Not Afraid of Color: September 2022

Friday, September 30, 2022

watching paint dry.... and learning, always learning

For this week's painting round up, the focus is on learning... doing things differently but as always enjoying color!

I am taking two intensive workshops with 3-4 hourlong videos each this week. It's sad when good things overlap and a person has to make a choice of what to leave behind. I started a lot of paintings this week, and hope to get to them later but a few things were made.

the owl seemed plain til I thought to add in mice! The cut out word was done on an index card, then cut into a leaf shape, a calligraphy word and some leaf drawings then taped to the piece, sitting on the mantel now

new pens!!!

speaking of calligraphy I'm signed up to take a free workshop next week and tried my new brush pens. I like them a lot!

the workshop this week, CreativeU asks each presenter what color they usually leave off their work.

I like all colors, except beige...and although I enjoy vibrant hues and saturated color, I am finding a use for the quiet, neutral colors where there is less contrast. It seems to be peaceful and allow the viewer to complete the picture.

one presentation on illustration, said to paint with a watercolor back ground in all colors, then paint over the negative space...

I painted two backgrounds, then in darker colors the negative space leaving the pretty colors to become the image

next time paint darker color around the images

the top index card is the leftover from cutting out the fall leaf at the top of this post. I glued them to the card, and painted around the bits...

Kind of amazing that trash can become more...

it's all in what you see when you look at it...

since I can't really share the starts to lots of projects, I'll show you the last one. I do a lot of female portraits, and have developed my way of starting them. This presentation from Willowing's Life Book taster sessions, had a different approach. Just start laying in blobs of color... made me uncomfortable and I don't like it but...they don't all work, and there is beauty in all

dh's reaction wasn't positive... "your other portraits are a lot better" he said. I know, but it's a different approach. I'm using a new paper to me, Dick Blick brand 90 lb watercolor paper. Very inexpensive for learning on, don't worry about wasting it, but it absorbs the paint like crazy. The colors dry to paleness.

colors are much more intense in real life the photos are washed out

I think her technique deserves more attempts later, and like the quick line drawings done in staedtler black ink pen.

More videos today, can't keep up but I can try....

linking to: face off party!

Gillena(lunch break) of art

Thursday, September 29, 2022

I Like Thursday #d 317

the trees are starting to color up

must be the shorter days, and slightly cooler nights

I love fall colors

reading

I've read all of Dr Weiss's books, and need healing right now. This has been a life of pain...

Finished the Grace Kelly Dress on audio and it was so good... now listening to the charming story while working in the studio....

sewing

on a gift of leftover scraps from The Colorful Fabriholic (LINK) We both made the kaleidoscope quilt last year (mine is basted but not completely quilted) in Fall colors. Jan sent me her cut offs and I'm having so much fun making quilts from them... a tease...as this is the tip of the iceberg of what I've made so far....

watching on tv

finale's of a few shows, start of New Amsterdam, Amazing Race, Survivor. Sadly we are still in season 3 of Offspring out of Aus. and netflix is about to stop showing it. Know where we can see it?

painting

lots and taking two very heavy workshops running at the same time... paint post tomorrow

I am showing you a palette I bought on amazon that is very handy. I mix up colors to use in a painting and if there are any left, they stay put in the triple fold case. Link

Our prompt this week is to share health and beauty aids you like...the first ones are lancome face cleaner that smells great and is gentle. The shampoo is one that fluffs up my terribly thin straight hair. I also love the scent, and use his lotion too.

it's dry here, and ever since I was a little girl I've dealt with violent nosebleeds. If I remember to spray my nose each night, and put in some ayr like the ENT specialist said to do, my nose is healthier. I discovered arnica which helps with pain and bruises. Okay, I've daubed it on terrible bites too.

Our feet crack here in the extreme dryness and bee bar lotion is just about the only thing that keeps them in check. It's a solid bar you rub over dry skin, and is gently scented ( I like citrus) and I've been using this lovely product for years now.

This video is so touching....

and I'm now officially obsessed with this animal chiropractor. I've seen his videos working on cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, and more. I wish he would work on my body pain...what a talented, strong healer, with such a love that he'll kiss a horse on it's nose during a treatment.

Milo's Moment

Milo: it's still hot and sunny here even though Mama said it was gonna get cooler

Mama: the weather predictions were for cool but they changed back to hot despite it being officially Fall now.

Milo: well, I still want to go outside, still like to chase my ring toy at least twice before finding shade. I still like to get treats out of my wishbone toy at night and my teeth are getting cleaner! Oh, and I like ice cream after it melts!

I like to walk at night in the dark but am afraid of all the critters out there. I am being very independent and getting on and off the big bed using the chair the pawrents put there for me.

when I was a young pup (3 1//2 months old) I got injured when a big dog leapt onto my shoulder and tore ligaments. It took almost a year to heal after surgery and the dogter said to not let me jump.

to tell you the truth I'm kind of afraid to even step down onto the chair, then floor but I'm doing it!

now please visit mama's friends to see what they liked this week. Tell us if you wrote a post too

http://littlepenguinquilts

craftscaviescontras

https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/

the knitty quilter

https://lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com/

princess bubbles creates

https://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/

https://100sweets.blogspot.com/

https://whataboutrheema.blogspot.com/

http://3poodlesandanana.blogspot.com

https://www.homesewnbyus.com/
https://quiltschmilt.ca/blog-posts/

https://knittingquilter.blogspot.com/

https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/

http://www.piecefulthoughts.com

https://www.mmmquilts.com/

LINKING WITH

https://brianshomeblog.com/

http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com

thankful thursday

friday smiles at a stitch in time

floral passions

rosie and the boys nature pics

Saturday, September 24, 2022

my creative week: watching paint dry , sewing, and weaving

For this week's creativity round up I have quilt making, drawing, painting, and weaving to share!

The finished top of X blocks above is pressed and ready to pin baste then quilt. Still not sure what to quilt. I've been seeing stars this week in studio. The color of the month at RSC is light blue and here is my twinkle block for the month.

pattern source superscrappy

I use scraps and find some botanicals to use when I can. The center was a scrap I tried out a stamp on.

uses the tri rec tools

see the group of colors so far... how shall I fill in sashing for these? I need ideas since I'm not very traditional and this is a traditional quilt setting. Help me to not put the finished blocks in a bag for "later"

I also made in blue scraps, the pattern https://www.americanquilter.com/media/AQS-pattern-104%20(1).pdf

"wish upon a star" pattern

all are being done in color of the month, from reproduction feed sack scraps. So far...

It is a lovely block, makes a pretty quilt, but sadly isn't too fun to make. Very fussy with templates that curve so are challenging to cut and sew, set in seams etc. I do love the look and don't know why I'm having so much issue with it lying flat on some blocks. I'm not new having made quilts for about 40 years and watching my granny make quilts before that.

next is a bit of drawing....pen and ink

I tried gesture drawing (on my desk calendar page) in brush ink pen... love them. I got the idea after seeing a stencil for sale online with similar but better done shapes. Stencil Girl store, the designer selling stencils is Valerie Sjodin. I realized it doesn't take much effort to do a simple gesture drawing.

Next up is an index card painting. The idea was to draw around your watercolor paint lines, that are not usually noticed. Where one color bleeds into another. Outlined here in either stabilo crayon, black ink, or pigma ink in blue. I used quinacridone gold (my current favorite color) fushia and coral.

after that dried, I followed the blended color lines with ink, then added in marks with brush pen, white gel, and gold gel pens. While it's not my usual style, it was interesting, making me look closely at blended color lines. After I finished I looked for recognizable symbols... I see mountains and distance, petroglyphs found on mountains, an old gold mining map.... gosh. The colors blended into a southwest feel from really saturated ones when wet.

it's small, didn't take long but kept my interest to the end. Looks different horizontally

So I finished all-but-sewing-binding-down two more wall quilts this week which I'll share next week for Table scraps reveal. I broke down and used a rich beautiful rust color for the fall piece, and blue scrap strips for the other tropical UFO, a sample from teaching a kids class years ago.

While cleaning off the cutting table and studio space, I came across a baggie of these string scraps

I questioned my own reasoning in keeping them, and decided they were pretty. But I felt like using them that day and thought....what if I wove them. So I did, and put fusible scraps on the back

and hung the group on the design wall... O. M. Dog. I LOVE them! I instantly saw a tree...

and that's how the next project came to be born!

I'll do that again I think, it's such a surprise to see what shows up since I wove it upside down so I could put fusible on it. I love the impressionist feeling. I like that one longer strip of green was used over and over instead of different fabrics each time. I see the value in repetition, an art principle. The challenge will be to make myself leave the straggling edges instead of tidying it up. Can't wait to quilt it!

last up, a card made for a friend...