BIG PATTERN

 With the help of my husband, I sent a file of my Big Flower drawing to be printed out onto paper the actual size I want the quilt to be.  

I picked it up from the printer today.  Two big pieces that I needed to splice together.

Here it is, in the studio, taped together.  Now to trace it onto freezer paper.

MULTI ROUTER BLOCK

Okay, I finished the Multi-router block.

Here is my original drawing:

SNITZEL CHANGE

In my last post I showed how the 'Lines' Snitzel looked after I had attached the pieces to the background using acrylic medium with GAC 900 added.  It wasn't dry yet so the colors looked completely different.  I wasn't sure it would dry looking like that, but fortunately it didn't.  When the acrylic had dried and I ironed it to set it, the colors were very close to the original look.

Here's the first photo I took of it:

And here is the photo I took after I added more lines around the eye on the left and adhered the pieces to the background.  They are more or less permanently affixed now:

The colors are very similar.  I think the only difference is in the lighting or exposure of the different photos.

I really think adding the additional lines to the left eye helps it alot.  I'm not sure where I'm going with it next.  I'm still letting it simmer.

EXPERIMENTING WITH LINE

I thinned down some black acrylic paint and had some fun making 'lines'.


Looking around the studio, I thought there was not much to choose from, but looking at the results, I think the experiment was very successful.  I made a variety of lines using just whatever was available.


I highly recommend you try this yourself!

Cellulose Sponge

My morning Starbucks drink straw.

I took a little strip of fabric and rolled it up and dobbed it in the paint, that's on the left.  In the middle, is the same fabric roll after I frayed it with an Exacto knife.  On the right, a cap off my acrylic paint tube.

A Hammer, the harder I hit the more interesting the mark.

A strip of Linoleum with a Jute backing.

Paint Brush.

A Phillips Screw Driver, the Drink Straw with a cut-tip, and a piece of String.

A Putty Knife.

A Screw (I like the little circles).

A Pointed Stick, Small Pallet Knife, Rubber Tip for Pastels.

A Rubber Finger-tip, a Fork.

A Stem on the left, and a Leaf.

My Valentine's Day Rose....

and then I cut the tip of the rose off, and dipped it in the paint and rubbed it on the paper.  You can kind of see the red on the paper.  Then I used it as a stamp.  

So much fun to be had with just the stuff on hand!

A DAY OF SNITZELING

Here's my second line drawing Snitzel (yeah, I know, I said I'd do this one last!).  I went with this one because I had done the page of little colored drawings.  So, throwing dignity away I jumped right it.  I went to all the trouble to cut each piece out of freezer paper, then fold the seam allowance around to the back and iron it down.  My poor cooked fingers.
Afterward, I was thinking, why am I doing so much work!?  Especially on one I don't even like that much.  It also took way too much time, and I still have to sew it down.  I'm leaving it in this condition until it gets critiqued in this weekend's class.

And, on to the next one:

I've been thinking about this one a long time.  I had definite ideas.  I had a little piece of canvas left over.  I mixed up some black acrylic paint with GAC900, the fabric additive.  It dried overnight and then you have to iron it (or heat it) to set the acrylic into the fabric, making it pliable and sewable.

I gathered my solid-like Batiks that are light colored and set to work.

I realized this exercise is all about the LINE.  I think this one emphasizes the line.  At the moment, the pieces are just spot glued to the canvas.  I'm still thinking about which direction to take it from here.  I have several ideas.

SNITZELS - MORE FUN WITH COLOR

I've made progress on my Snitzel work this week.

I did some more colored-pencil work this past weekend on two of the other drawings.

I also finished up the Boots drawing in fabric.  It's funny, I spend all this time with the little color drawings as above, and I don't have the fabrics to make it in.  I need a trip to the fabric store.

Going with the fabrics closest to the color drawings (although, most all of my fabrics have 'patterns') I used Freezer Paper, cut out the shapes, and ironed the seam allowance around to the backside of the freezer paper, where it would stick it.  The original plan was to hand sew the pieces together.  Its been a long time since I did any applique, so I was a little rusty.  

Today, I took the remaining pieces to the sewing machine and zigzagged them together.  

Having fun.

FUN WITH COLOR

I scanned my line drawings in Photoshop and pasted a bunch of little ones on a sheet of paper.  I can print out as many blanks as I need....

Here's the first one of the Boot that I colored.  I'm only limited by colored pencils and fabric availability.

This is great fun!  Something I can do in spare moments.

SNITZELS - LINE DRAWINGS

In class we were asked to close our eyes and draw with a pencil on paper for several minutes with our non-dominate hand.  I was thinking about filling the whole paper.  I would feel the edges and try to draw right up to the edges.  I also was thinking about drawing eyes.  I was surprised when I opened my eyes and looked at what I had drawn.  I didn't fill the whole paper like I thought!  But, I really liked the flow of the line and the overall look and 'feel' of it.

Then, we were asked to flip the page over, close our eyes and draw again.    After we opened our eyes.  I picked out an element I liked and repeated it randomly over the page.

From these two drawings, our assignment is to make some snitzels for next week's class.

I took a 2-1/2" window and moved it around until I found areas I thought interesting.  Using tracing paper I traced the area.  I discovered that I needed to eliminate some of the lines and boil it down to the basics of what made it interesting. 

This one is my favorite.  I thought this section looked like a face.  After the first tracing I realized I needed to leave out a lot of the lines because it was too confusing.  I put back in a few of the non-essential lines to add interest.

I can hardly wait to get started on this one.

From the same original drawing, I wanted to make one of the 'eyes'  This was the most interesting and defined.  I left out some of the unnecessary lines.  

It doesn't look as much like an eye as I thought...in fact it looks like a chicken.  So.....

I altered it a little bit to make it look more like a chicken.  I don't know.... I don't do paintings of chickens!

I should give it a try though.

This will be the last snitzel I do, if I have time.  

From the 'Map' drawing, I found four little sections that I like:

This last on is my favorite of these.  I'm very excited to begin. This is the one I will do first, since it's a little easier than the face.

Here we go!

The next step is to translate these drawings into snitzels.   Stay tuned.