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Step 27. Visit friends

On an Artist Date at the Met yesterday, I visited some of the pieces I've drawn in my current sketchbook.

Step 26.More kid stuff

I couldn't resist a package of Shrinky Dinks when I saw them at the store, and I took another walk down memory lane by making some yesterday. I bought the frosted sheets so I could use colored pencils rather than the slick sheets for markers, and I traced images from my own sketchbook drawings. I put a coat of clear nail polish on them after baking to prevent scratches, but I don't think that would be necessary for the slick sheets. All around, not an environmentally-friendly project.

Even though I know what happens with Shrinky Dinks in the oven, I still squealed with delight watching the plastic curl while it shrinks and then go flat again. It's a very cool process to see. I stuck my two Shrinky Dinks on my key chain.

Step 25. Like a kid

I felt silly buying a painting kit for myself, but I really wanted it when I spotted it in a gift shop. The kit was something I would've liked as a kid, and I indulged myself with the purchase. And, I figured this would be a good way to try painting, which I've been wanting to try lately.

First came the leaves. I missed the firmness of working with a pencil and I missed mixing colors right on the paper. I did like that I could paint a lighter color on top of a darker color once the dark paint was dry, though.

By the last leaf, I got the hang of the brush and paint.

Painting the blue flowers was the best part of the project. I need to find some blue morning glories in my neighborhood so I can sit by them and draw them in blue, glorious blue.

I should've stopped after the flowers, but the kit included gold leaf for the background.

Eh. This part was clumsy, though the photo picks up flaws that aren't as noticable in real life. I'm not crazy about how the project turned out, but I had a blast making it, and I re-lived childhood excitement of working with a new kit. I don't think I'll be in the market for another kit for awhile, but I will try painting something on my own now that I got a start.

Step 24. Dress it up

The knitted flowers at the Knit, Purl, Sow exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens got me thinking. Instead of dressing up a gift with ribbons, I crocheted garlands of flowers and a couple of curlicues.

Inside the gift was the stitchery piece I made for my sister of one of my mom's favorite sayings.

Project complete.

Step 23. B is for Bee

Back in my little pocket sketchbook.

A friend's writing plus Sakai Hoitsu (again) inspired me to draw this little bee with flowers. 

Step 22. Ah-choo!

I'm stuck at home with a bad head cold. To keep myself occupied between sneezes and coughs, I used my Morning Pages notebook to do some sketching.

I drew a detail from another Sakai Hoitsu painting. The leaves in the painting are different shades of green, and it was fun to blend colors to match them. But, I am craving some real leaves to work from. 

Colored pencil in Eccolo World Traveler notebook.

Step 21. Love is in the air

I've been spending the morning hours this week stitching Valentine hearts.

Embroidery on wool felt.

I was originally inspired by zentangle hearts. I tried making some tentangles of my own to use as a pattern for my stitching, but I'm not zen enough to pull them off. I'm guessing zentangles are supposed to be relaxing and free, but I was stressed out thinking up doodles.

Instead, I free-styled these hearts with the needle in my hand instead of a pencil. I started with a French knot in the middle of the heart and just kept going around in circles until the spaces were filled. The white one went much more quickly than the red one because I copied the first pattern and didn't have to think as I stitched along. That was zen for me.

I got ideas from a heart tattoo I saw online and also from my bedspread. The bedspread was a convenient inspiration as I stitched these mostly in the early morning hours.

Happy Valentines Day.

Step 20. Keep up traditions

I like to make felt creatures for Valentines Day. I usually make my own design, but this year I bought a pattern to download  from craftsy.com, which has some really cute projects.

Wool felt is a forgiving material that doesn't mind a little tugging or stretching, and can be worked and re-worked without showing wear. My cats like to sleep on whatever project I'm making, and I have to guard it or keep the lint roller in constant use. I bought this batch of felt from Magic Cabin.

These little monkeys are surprises for Valentines Day, and I worked on them on the sly this past week.

All done.

Step 19. Find inspiration

My notebook sketches, inspired by artwork by Sakai Hoitsu, whose work I visited at the Met this week.

Step 18. Back it up

I added a dark background to the design based on the ancient Roman floor mosaic. The color blue was a nice treat to use. I usually draw plants and don't get use to use a blue like this very often. (The lighting in this photo makes the blue coverage look uneven, but it isn't.)  I've had trouble with white flowers on white paper in the past, and using a dark background color solves the problem. Plus, the repetitive and easy task of coloring in the background is calming and meditative.

I definitely want to do some more borders and scrolls. It's been great fun doing this one. 

Step 17. Break it down

Different people do things differently. Go figure.

When I have a project to do or a day to plan, I need to break it down into tiny steps. Other people don't do that - they jump right in and manage to do a bunch of things at once. That's great for them, but it's not how I work best. 

I know it's popular to multi-task and it seems like most people like to work that way, but that style feels like chaos to me. Focusing on one task is much more comfortable for me, and finishing one step motivates me want to keep on moving to the next. 

A border design of an ancient Roman mosaic I saw at the Met inspired me to draw it. I worked at it step-by-step this week, mostly in the early morning (thank you for helping me wake up early, Andy Traub).

Colored pencil on paper, inspired by Roman mosaic at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

I'm not finished yet. The next step I want to do is adding a dark background, which is a new thing for me. I half-expect that I'll ruin the drawing in the process, but that's okay. I'm more interested in trying to add background color than I am in saving this drawing. 

Step 16. Benched

I had an art lesson with Matisse last week. I noticed a Matisse painting in front of a bench on my last visit to the Met, so he was my teacher that day.

I started my sketch with the hair because the shape was simple to copy. As I moved on to the robe, arms, and shoes, I realized everything was a shape. I guess that's a basic thing to know, but it took drawing it for me to get it. I saw a triangle here, a rectangle there. Drawing the outline was like fitting puzzle pieces together. My sketch didn't match Matisse's perfectly, but then again, I'm not Matisse. I'm a student learning from the master.

In the end, I could finally make out the black outline of the chair. Matisse's background is black, and I didn't notice the woodwork on the chair until after I looked at the painting for a long time. The label next to the painting says that Matisse was intrigued by using black as a color. That's a lesson I'll learn another time. This lesson was about seeing shapes.

Julia Cameron writes in The Artist's Way, "Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite - getting something down....We're not doing; we're getting....Instead of reaching for inventions, we are engaged in listening." I thought about that quote as I made the contour drawing. I felt like the lesson of shapes was falling right into my lap. All I had to do was be there to catch it.

I also thought about the saying that a teacher will appear when the student is ready. I won't complain when the teacher who appears is Matisse, even if he appears because I was ready for a bench to sit on. Maybe I'll create my own course called Masters at the Met by Benches, followed by Great Artwork Close to the Restroom.

Laurette in a Green Robe, Black Background by Matisse, 1916. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Step 15. Tools of the trade

A pencil and some sort of paper to write on - that's the extent of my concern about what tools to use when drawing. 

I don't pay much attention to remembering brands or qualities of materials I use, but I decided to take things more seriously and pay attention to the materials I use.

This weekend I went to a couple of  art supply stores to pick up some things I needed. The colored pencils I purchased are by Faber Castell. Faber Castell makes a few types of colored pencils, and the ones I purchased are polychromos. The colors blend well, and they are oil based. I also bought a couple of black pencils Prismacolor Verithin. I like the Verithin pencils because, well, they are very thin. I can sharpen them to a super thin point, which is great for a precise lines. 

After my little shopping spree, I stopped at a coffee shop and couldn't resist trying out the new pencils. I made a drawing in my lined notebook, using a Flair felt-tip marker to outline the design and the new color pencils to fill it in.

The design is based on an ancient Roman mosaic I saw on a recent visit to the Met. I liked how the pencils worked and I started a more detailed version of the same design when I got home.

Step 14. Catkins on your ears

I grew up in a house with a huge birch tree in the front yard. The tree's catkins were part of many childhood games and a were a source of wonder. I still like finding catkins to examine or draw.

When I saw the catkin earrings at the Jewels by JAR exhibit at the Met, I was instantly smitten with them and had to make a quick sketch.

Clip-on earrings by JAR made of sapphire, bronze, silver, gold.

Nature drawing on a cold, cold January day inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yes, life is good.

Step 13. Sketch

My Artist Date was back at the Met this week. I went to the Jewels by JAR exhibit. The guard said, "No photography allowed," but I didn't mind because I was there to sketch.

My expectations and interest in the show were low, to be honest, and I went only because I wanted to try something new for me at the Met. In the end, the show did disappoint me, but some pieces absolutely appealed to me.

And speaking of a peel, this piece was my favorite. 

The orange part of the peel is made of garnets. It sparkles like crazy and the colors are gorgeous. The white part of the peel, in between the orange strips, is enamel. The orange blossoms are diamond-encrusted. But it's not the gems that attracted me as much as the shape and color, and most especially, the attention to the beauty of an orange peel and blossoms.

The artist, JAR, has many pieces based on plants and flowers, and I loved every single one of them. I liked them because they were not simply generic "flower motifs," but looked like botanical studies in gemstone. Botanical studies are what I love best, no matter what the material used. 

I only wish there was some information about his attraction to the natural world and the inspiration it gives him. There was no information provided, and that is a big disservice to the audience, and frankly, super lame for a museum show. 

I wasn't interested in his pieces that were "regular" jewelry designs, and I didn't care for his animal pieces, but the plant-inspired pieces made for a sweet Artist Date.

Step 12. Moving along

I'm moving along with the stitchery project. The quote I'm stitching, "What's the good word" is something my mom always said as a greeting. My mom passed away a couple of months ago, and I made this project for myself in her memory. I decided to make a duplicate to give to my sister.

Since I made the design myself and didn't purchase something ready-to-stitch, I had to get the pattern on the fabric. To do that, I first made it on regular paper and then taped it to transfer paper. My transfer paper has been in my sewing box, unused, since Home Ec classes in junior high school, but it still works just fine.

 

In the picture, the yellow is the transfer paper. It comes in different colors, but this is what I had in my kit.

I then taped the transfer paper, with my pattern on top, to the fabric. I used a ball-point pen to trace the pattern. The pressure from the pen transfers the yellow to fabric.

Yellow on white was too faint for me to see clearly, so I used a colored pencil to trace over the yellow line on the fabric. I used a pencil to match the color of the embroidery floss, and I worked only one letter at a time so I wouldn't rub the pencil lines as I stitched.

The orange letters are filled in with French knots and the blue words are in stem stitch, which is my favorite embroidery stitch. My mom was an embroiderer and I learned the stitches from her. 

Step 11. Wake up

I'm regaining a long-lost habit of waking up early in the morning to work on creative projects. A big coffee-cup cheers to author Andy Traub, author of The Early To Rise Experience, for helping me do it.

The project I'm working on now was first inspired years ago when I saw embroidery work by artist Andrea Dezso at an exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design. In her Lessons from my Mother, Dezso stitched sayings from her mother. I loved the pieces and they've stayed in my mind since I saw them in 2008.

When I traveled to my hometown a few months ago, I knew I wanted to stitch something on the trip. My mom taught me to embroider when I was a girl, and she certainly had many sayings to stitch, though they are quite different than the sayings Dezso had to work with. My mom had an eternally sunny personality, and saying, "What's the good word?" was how she said "How are you?"

So that's the saying I stitched in the hotel room for the days surrounding my mom's funeral on my last visit home.

I'm now working on a second piece, copying the first one, as a gift for my sister's birthday. Normally when I make a gift for someone, I'm scrambling to finish in time and pulling a few all-nighters to get the piece finished. But, I'm not doing that this time - I'm working it stitch-by-stitch in the early morning.

If my mom were here now and asked me, "What's the good word?" I would tell her about how great the mornings are and she would agree.

Step 10. Copy.

For my Artist Date this week, I trekked to the east side and made a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I discovered the Safavid tile panel in a gallery I hadn't visited before. There was a bench directly in front of the piece, making an irresistible invitation to sit and sketch for awhile.

As I decided what to draw from panel, I thought the rocks in the painting looked like frogs....well, looked like brightly-colored frogs disguised as rocks getting it on. I chided myself for such a silly thought. But, as I drew, and as I looked at all the birds and bees, and overly large blossoms, and vessels scattered about a luscious garden, I realized I was sitting and starting at a very sexy piece of work. It wasn't what I expected, and being surprised makes for a perfect Artist Date. Makes for a perfect day in general when you think about it. Who wouldn't be delighted with such a sensual surprise, as long as you're patient enough to receive it.

I happened to be dressed to meet the tile panels on my Artist Date. The flowers on the tiles were similar to the flowers on the skirt I wore on my sketching excursion.

Step 9. Finish

I finished my drawing of nuts. From left to right: walnut, pecan, hazelnut, almond, and that crazy Brazil nut that didn't want to cooperate with being cracked open neatly. But, it worked out. Abrigado!

I've been setting the alarm to wake up an hour early in the morning to have to work on projects. That's how I finished this project, by getting up early and working bit by bit every day with my morning coffee. It was easy to work slowly with this botanical drawing, of course, since the nuts don't wilt or change from day to day.