February Challenge: Tone.

This challenge has taken me quite a bit longer to prepare, I will attempt to show you step by step the way in which I have worked. Please remember that you do not have to follow these steps to the letter. You can deviate from this route at any point and/or come back to it; just dip in where, when and in whatever way it suits you, the main thing is to try something new and have a go as it were.

Now, I have chosen a very fiddly picture for my challenge, but I chose it because it had plenty of light and shade. I am going to suggest that you all try something a little easier with less detail. The photo below was a colour photo and I used a basic photo shop programme to take out the colour. As I mentioned earlier, if you cannot do this on your computer send me you colour picture attached to an email and I will change it to black and white and send it back to you. It is much easier to see tone in black and white photos than it is in colour so this is our first step.

As you can see below this picture I have traced my image, there is nothing wrong with doing this, especially as we will be making a series of drawings, it makes the whole procedure easier.

Before we begin to draw the tone into our traced pictures we will look at tone separately, in the photo below you will see that I have made two charts. Each has 10 boxes in each chart, the first chart is shaded with a pencil a good soft 2b or softer would be great. The second is painted with designers gouache which is similar to poster paint. The idea is that you start with white and work towards black by adding and mixing in a little more black for each box.

There should be a steady progression, this will help to train your eye to see different tones. This is a small tonal chart, when I was studying my Art foundation course we had to make one with 20 boxes, but I think ten is enough for now.

Next I took my first tracing and shaded in the different tones in pencil, working from light to dark with as many different tones as I could work out in my picture. In some of the picture the paper is left unshaded, this is the lightest tone.

Then I used the gouache paint to work into my second tracing.

The next stage is to look at one colour, so I used a blue watercolour/blendable pencil and combined it with a 2b sketching pencil, to make another tonal chart. The white of the paper combines with the blue to make the lightest shade and the sketching pencil provides the deepest tone when blended with the colour pencil.

Then, yes, you’ve guessed it, I made another tonal drawing using the tones from the chart above.

Ok, in the last part of the drawing exercise, I’ve worked in the same way, as above but in paint, so here is a tonal chart using black, white and a colour of my choice to make a chart.

Below is the final picture using these colours, I have tried to simplify the image in this last picture as I am going to be working in felt for the textile image. I will be blending my felt, using dark brown and a cream natural fleece and adding a dyed coloured fleece to add the colour back into the tone, probably colours quite similar to this painting.

I am going to suggest that you choose any material or method to make this tonal piece. I can give you some suggestions but I think that you should work in a way that suits you best.

You could make a fabric or paper collage, by cutting up strips of fabric or tearing tones from a newspaper or magazine. You could even make a tonal chart first using these scraps so that you know what you have ready to make your picture. This particular method has been used successfully in schools for many years to help students see tones.

The images above are about the size of a postcard, you can make your images any size that suits you. Now, have I forgotten anything???? Oh yes, email me with a photo if you need it changing from colour to black and white.

If you have any questions just ask, but please enjoy it and be creative, remember you do not have to stick rigidly to this plan this is a guideline only, so long as your work is about tone that is the main idea of the challenge.

Good Luck Tricia x

A wonderful trade and a lucky find!

I've been such a lucky thing this week, I was approached by Lisa to make a trade, she does the most amazing ATC's often using old photos (ephemera.) I was rather cheeky when she asked me what I would like to choose, I asked her if she could make me something special for my Grand daughter who has recently auditioned in the first part of the process for the Royal Ballet School. For those of you who haven't heard about my talented little Grand daughter, she was a Champion Acro Gymnast winning a bronze for her country last year at the age of 11. She has now changed her direction and is doing extremely well training as a dancer and hopes to go very far indeed.
As she works so very hard at what she does I wanted to send her something special so Lisa very kindly agreed to make me an Atc themed to Ballet. She sent me two! beautiful cards and my Grand daughter is just so thrilled and these little cards will be going in frames to go on her wall.

They are simple wonderful images, they remind me of Degas' work, what do you think?

Here is my lucky find, I subscribe to the local Freecycle groups and I just happened to be reading through the offered goods and look what I came across, over 100 Embroiderer's Guild Magazines, for Nothing! There are three decades here, it's an amazing addition to my library and they were being offered by a very nice lady not 15 miles from here and her name is Patricia, well, of course she is a very nice lady with that name, no seriously I was over the moon. These sites where you can recycle like this are marvellous, you imagine if I tried to buy all these. If these sites were not available they might have ended up thrown away, now isn't that an awful thought. Very soon I am going to be having a clear out and I will be advertising a lot of Machine knitting wool and scraps of fabric to freecycle, so hopefully some knitter might be just as pleased with their find. If you are reading this Patricia thanks again.

The last two images are the gifts that I have sent to Lisa, if you are reading this Lisa and you haven't got your parcel yet, don't look if you want a surprise, lol. Lisa wanted a landscape ATC which I have made inspired by a local view. I have also become quite happy making little fabric brooches and there is one below, made from felt and fabric beads and embroidery. Hope Lisa likes them.

Next post will be the February Challenge get ready for some work on Tone.

Best wishes Tricia x

January Challenge

COMPOSITION
No matter what subject we look at to study when we decide to make Art/Design or Craft we have decisions to make. The very first decision that we should make is how to compose our image. Think for a moment what the camera has taught us. It can help to frame your image, this can be done by making a window/viewfinder.

In the picture below I have shown a simple viewfinder that is no bigger than an ATC (Artist Trading Card) I hope that you can see the measurements I have used. The size is not that important but this is a good size to work with. I am also using this size to draw my sketches into, see pictures below. So once you have made this little card window, you can use it to look through and also to draw around to create a box/frame for your thumbnail sketches.

So, now you have made a window/viewfinder (It doesn’t have to be perfect either, it’s only for you to use.)
Don’t worry, if you feel that you can’t draw, tracing is quite acceptable. If you do decide to trace, you will have to make your image slightly bigger, so that your final image is the size of an atc that is, as big as the outside of the frame above. 60mm x 85mm or 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Your subject will be of your choosing, however there will be a theme. This theme will help you to understand two ideas connected with describing a composition. We will look at two words that do this. The first one is Dynamic (this could mean to set an idea of drama in a picture) It often involves diagonal lines, as in the picture below:

Find an image, this is a photo I will be using

Place your viewfinder over the best part of your image that could describe the word dynamic. Here below I have done just this and found diagonal lines in my picture.

Using a frame that I have made by drawing around the outside of my viewfinder I have drawn only the lines that are necessary to describe the idea of dynamic. See the first of the pictures below.

You will only have to choose one of these words, unless you want to do both.

The next word describes rhythm, for this I have chosen an object that I was able to place my viewfinder over. The image below is showing a red cabbage, within this image are wonderfully repeated lines which can be described as a rhythm.

So once again, I have placed my viewfinder over, but in this case I have looked at different possibilities within the image.

Any one of these could produce a really interesting picture, I chose the middle one because I liked the simplicity of the two horizontal thicker lines of the cabbage. Here it is below:
Just to explain why I have asked you to do this, before we go on to what will do with these images, I would like to add, that as artists/designers/craftspeople we have so much choice, even more choice when working with textiles. It is important to start thinking about choice when we make pictures or designs because unless we think about it first, we are not beginning with the best possible chance of a really great piece of work.

Now to the Textile Work:
Ok, so what will be doing with your sketch? Simply this: Make a background that matches the size of your window/viewfinder, in other words the size of an atc. Make this background in any material of your choice. Then using a contrasting thread work the lines of your drawing in a running or backstitch.

To transfer your image:

If you think you may have a problem working these free hand then you can either use your tracing or a fun way to transfer an image onto a flat piece of fabric like cotton is to rub some crayon all over the back of your drawing and placing it over the fabric draw firmly with a sharp pencil to transfer the image. Obviously the crayon has to be a contrasting colour in order to see it. Hopefully your thread will be thick enough to cover these crayon lines.

One last thing that I didn’t mention is that is the orientation of your image. It is up to you whether you use landscape or portrait for your images. Mine above are both landscape. They could have been drawn either way, try your rectangular window either way to see what suits.

So to recap:
* Make viewfinder (Size of an ATC)
* Choose either of the following words

Dynamic (Creating Drama using Diagnols or

Rhythmic (Repeated lines.)

* Find an image that can describe the word you have chosen.
* Place viewfinder over image and find the best view.
* Draw or trace the image.
* Transfer your image on to fabric.
* Using a contrasting thread work over the lines in either running stitch or backstitch.

If you have any queries or comments about this challenge please do not hesitate to contact me. Best of luck Tricia x

Happy New Year

Review of Work.

Just thought I would take a look at some of the work posted to date, it helps to look back at this time of the year. Now I think I might be ready to look forward to 2009. I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all my readers.

I've been tagged! Thanks Teresa. Never been tagged before, so here goes, first the Rules:
The rules of this Tag are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write seven little known facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Teresa lives in the Australian Bush and has some really interesting visuals about this part of the world and some wonderful feltwork to go with it, which is based on her environment. Do go and take a look if you haven't seen her work already.

1. I hate form filling and paperwork.
2. I hate waste, I am always recycling.
3. Yes, that means I also hoard things.
4. I love listening to Music when I am creating artwork.
5. I love ponds, amphibians.
6. I have fallen in a pond more than once in my life, trying to get a better look.
7. Oh goodness this has been hard, erm When I was 16 I was kicked by a horse.

Ok, that's the hard part over. Now I am handing it over to you lucky/unlucky fellow bloggers, depending on whether you like this sort thing. Don't feel obliged if you do not wish to take part.

http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com/
http://dogdaisychains.blogspot.com/
http://everembellished.blogspot.com/
http://jacqcfibers.blogspot.com/
http://joellelg.canalblog.com/
http://shirleyannesherris.wordpress.com/
http://thefabricofmeditation.blogspot.com/

Woodland Watercolours

Ok, now I know why I specialised in Textiles at art college.

Yes, I am quite rusty with the watercolours and I am working from photos, albeit my own. I have never liked working from anything but nature itself but needs must. I am hoping that once I begin to translate some images into felt the pictures will lose some of that stilted look that only working from photos gives you.

The main reason why I am making these studies is to find a formula for working with felt. I am exploring light and layers. I have made this decision in order to discover what is possible.

When I began to look at my woodland photos again today I realised that there are so many different ways I could work. Landscape is a very daunting subject, there is just so much of it. Choice is the hardest thing, when faced with such a subject, it's just so overwhelming.
You wouldn't expect that there could be so many

views in one woodland, I have nearly 100 photos that I took, well, some I probably won't find of use but I need to get a feel for the subject matter before I launch into felt.

Watercolour is the hardest medium of all to master. I have always known this, so why do I choose it. Well, it's a medium that you usually work in layers. In the next view I have taken a photo after the first layer, I waited for this layer to dry. When I work in felt I hope to work in a similar way. To put some abstract colours down as a background and then work on top with more felt. I hope to use all the different aspects of perspective such as those found in watercolours. Intensity of colour, more detail in the foreground, things becoming larger. All of these methods and more can be used in any landscape to provide perspective.

Well, after all this I think I am beginning to loosen up a bit. Here below is the finished work from the one above. I am beginning to really get a feel but it isn't easy. It takes a lot of concentration and I also find that I have to let things happen with watercolour, that's what I mean about loosening up. You need to have control over any medium but with watercolour it is a fine balance between being in control and allowing the medium to do what it needs to do to make the picture natural.

I have some more photos arriving next week but these I believe will offer me something else again. Must keep working. Lots to do. I'll be back soon.

The Weald of Kent In Autumn

It had to be done, all the native trees are turning here in Kent, long behind many non native trees which are already bare. So I had to get out there and take some pictures.

A couple of weeks ago I took many woodland pictures, which I have uploaded on to a new to me picture hosting site (Pixum) Well, I tried out there special offer and found them to be very good value. The pictures were sent pronto and at a very reasonable introductory price. Under £9 for 99 standard prints delivered to my door.
Anyway I went today in what was left of the afternoon sunshine and took nearly another 150 pictures and I placed them into another album, I will get these printed up too, I intend to use all of these photos as inspiration for a body of work on Landscape.

I have only put the first few onto here today, many of those I have taken have focused on the Kent hedgerow. Many close ups included.

Some, like this one above, and the last one below, are views from my rear garden. I am so lucky living in this part of the world.

These are just general scenes but as I say there are more focused ones in the album, like this one below, which are full of texture, light and colour.

I am quite happy to share these images if anyone would like to use them as inspiration for landscape work, all I ask is that I am credited with the source photo from which the work comes. If anyone would like to see the full album or indeed my woodland album, please let me know and I will post you an invitation. Obviously in the Albums you can view them all as a screen show and see much clearer on a larger image. I hope you enjoy them as much as I know I will when I begin to work on my sketches for the work I am planning to do. My idea, is to capture this little part of Kent for posterity.

P.S. here are the sheep from the field at the back of my house, that provide me with all my lovely fleece!!