Bella and 'Surrender'

 Okay...so it's not a finished picture, but it's progress.  I think this one might end up being something that I work on digitally, using the tablet and Corel Painter. 

The idea of this is from the ruminations about the word 'surrender'...the idea of surrendering to the blank page, to the process of the work, not to work only with the finished product in mind.  Though I love having finished products (and producing them), having had the shop (Threads in Motion) for all those years helped to dissociate the joy of making things with the need to possess them.  To truly surrender to process, one must not need to possess the outcome. 

Culturally, here in North America, that's a pretty rebellious idea. 

It always amazes me that all the minuscule, incremental decisions and accidents that happen along the way are what ultimately add up to the final product, whatever it may be.  I had a drawing instructor 'way back in College (a College that's now a University...that's how long ago it was that I attended) who encouraged us to make every single line on our page one of intent.  He would not accept 'scribbles', and certainly not as an excuse for shading.  He was, however, the teacher who introduced me to the idea of the 'character of line': that the intentional mark on the page could have uncontrolled elements to it - thick and thin areas, slight meandering within the path, and lighter and darker points along the line.  This 'found' or 'accidental' element within the intent and decision making of drawing is really all about our surrender to the process of drawing...the cumulation of all those tiny decisions.  And ultimately, it's what gives a drawing it's dynamism, flow and personality.



 Speaking of surrender and of process...

(a little heavy-handed for a segue, but it will have to do! :) )

The fleece from last post's sheep is working up into wool of lovely character. 

The singles are about 12 WPI (wraps per inch).  I'm hoping to ply them together into an aran weight yarn.  The first project from this particular wool will be a beret for my neighbour's daughter, in black, as requested.  The ewe that this comes from is named 'Bella', making for a 'Bella Beret'! 

I've spun up 9 oz of the fleece so far, into about 208 M of yarn.  The soft undercoat of the fleece is a charcoal grey, the outer coat is a dense black.  They are coming together into a heathery black colour that is quite lovely.  I keep thinking that the icelandic wool would be beautiful knit up into this - especially in this gorgeous grey-black.

I've completely surrendered to the rhythm of spinning, the process of making yarn.  Each moment gives little chances at decision making for the final product, and opportunities for the yarn to dictate the way that things are going to go. 

As I spin, I can't help but think of the multitude of generations that had to rely on this fibre process, this hand-intensive process, for clothing and furnishings.  To completely outfit a family and home would be a huge undertaking, especially in a climate like this one.  That the health and welfare of the family would rely on the health of their animals is a foreign concept today.  The idea of the wealth of the family being expressed in the quality and quantity of their garments, and in the skill and speed of the family's clothiers...well, it is just not something that we think of in a first-world country where we are so dissociated from the origins of our possessions, the things that give us comfort and protect us from the elements.

Food for thought.

Lisa

Dusty...but not

 All right.  So it's not actually a good response to the 'Dusty' challenge, but it was a challenge to do - and filled my quota for the number of drawings I need to get done in order to stay with my resolution! 

I think I did anthropomorphize this ewe, though...it's her wool that is soaking in the tub and on the drying rack right now.  That hint of a smile is probably a little projection of how I feel about playing with fibre, and how grateful I am to my neighbour and this sheep for the opportunity.

As I've been following the Sketchbook Challenge blog since the beginning of the year, I thought I'd include a progress photo.

Many of the people formally participating in that challenge not only share finished drawings, but much of the messy stuff that leads up to them.

When I know I'm going to be doing a 'finished' style drawing, I will do a bit of a line map before drawing in earnest.  If you click on the drawing at left you'll see some thin, spidery lines here and there that are my visual code to guide the light, shadow, proportion and different 'planes' of the drawing.  I tend to think of the object I'm drawing (even from photos) in all three dimensions...mapping out the planes helps me to keep foreshortening, light and shadow all in the right places. 

In the case of the sheep, it was also about dividing the space between the different textures - there is a substantial amount of space on the sheep's face that has straight hair.  Part of the challenge in this drawing was to create different textures between the different types of coat, the horns, and the eye area.  As you can see in the progress photo, I'll often jump straight to the details that I think best characterize the subject once the initial mapping is done.  If I can get the eye area (often the part of a drawing that we will focus on right away) right along with any other important characterization, the rest of the drawing really only needs to be hinted at in order to be successful.  The viewer's eye will SEE the parts that are tight, drawn to describe the subject, then their mind will FILL IN all the other details.  My favorite drawings are certainly audience participation in nature - and I believe these are also the ones that hold the widest appeal.

So now to go back and rinse out more of these lovely black locks, and to think about my challenge word for this coming week...'Surrender'. 

Happy Friday,

Lisa

Chicken (and skating!)

 

Better late than never - right?  It's my contribution to Illustration Friday's challenge, 'chicken'.  The last couple of weeks have been silly busy with life and skating.  This is the first chance I've had to get myself across the street to photograph some chickens at our neighbour's house - so my challenge entry is two weeks late.  Does this still count for keeping my resolution to draw more?  I hope so.  

Now to do 'Dusty' (last week's challenge) and 'Surrender' (which was in my inbox this morning).

It's going to be tough to focus on the drawing today as my neighbour sent me home with another one of his fleeces - black this time - and I'm looking forward to knitting his daughter a beret with part of it!

Last weekend I was not drawing on Saturday morning because I was here:

 

...at Nelson's first Speed Skating Comp. Our club hosted, and the day was fun and friendly.  We each skated 5 different races, the distances based on our age categories.  Both of our boys skated, too, and DH was an official timer.  It took all of the available parents, grandparents and friends of the club to make this happen - would the world still spin on its axis without volunteers to power it?

:)

 The boys and I combed through the 200 or so photos that were taken of us all out on the ice to analyze for body position, weight distribution and technical form.  It was fun to go through them and enlightening to see, with a critical eye, what we are ACTUALLY doing on the ice vs. what we THINK we are doing on the ice.  For myself, I know that I need to get lower and not allow my upper body to move as much...

Now - off I go to rinse out the soaking fleece, then figure out what I'm going to draw for 'Dusty'.  Hmm.  I have some lovely pictures of sheep here, maybe I want to draw one of them??

:)
Lisa

The Resolution Bandwagon

Yes, this year I'm on it.  The resolution bandwagon.

I don't think I've ever had a formal 'New Year's Resolution'.  In fact, for years, I rather turned my nose up at the whole idea.  What a silly girl.  I used to think,"if there's something I want to change, I will change it' - and, for the most part, that has been true.  I quit smoking without premeditation, cold turkey(16 years ago this month!).  I went back to school, grew a business, sold a business, and made other major changes in my life, all without joining into the western-culture-resolution-thing.

This year I really had a feeling that the only thing that I really lack in my life is the time to do more drawing. Actual drawing. Pencil to paper, no net, no parachute. I know that nothing in my life happens unless it is scheduled in, I have decided to actually TAKE those Illustration Friday challenges that roll into my email inbox each week.

Surprise, surprise.  This week's challenge word was "Resolution". 

Now, I've taken IF challenges before, but never religiously.  I've read them each week for the past few years, and often had an idea sparked from the suggestion of the topic.  I've just not often made good on that idea and actually sat down to make something happen.

Today, I did.

I paid a lot of attention to the process:  all the little things that I did to procrastinate vs. the actual time spent drawing. (I'll give you three guesses which took longer....the procrastination part or the drawing).  It was good for me, as part of my goal setting for something that I enjoy and welcome in my life, to look at all the ways that I put it off - that I avoid that moment of commitment, of putting pencil on paper!  I know from all the schooling I've done over the past few years that the main things that need to be in  place to make a goal happen are to be able to visualize it completed, and to schedule a time in daily life to ensure that the goal is done and not forgotten. My goal is to do my drawings on Saturday mornings (scheduling - check), and my first drawing is a self portrait of me drawing myself doing my drawing (visualization - check).


Not the greatest scan of my drawing, but it's a start.  I realized after doing this that my last couple of self portraits have been my early morning hair, comfy sweater, just-got-out-of-bed-clothes.  I may have to consider (if self portraits are going to become a habit) waiting until later in the day to make the drawings happen!
:)
Happy New Year to you, whatever your resolutions be.  May you hold to them all, and be a happier person for it.

Lisa

Shadows

Today I'm pushing some shadows into the background using a darker thread (Silco cotton 11).

L

Illustration Friday - RED

I know it's a little departure from the ordinary, but here it is: my Illustration Friday contribution. This week's theme is 'RED'. My first thought on reading it was a kid holding his breath because he wasn't getting what he wanted! I talked to my boys about it, after a few poses for photos (what a blast we had doing that!) and a couple of drafts of different pictures, here's the outcome. For those who are interested, it was done with CorelPaint.
The photo I was working from was one of my youngest - NO! Neither of my boys actually ever held their breath in order to get his way. YES! My seven year old looks that ripped!


Don't worry, I'm still quilting!

Cheers!
Lisa

Illustration Friday Challenge

Here's my little sketch about the Illustration Friday challenge "Mask".

A few different images were rolling around in my head most of the day yesterday while quilting, and late last night I got a chance to quickly put one down. This is my favorite composition of them all, I think. I've always been intregued by the idea of masks, a lot of my early drawings and paintings deal with masks in different ways. The sketch is entitled 'dressing room' and the character is getting ready for her day. I've always felt that we all have masks that we wear for different reasons, some that are a result of the situation we are in, some we wear in spite of it, or bring into a situation.

Not very 'quilt-y' I know. Please bear with me!

The quilt I'm working on right now is gorgeous - all in velvets and batiks in rich, dark colours. As soon as there is some good light in here I'll take and post a picture.

Lisa

QuilterGirl

Let's try this again...

I got the scanner working. Here's a much better image of QuilterGirl, in all her pencil glory.

Thanks for all the sweet emails about her.

:)
L