A long busy Fall and early Winter

Well I think I owe my blog an apology for neglecting it for so long.  I'm sorry blog!!
Studio Tour was a success.  Sold lots of quilts and had lots of fun.

Then the Hill 'n Hollow Quilt Show in October.  Great fun.  I actually got several ribbons and was surprised that the judge liked my quilts as much as she did.  It is gratifying to be recognized by someone out of my normal ballpark of acquaintances.

And then I just plain stopped quilting.  Haven't touched my sewing machine since late August.  I think that I worked so hard on quilts for the museum show then the studio tour then the quilt show - that I was just worn out creatively.

So instead I have been filling my well of inspiration with on-line classes.  Classes in painting faces.  With acrylic and watercolor.  And learning a LOT about shading - things I had heard but had never really understood.

Taking classes in an area where you are a complete stranger - and a bit of a klutz - is really scary!!  Really really really scary!!!  I am used to creating in my own little backyard of skills - knowing what I am doing - not really taking serious jumps into new experiments - and was surprised at how Fear of Failure kept bubbling up.

Luckily the on-line teachers I found were marvelous and I found my way and learned new things.  The next question is will I be able to apply this new information to my quilting?  I don't really know the answer to that........

Learning Flow with Jenny Grant

 I have signed up with several groups of artists and periodically they link to free classes by different artists who create with a variety of techniques.  This project was a free class by Jenny Grant.  She is a wonderful artist and I love her work.

This project was done on an 8x10 canvas board.  It started with collage and then paint and then stamps and then drawing the face and then painting the face and then adding texture paste at the top.  WHEW!!!!

A lot of techniques in a small space.  The face is like her sample and it turned out to be pretty striking - very peaceful and meditative.  People react very positively to it.

The thing that I learned is to be BOLD with the contrast between the light and dark in the face.

I liked the free class so much that I purchased a set of her classes focusing on a variety of methods to create faces.

This is my attempt using the same basic techniques as the first one but with my own drawing.  It is OK but I liked the first one better.

This is done on watercolor paper and it is surprising how much wet stuff that paper allows.

And this is another one of the techniques.  You trace a face from a magazine and then paint it.  Boy did I run into problems with this one.  And learned a huge amount when I got stuck in some ugly places but kept working to find my way.

This one is actually more MY style and not Jenny's style.  Which is a good thing I guess.  I want to find ME - not just copy another artist that I like.  I still have one more technique of hers to try.  Maybe soon......

Abstracts with Emma Pettit

A completely different class.  The Raw of Silence with Emma Pettit on Jeanne Oliver's site.

Let me start by saying that Jeanne Oliver has the greatest collection of on-line art courses imaginable.  I have taken several and am always impressed by the quality of her teachers.  Check  it out!

So this class was a real stretch for me.  It is about painting abstract portraits.  I am NOT an abstract artist.  I don't even think in abstract ways.  I am super concrete and detailed. Wow oh Wow was this different.

But I learned HUGE amounts.  Like trusting the process.  Believing on my very own self.  Allowing creations to go thru many stages.

The first class used a large 18x24 watercolor sheet divided by tape strips.  You paint with wild abandon all over all of the sheets.  And make marks.  It felt crazy.  It is the opposite of everything that I do with fabric!

What you end up with is a cohesive group of backgrounds to paint over.  Yup.  After all that work to paint these designs that you like - you are going to cover them up.  Oh my.

 There is a photo of a lovely young lady to work from.  But you are not supposed to try to make it look like a photo of her - but instead you try to make it an abstract representation based on her photo.

This is my attempt.  Wait till you see what happens next!

On the second square you sort of let go of the initial image and just stretch to be more abstract.  The goal is to open up and capture general shapes and shadows.

So the pretty lady does not look like a lady at all.

Can you see bits of the original background painting showing around the face?  I like that part of using acrylics.

And here are the other two drawings from this set.  The one on the left is my effort to get very abstract and let go of a realistic representation and sort of go with the flow.

I actually sort of like this individual.  I wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley...... but he is interesting.

The one of the right was even more abstract - losing definition in the eyes.  My least favorite.

Next Abstract Challenge

Continuing with the abstract class......

This is a large painting - about 20x24".  HUGE for me.  It started with a very complex background painting.  Look at the swimsuit and you will see what the background painting looked like.  It covered the entire page.

So here is the trick that I learned.  You do the background and then you look at a photo of a person and then you draw a very simple sketchy outline - abstracted of course (in this case shifting the angles and size of the shoulders and hips) and THEN you start to paint around the outlined shape.

And, as you start to paint, the figure sort of pops out of the background.  Then of course I had to add paint to differentiate between the swimsuit and the skin.

It is really fun and almost magical the way it works out.  I want to try it again. You can see the background showing thru at the edges of the painting and the finished painting looks so much more complex than it would have if I had just painted plain paint colors.

How can I apply this to my quilting?  Do I even NEED to or WANT to?  I'm not sure.  Maybe this is another thing that I will do in  addition to quilting.  Maybe not. 

Do I Look Like That???

Next abstract class challenge -----

A self portrait.  A LARGE self portrait.  Oh my goodness.  How scary.  This is 19x24".  Which means that you need to use larger paint brushes.  Yikes.

The assignment was to take a selfie and use that as a model but not try to be photo-realistic.  So.... I tried to be very brave and this is what my self portrait looks like.

When I finished and stood back I was shocked and somewhat horrified.  The question that came to mind was "OH my.  Is that what I really look like to other people?"

I realized that when I look in the mirror I see myself as about 20 years younger (and less wrinkled and less OLD looking) than I really am.  Oy vey!  What a shock.

BUT - that said - the portrait turned out better that I thought it would.  It looks like a person.  It has shapes and contrast.  And it really does look sort of like me.

Wild Backgrounds Add Depth

Next abstract class......

Another large portrait.  Again starting with a very complicated and layered background.  You can see all the mishmosh of colors and squiggles with just the sketch peeking thru.

The challenge for this one - in addition to being a portrait - was that there is a hand in the photo.  And you are supposed to paint the darn hand.

Well.  If you thought noses were hard to paint (which they are) you need to really stretch your imagination to think about painting a hand.  Goodness.  I almost decided to paint the rest and skip the hand.

Then I thought - what the heck!  If it is horrible I can just throw it away.  Who will know?

This is how it turned out.  The hand is not good.  It looks like sausages.  BUT I am going to go back and work on it some more.  It needs knuckles and maybe a larger palm.

Do you think that I am brave for posting this photo when I am not satisfied with the end result?  It feels very brave.

I do think the face turned out pretty good.  I am getting braver about shading.

And look at how amazing that wacky background makes the finished painting look.  It really does add a lot.

Watercolor Animals

So I took a break from the abstract class and switched gears completely.  This is a watercolor class.  I know nothing nothing nothing about how to use watercolors.

The teacher is Lexi Grenzer and the class is Less Is More: Watercolor Animals.  Another good teacher from Jeanne Oliver's site.

She teaches several ways to get the background sketch for the animal on the page - and then starts to show you how to layer watercolors.

This little guy turned out sort of - but looks very flat.  I do like his ears and his nose and his eyes.  But he needs more of a neck or something.  I do think that I will try to paint him again.  

Once again I am aware that a lot of basic things that others know are simply not part of my knowledge base - and they make me struggle with simple things.  But the struggle is definitely a learning process which, when I am not feeling tortured, makes me happy.

There are several other animals in this course - a tiny baby chick, a duck and and a cow.  I'm not quite ready to try them yet - but maybe when the weather gets cold in January it will be a nice break.