Cats, Figures and New Year Wishes

First I want to wish everyone a Healthy, Happy 2014, may this new year bring you much of what you wish/hope for.

Today I am going to share a couple of the drawings I made while visiting Chicago. The first is an image of a friends cat from a photograph she made and shared via Facebook. I think the cat is wearing a hooded cape, and while she is posing for the photograph I doubt she stayed put long. Got to say I am fairly pleased with this, not a totally polished piece, but I think I captured the cats not so pleased expression.

For a Christmas present I received from my sister more Polychrome colored pencils. I asked for them of course, but was totally pleased with the gift. Needless to say I felt they needed to be taken out for a test run, hence the above sketch.

From a National Geographic photograph I sketched this lion cub standing on a zebra kill. Not totally pleased with it, but it least it does look like a lion, and the color isn't bad considering the colors I was working with. I didn't spend that long on it, so it isn't even close to being photo-realistic.  Still it was fun to do and I got to play with some of my new pencils.

Now that I am home I am discovering I need more pencil holders for my growing collection. I have started working on a new set which will hopefully be finished soon.

The above drawings are from the only short pose drawing session I managed to attend in December, Tuesday December 3rd. The following week I was either suffering from a cold or an allergy attack since I spent the day bonding with a box of tissues and getting a sore nose. The following week was cancelled due to a snow storm, it didn't drop a lot of snow but did manage to happen during drive time and made a huge mess out of the roads. Our model for that evening drives a fair distance and didn't want to risk the conditions. I can't say that I blame him, it was nasty out there.  The last short pose sessions were cancelled due to being Christmas and New Years Eve. so during those weeks they held only Monday Night long pose sessions and I was in Chicago the week of Christmas.

Anyway, the top grouping is of short 2 minute poses, middle grouping is 5 minute poses and the bottom two 10 minute poses.  Oddly enough the ones I like best are the two 5 minute poses in the middle. I also like the 2 minute poses, but I feel that the 10 minute poses aren't as dynamic as they should/could be. Both I and the model were probably getting pretty tired at that point. That is my excuse and I am sticking with it.

Last but by no means least is a photograph from my visit to Chicago. On Friday we visited the Chicago Art Institute and saw some wonderful drawings and watercolors from a private collection. There were many ink works and I found it interesting that the artists didn't seem to feel that he/she had to choose a media and stick with it. Most of the ink works were a combination of ink and graphite (pencil) or Charcoal, sometimes pastel and sometimes Gouache. The artist used what they needed to use to get the look/effect they wanted with the drawing. Artists ranged from an early Picasso to a study Romney did for a larger painting with some older and more recent artists added to the mix.

The sculpture in the photograph (called the Bean) is found in the park that is a few blocks north from the museum. The surface has been polished to a high gloss and reflects the buildings and people around it. There is a hole in the center that is large enough that several people can stand in it looking up at their reflections. We didn't do that on this visit because both of us were tired from the museum but I have done just that on previous occasions.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.  

Christmas, sewing and a drawing

I have just returned from my Christmas trip out to Chicago to visit my sister. Above is the only drawing I am including in today's blog update. I made this sketch while waiting at Logan Airport for my flight to board. The man was looking out the window at the various activities that were going on around the planes waiting for passengers. I did make another drawing, but though this is very sketchy I prefer this one out of the two I made. 

A lot of my time prior to my leaving on my trip was taken up by sewing. Above is a photo showing the 5 bags that I finished this month to give as gifts. Two went to my niece, one to her daughter, one to my sister and I kept one. Because they were gifts I couldn't write or post about them on the blog prior to Christmas.

Out of the 5 bags two of them were ones I had started last year and never finished, the other 3 are ones that I cut the fabric for this year, using a slightly different approach.

The older method calls for more cutting and piecing before cutting the pattern out, but I like the finished look better so. With the older method I was cutting six inch strips and then sewing them together prior to cutting the pattern. For the bags I made this year I cut four pattern pieces out of 2 different fabrics and then did some mixing and matching. Since I am using half yards of fabric I need to add strips to the bottom to make the bags long enough. But I need to do that with both methods so in that way it doesn't matter which method I use. I have decided to go back to the original method for the bags I am planning on sewing this next year.

You are going to have to look closely at the above 3 images to realize what you are seeing. There are 6 objects in the above images not 3. Each scan is of 2 mug rugs that I gave to my sister for Christmas. I used her scanner for the images and the bed was a bit too small to show all edges.

My sister likes to sit at the counter in her kitchen to drink her morning tea. In the past it has been her habit to place her mug on top of a pot holder on the counter to help keep the tea warm in the cup. This year inspired by a possible exchange with friends I decided I should make her some mug rugs. They are 6 x 9 inch small quilts that can be used in place of a pot holder. Well in place of a pot holder on the counter, they can't be used as pot holders to haul hot pans out of an oven.

All of them used blocks (units) that I had hand pieced at one point or another and just never put into anything larger. For the top 4 I used four 4 patch units, selecting those with approximately the same coloring and adding some hand dyed fabrics to give me the size I needed. The bottom 2 used a couple of friendship star blocks along with some indigo dyed fabric I had purchased. I kept the quilting to in the ditch, so it was quick and fairly easy to do.  I think finishing off threads took almost as long as the actual quilting.

There is batting between the layers though I used the pillow case method of finishing the edges (sewed and turned, then stitched about a quarter inch away from the edge. I didn't see any reason to spend the time actually putting binding on these mini quilts. The opening on the turned edge was slip stitched closed prior to my quilting the pieces.

They were kind of fun to make and I certainly have enough of a stash of finished units to make more of these this coming year.

One last image, the Christmas tree in my Sister's apt. on Christmas morning. Presents are bagged in Christmas fabric bags making for a colorful display under the tree.

I did spend a fair amount of time over the Holiday drawing so will include some of those drawings in my next update. In the meantime I hope everyone who celebrated enjoyed their Holiday and are looking forward to 2014.

New ATC, another flower drawing and photographs

Just a short blog update today. Above is a new Artist Trading Card (ATC). I used the same background pattern for this as I used for one of my latest bookmarks. This background came out a bit better than the bookmark. ATC's are a bit wider than the bookmarks and I was a bit more aware of the pitfalls of drawing a basket weave pattern as a background.

This card seems to be saying more spring than Christmas or winter to me, but these were the colors I was in the mood to use. Since we are supposed to be getting at least a few inches of snow I suppose it is just wishful thinking on my part. Media is pen and ink with added colored pencil.

I have several arrangements of artificial flowers around the apt. The drawing above is one of the first I put together. It sits on the table in the kitchen/dining space which happens to get a lot of sun, so the purple flowers are getting a bit faded. I suppose it is time to get rid of them and either get something else or just let the vase be empty. Colored pencil with ink laid in on top. The actual arrangement is fuller, but somehow I think I missed that feeling in the drawing. Guess I will just have to try again another day.

A couple of photographs to end this short update, above is one of the flowers on my White Christmas Cactus. Love that touch of pink at the heart of the flower.

My miniature cyclamen is blooming. Love the intense red of these flowers. I thought I would capture the look now as when I get back from Christmas the plant will probably look a bit sad. I will bag this so it will survive, but it doesn't like being bagged so is a bit droopy for months afterword.

That it is for today, have been busy trying to get ready for Christmas so not doing a lot of drawing. In the meantime comments are always welcome.