Tag Archives: drawing

When a Workshop Doesn’t Seem Like Work

25 Monday Jan 2016

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I’ve never really understood what an artist’s sketchbook was, other than the obvious concept of a book in which somebody made a rough sketch of a church, landscape etc., took it back to the studio and transformed it into a finished artwork. Apparently it can also be a place for an artist to develop ideas, create designs, play with possibilities. And you don’t have to be an artist in the sense of somebody who paints or draws pictures. Artist is a broad term, someone who creates in whatever medium.
Now though, I have a better understanding. I took an online workshop entitled Developing Sketchbooks, by Dionne Swift. And I have a sketchbook!
OK, so it’s not that great yet. But I did gain a lot of tools for developing ideas, even for coming up with ideas in the first place. My difficulty when I want to create designs for embroidery, embellishment etc., is coming up with an idea. I can’t draw well enough to use realistic images, flowers etc. But I struggle to find abstract ideas. Dionne gives you lots of ways to come up with those ideas, and develop them into usable designs.
Here are one or two of my sketchbook pages, some I am happy with and some need more work. But I have made a start!

sketchbook pages

Sketchbook pages

single sketchbook page

Single page

bowl of Christmas baubles and single line drawings

continuous line drawings


One of the exercises was to do continuous line drawings of a subject, both whilst looking at the subject as well as the drawing, but also without looking at the drawing. This leads to some really weird looking objects! But it can also be a starting point for some interesting shapes to develop further. Dionne’s comment that a drawing doesn’t necessarily have to look like the subject was very liberating!
Our neighbourhood ASG group is doing a workshop next month on heat transfer dying, and I’m going to spend some of the time between now and then working on my own design to use. Watch this space!

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Illustrating a murder

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Early last year I took a course called Introduction to Fashion Design, or something like that, at Central TAFE in Perth. I had been going to do Fashion Illustration, but there weren’t enough enrolments for that class to run.

So I ended up doing fashion design. Only a short course, one evening a week for 8 weeks I think, but it was very interesting. It was intended as an introductory course for people who actually want to become fashion designers, and covered things like branding, trends in colour and design, and how to present your collection on a story board, which is where the drawing came in.

I find it very difficult to draw realistically, but in fact for fashion illustration that doesn’t really matter, many of the best illustrators have a very representational style, if that’s the word I want. A few lines and splodges, and they can convey enough about a garment that you can picture it in your head. Like this for example. Each student developed their own style, and they were very varied. In line with my very down to earth character, mine was pretty simple and straightforward. I also had a problem with the conventional figure that fashion drawings are based on, you know the skinny one with the extra long legs. Real women don’t look like that for heaven’s sake! I did download some templates from Fashionary, but I ended up not using them and drawing my figures in more realistic proportions. In fact I used photos out of a magazine to base them on, so I know they look more like real women.

I have to admit though, that they do look a bit dumpy, but I’m telling myself that’s because we are all so conditioned to seeing figures with endless legs.

Also in the course, we designed our own logo, having first come up with a brand name. I thought of mine, A Murder of Crows, because one morning when I was leaving home to go to work there was a murder of crows in the front paddock. I afterwards thought of the connection that since I was designing a collection for ‘mature’ women, these clothes might also help them to forget (murder) their crows’ feet. A tenuous connection I admit.

The final part of the course was to put our drawings together on one or more story boards. I have photographed mine, but I took the photos really early one morning, outside, and although it was what I would call daylight, I think it really wasn’t. The photos all have a blue tinge to them, which I can only assume is due to the quality of the early morning light. In some circumstances it could be lovely, but it wasn’t what I was looking for here. I have tried to fix it, but with very limited success, I will have to take the photos again sometime. Here they are in the meantime:

Fashion illustration story board

Fashion illustration story board

Fashion ilustration - flat drawings

Fashion illustration – flat drawings

I found the flat drawings much easier to do than the people wearing the clothes, or even the clothes on people. Probably because I know how clothes are put together, and also because they are two dimensional. All in all, it was an interesting and worthwhile course, I think not least because I was giving myself permission to just play around with drawing.

Fashion illustration, and first steps to design

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Here again after a long (too long) break. My Inspiration in every Issue didn’t last very long! To be fair, I did do a few more projects, just never got around to posting them. I’ve also spent most of the summer working on another major project, which is almost finished, but I can’t write about it just yet.

One thing I’ve been doing is a short course at Central TAFE in Perth called Fashion Design for Beginners. It covered things like trend forecasting, branding, illustration, designing a logo etc. I had been going to do a course just on Fasion Illustration, since that was what I really wanted to learn, but there were not enough enrolments for that one. The course was still very interesting and stimulating, and I did get to do quite a bit of drawing. I think mainly I should just try and practice. Styles of drawing are so varied, and don’t necessarily involve accuracy or realism, which is what I usually find hard about drawing. There doesn’t seem to be a right way to do it, as long as you convey an impression of the garments. There are in any case two lots of drawings, the illustrations on a model which give an impression of the garment or outfit, and technical drawings, flats or lays, which show how a garment is constructed. The latter I found quite easy, probably because I know how a garment goes together, but the more artistic side of it was difficult. And I gave up trying to draw realistic people, realistic clothes was hard enough!

All together a worthwhile exercise, particularly if I can keep up some practice. I really wanted to learn the drawing part so that I can illustrate the ideas I have when I want to make clothes. The lecturer was a very talented artist called Seonaidh Murphy, who also has a website called Soft Constructions.

I was going to post some of my drawings here, but now I realise I haven’t scanned them yet, so they will have to wait. In the meantime if you are interested in fashion illustration there is a useful tool you might like to try at Fashionary.

The results are in!

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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I went to the Perth Royal Show this week to see how my entries went, and much to my surprise I had won something! Actually, there were disappointingly few entries in the Machine Embroidery section, Hand Embroidery was much better supported. My wallhanging got first, out of two entries, the journal cover third out of two entries, and the pendant third also, although it was the only entry in the class so far as I could see. Obviously they don’t always give prizes if they think the standard isn’t high enough. That’s fair enough, and the wallhanging was certainly what I spent the most time on, so I am pleased that it won. I have to go pick the things up tomorrow, and I must take photos of them.

I am already inspired to try again next year, and I think I shall have a go at hand embroidery, since that is where most of the entries are, and so more of a challenge. I have an idea for a piece, possibly canvas work but definitely some sort of counted thread, based roughly on the drawing I did for TAFE. I don’t remember if I ever posted a photo of it, but here it is. I think this could translate quite nicely, with the black and white bits being blackwork, and the colour being blackwork type stitches but done in colour. I have 12 months, give or take!

I got the latest edition of the Itch’n to Stitch newsletter yesterday, it’s very informative. I have already found a competition to enter next year, and have the idea of what I am going to do all planned out, more or less anyway. Watch this space! The newsletter is full of things to do, workshops, exhibitions, contests etc., and must entail a great deal of work to put together. Really worthwhile thing to have landing in one’s mailbox, unlike so much of the other stuff that appears there.

 

Progress report, and Australian women artists of early 20th century

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

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Now that I have the scrapbook, and decided on the format of the pages, I can start on the final drawings. There will be about 8 subject title pages, each of which will have a border, similar to these. I am drawing them by hand, within a grid, and colouring with watercolour pencils. It’s fairly slow work, I have so far finished one, and half done two more. Actually I haven’t finished, I have only drawn and coloured. My plan now is to scan the drawing, and print it out, it will be quite a bit smaller in the final version. Having seen how it looks, I will probably go over the watercolour pencil with water to bring out the colours, then over that with a fine black pen to divide up the colours, and give it the look slightly of leadlighting. I want to scan the drawing before I do that, in case it doesn’t look good. I might also go over one of the prints with the black pen, in case I decide to do just that step and miss out the water.
I’ve also started on the drawings for the subject pages. Each will have a pencil and probably coloured drawing of the subject, for example the ‘House and Home’ page has a drawing of a house, the ‘Recipe’ page has a still life of mixing bowl, jug, flour cannister etc. I took a photo of a vase of flowers to use for the ‘Garden’ page. I’m still keen on the Margaret Preston look for the drawings, although the look I am after is actually paintings rather than drawings, so I’m not sure how that is going to work. Co-incidentally a few days ago the Google doodle was about Grace Cossington-Smith, a contemporary of Preston’s, and also of Thea Proctor. The National Gallery of Victoria has quite a few works by all three artists, just go to  www.ngv.vic.gov.au, on the Explore tab, you can browse artists by name. I looked under C for Cossington Smith, but found her under S for Smith. She is less well represented than the others.
I have a feelling it would be possible to spend hours on that site, it’s a good substitute for going to the gallery, given that the gallery is several hours away even by plane, and even if I went I suppose not all the pictures would be on display at any given time.
I need to firm up on the other subjects, and decide on suitable drawings.
I also bought some calligraphy pens, not actual fountain pens, but fibre tip type pens with chisel points. I shall use them to write the quotations, and possibly some other stuff. I do have a calligraphy set somewhere, but currently I can’t find it so these are a good substitute. Will set aside some time for a little practice before I start for real.
Planning to get up early tomorrow morning and go to the dawn service for ANZAC day. Not the main one in the city, too much hassle to get there, and find somewhere to park, so I’ll stick with a smaller suburban one. I’ve never been before, but often thought I ought to give it a go. Material for a blog post tomorrow, and for 750 words.

Exciting Source for Embroidery Designs

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

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I found a wonderful source of antique embroidery patterns and books on the net, all scanned and available under a creative commons licence. It’s here. There is heaps of stuff there, and it would take an age to look through it all, but by dint of looking at published dates I was able fairly quickly to come up with two or three possibilities for the cover of my commonplace book. Yesterday I went shopping and spent ages looking at possibilities for the book itself, and finally bought one. It’s a scrapbook, only a small one at 8 inches square. The bigger ones are 12 inches square, and I debated long and hard, but the big one is too llimiting in terms of paper and printing. You’d need to use A3 paper and cut it down, and there just isn’t the variety that you can get in A4. With a smaller book I’ll have many more options for printing on coloured paper, it will be easier to scan and print my drawings to a suitable size, and altogether I think better.
I’m going to do a cross stitch design for the front cover, there are at least two if not three possible designs on the site which I have downloaded. A couple are only in black and white, one of which is a bunch of flowers which would be quite easy to colour, the other is a pair of peacocks, which I can see in just black and white, or possibly red and white. Any colour and white I guess, except that black and red are traditional, although not necessarily very art deco. Then there is a very geometric design in a few colours, an oval shape, but I could find a border to put round it. At the moment I am leaning towards the bunch of flowers, if for no other reason than it has a slightly wood cut look to it, and I’m also trying to get a Margaret Preston feel in some of the other drawings.
Now that I have the book I have no excuse not to push ahead with the drawings, before I run out of time. I think I’ll start with the title page, if I’m going to put embroidery on the front cover then the design I had for the cover can go on the title page instead. That’s the logo made up of the letters of ‘book’, and the word commonplace drawn in a suitable font. Do I stick with a certain palette of colours throughout the book? I think it would be better to do so, in which case I might need to stick to one medium for the drawings. I can probably do acrylic, need to buy some more white if so since I have none, and that limits mixing of colours and tints. I’m leaning towards a purple/plum/pink palette, with some greens as well, and purplish browns. Perhaps also some peachy colour, although not orange. More an ecru, no, darker. Not sure what it is called, don’t even really have it in my mind yet. I guess all this deliberation is part of the concept development, and must be documented somewhere for assessment. I should also try out the water colour pencils, but I don’t think they will give the look I am after. I need to experiment a bit with mixing colours for them.
Here are the embroidery designs I am considering, all downloaded from the site above. What a wonderful resource it is. It would be terrific if there were a similar resource for sewing and dressmaking patterns, but I don’t know of one.

oval design    bunch of flowers   peacocks

I thought uploading the files would make the picture appear in the post instead of a hyperlink. It usually does, but these files are pdfs which seems to make a difference. Not sure why.

Mid-semester review – the point at which I start re-thinking my design

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

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Mid semester review went OK at TAFE yesterday. Most of the other students have drawings, but not much idea of how they are going to fit a story, or put the book together when it’s done. I, on the other hand, have a very good idea of what I want it to look like, I just have to make it happen. Although, I am now wavering a bit on the style of the thing. For each of the subject title pages I was going to do a drawing, pencil with maybe a watercolour wash. Now I’m leaning more towards a woodcut Margaret Preston type of thing, like these but I’m not sure I can do it. I wasn’t going to do a woodcut as such anyway, but a drawing in that style, but they are very simplified, and I think that takes more ability than I currently have. I really want to have that Art Deco look though, which a pencil and watercolour drawing doesn’t necessarily have. I have two weeks, (mid-semester break apparently now only 2 weeks instead of 3, which means the whole thing is a week shorter) to work on getting the style right. I also have to figure out the cover, which was going to be fabric with a painted design. Peter said he’d like to see some needlework or textile work, and then when I went to the library I got a book out about painting and decorating textiles, so I’ve gone from having a clear idea to starting again. The design I have drawn is too small to applique, I could do canvas work or surface embroidery, which would be more authentic? Needs yet more research, I’m leaning towards canvas work. There is also the issue of wearability, I don’t want it to look tatty after only a short time, although in point of fact it’s not likely to get any wear at all. I’m also thinking again about the format, A4 does not leave much space for content, after allowing a bit down the side for the binding, perhaps I should go with the ready made scrapbook covers in Spotlight which are square. They had some with a cutout in the middle, I could always put a piece of embroidery in there, I think there was a clear plastic bit which would protect it.

This is a problem which I have had before when trying to be creative, getting to a point where I feel I have done the best I can, and then just trusting to that, instead of re-thinking numerous times. In this instance there is a time limitation, I have to leave myself enough time to actually do the work at the end. I have a feeling the critical point is coming soon.

Planning a Commonplace Book

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

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My vision of my assignment piece for TAFE is starting to come into focus. As mentioned in a previous post, we have to make a book, based ondrawings which the lecturer expects that we already have. Most of the students do, I’m sure, but I don’t, so I pretty much have to start from scratch.
After considering a cloth book of the kind babies have, either one made for babies or for adults, and a project book of embroidery designs, I’m now leaning towards a commonplace book.
Commonplace books were a little like journals, in that people wrote in them things they want to remember, but instead of dates, appointments etc., or what they did today, they would copy out parts of whatever they were currently reading and wanted to remember. Housewives might write down recipes, household tips etc., and scholars would put down whatever struck them about their current study. The idea goes back to the 15th century maybe, and I think is having a res-urgence with the practice of blogging. When I googled the term I came across this blog called commonplacebook.com, which is a perfect example. Another reason to be impressed by this blog is the fact that it has archives going back to 1998, there’s persistance and dedication for you.
I’ve an idea in my head for my book. Originally a commonplace book would have been just blank, for the user to write in, and since I’m supposed to be showcasing my drawing that isn’t going to work. So I’m going to divide it into sections, with an illustrated front page for ech section, probably with an illuminated capital letter at the start of the section heading, then a simple line drawing for each. There will be decoration on the front cover and the front and end papers of the book, and probably also a title page inside. I’m planning that the blank pages will have hand drawn lines on them for writing on, and also hand drawn numbers with maybe a little decorative motif on each. My head has been buzzing with ideas, at the moment I’m leaning towards Art Deco style, and I’ve been immersing myself in books from the library and images online of Art Deco themes. I’m particularly drawn to the fonts, and also decorated lettering for the front of the book and the title page. All of these will have to be hand drawn, but I’ll probably scan them and print them onto the pages of the book so they will be more permanent. This probably involves laser printing, or commercial photo printing, I have to research the possibilities.
My head has been so busy with this that I’ve probably been neglecting other things I should have been doing, such as writing. Writing group meets in 10 days, at the beginning of March, and I’ve only half written my article. I researched online, and found a magazine which I think might publish it, and since it was very reasonably priced I’ve subscribed, to get an idea of what sort of writing they publish. I haven’t received the first copy yet, but it’s too early to expect that really since it’s coming from the US. I’ve written most of the article, just need to fine tune, and possibly find some images. I really need to get it finished this week though. Plenty to do as always!

Art Project – Oh, the possibilities!

10 Friday Feb 2012

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The first class of the drawing course I enrolled in was on Tuesday. It’s not pure drawing, but how to select and apply techniques and media to represent a concept. It’s part of a qualification in Applied Environmental Arts, so I assume that the intention of the unit is to teach students to create proposals in response to a brief and similar things. It is what I would like to be able to do, to get the ideas for projects out of my head and onto paper in some form, but I think I may also have to go to other classes just to learn how to draw. All the other students already are drawing, and there was a worrried look on the lecturer’s face when I said I didn’t actually draw!
Still, in my mind if you are learning to select and apply techniques and media, implicit in that is the word ‘appropriate’. In fact I’m surprised it isn’t in the title, it seems to be almost everywhere. In my case appropriate means simple, probably just line drawings, since I’m going to struggle to do anything else, and that is what I shall select. Problem solved! Seriously though, there is a one day workshop coming up titled ‘Learn to Draw in a Day’, and I’m thinking I should enrol in that too.
The project we have to do for this semester to pass the unit is really interesting and thought provoking. We have to produce a book of some sort, the lecturer’s idea being that the other students all have lots of drawings which they have done just for their own interest and enjoyment, and he wants them to bring them together with a theme, story or something, and produce a book. In my case of course I have no drawings, but I do have quite a few scraps of embroidery hidden away which I have done at various times, and I think I might use that as a starting point. I could hardly sleep on Tuesday as my mind was just buzzing away, and I have a few ideas already. I went to the library to borrow some books to research in, one topic being bookbinding as I thought a hand-made and hand stitched book might be one possibility. I could even really go overboard and make paper, I’ve done that before.
I also thought about producing a cloth book, like babies have. Whilst looking up printing on fabric I came across this site, which is absolutely amazing. Called Spoonflower, you can upload your own images and have them printed onto fabric which is then sent to you. It’s reasonably priced considering, and imagine the possibilities! Even if I don’t end up using it for this project, I’m sure I could think of a use for it in future. Possibly it might be something Red Hats could use.
I transferred all my old photos onto my new laptop at the weekend, so here is a fairly old picture. It’s Bilbergia nutans, I think commonly called Queens Tears. I’ve always loved the combination of colours in this, the pink, lime green, yellow and bright blue are unusual in the plant world. The flowers aren’t huge, only about 4 to 5cms long each, so you have to look closely to appreciate them. In our climate the plant is as tough as old boots, and needs virtually no care whatever, which is always a plus!

Drawing Class

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Well, yesterday I signed up for a drawing class at TAFE. It’s not pure drawing as such, the name of the unit is ‘Select and apply media and techniques to represent and communicate a concept’ or some such phrase. It actually sounds as if it’s just what I need, since I want to be able to draw my ideas for craft and sewing projects. First class is next Tuesday afternoon, and it it every week for the semester, until June.
Looking forward to it, it will be a challenge for sure, since I’ve never done art classes in any shape or form. I did do Art at high school for about three years, but looking back on it now I cannot for the life of me remember what we did, and I’m pretty confident that drawing didn’t figure in it at all. I do remember being extremely bored with Art classes, and getting out of them as soon as I could to do cookery instead, which I must say has stood me in much better stead over the years! I still regularly make some of the recipes from school, in particular lemon meringue pie which is in frequent demand at family occasions.
I went to the art supply shop after enrolling, although I don’t know what supplies are required, but just bought a small box of pencils and a visual diary. I was astounded by the prices of some materials, I knew they were expensive but not that much! Conjures up images of penniless artists struggling to find money for pastels and paint and canvas. A lot of famous ones did of course, and presumably the less famous ones these days still do, until they get discovered.
No picture from me this time, I need to get all the old ones off my old laptop and onto this one. Instead a blog I found with some lovely pictures from Melbourne – http://victoriaaphotography.wordpress.com