Repeats

I took some of my drawings and repeated them in different ways using PhotoShop. So nice to do this quickly on a computer unlike the old days of photocopy, (which involved going to the copy shop!) cutting out with scissors and gluing down.

And just for fun I made this little composition of several drawings.

Abstraction by Isolating Details

I've taken some of my drawings (see previous post) and isolated small sections to give more abstract shapes. The fork above is starting to look like a stylised reindeer to me!

Needle-Felted Desert

A few weeks ago I went to a workshop on machine needle felting, also known as needle-punching or embellishing. I have the Janome needle felting machine. Unlike a sewing machine there is no thread but several barbed needles which mesh the fabric together to create a felt. You can see it demonstrated in this video.

I've finally finished the piece by adding free motion stitching using rayon threads. Here are some close ups.

Mixed Media, Melted, Printed and Sewn Book

My textile art group have been talking about combining techniques in new ways. I wanted to make something using all of my favourite things; printing, stencils, acrylics, free machine embroidery, and melted fabric.

I used Indian cotton rag paper -  Khadi paper- which is available in sheets and books. This paper is amazingly strong and thick, it takes all type of paints not mater how wet and can be sewn through on a machine.

I started with some gesso and gel medium through some stencils which was allowed to dry before watery acrylics and metallic watercolours were applied on top. More acrylic was scraped, painted, stencilled and stamped on. Once it was all dry I cut and ripped into the book to remove some sections. The pieces I took out were all put back in a different places. I fused some acrylic felt and organza together and fused it onto the Khadi paper (see previous posts). I pinned water soluble fabric across some of the holes and free machined over it before washing the water soluble away. More machine stitching was added in other places. 

Drawing and Tracing

Here are my latest sketches and tracings of glasses and kitchen utensils. I like how they look altogether.

Sketching

I've been trying out the Creative Sketchbooks Course from Design Matters TV. I already have a weekly video membership and the workshops are always interesting and inspiring.

My first task for the sketchbook was to draw some reflective objects from the kitchen. At first I thought "blah boring" but I tried it anyway. I understand now why reflective objects were chosen. It's much easier to concentrate on light and dark tones without the confusion of having a coloured object. There are plenty of different tones in these reflective objects and I'm pleased with how they came out. I used graphite pencils in B, 2B, 3B, and 5B.

I find that doing a blind contour drawing first makes the final sketch come out so much better as it gets you into looking carefully. I did a blind contour for the bottle opener below.

The glass below was drawn from a photograph that I had taken and then manipulated in PhotoShop. I pasted the drawing onto the photo, it's surprising how accurate it actually is!

Photographing Glasses

I photographed some glasses in my kitchen cupboard. I liked all the reflections and the 2 different colours of glass. I've imported them into PhotoShop and played around with some effects. Next I'll do some drawing.