have to wait to see how that works out.

Until my next post, stay well, and remember that comments are welcome.