Last 2008 Post

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.