Fun with pastels

A chalk drawing of a chalk drawing  :)

 I did a little bit of art this past summer, but not much. I just struggled with finding the time and motivation that it would take. But, by the time the kids went back to school, I felt like there was something in me wanting to get out. I finally took an afternoon and did this drawing, abandoning all responsibility. It felt good and I think my mood improved too. I need to remember that. Art is kind of a therapy for me, I guess.

This drawing comes from a photograph that I took the night before my sister's wedding. I love the photo, so drawing it was very fun. It seemed appropriate to use pastels, since it is about chalk drawing. I can't think of any medium that would have worked better. This was my first attempt at doing a person with pastels. It is a bit tricky getting skin tones right. I am learning though, and it has been fun.

Batik

I love Batik material. I think it is beautiful and I love the rich colors and variety of designs. I decided that I wanted to make a batik quilt. I found a pattern I liked and worked on it over the course of a few months. Piecing quilt material  is a bit more meticulous than the soft stretchy minky. Minky is very forgiving if you screw up. Cotton is not. I think the quilt turned out pretty good for it being my first "real" quilt. Doing corners and triangles was a bit tricky and there are definitely places that a real quilter would say "tsk tsk" to. The machine quilting isn't great either because there is bunching in some places. But, I did learn a lot. There is a design I really want to do next but it is really complex. I want to do it in blues and greens - many of which are batik designs.  I need to just find the time now to get going on it.

This is the quilt I did. I was happy to see that, when it was put all together, I loved the colors and the design. After cutting and sewing all of these pieces, I kind of got tired of the individual squares. but putting it together was almost like getting a new quilt with fresh new colors I hadn't seen before.

Portrait number four

 Because Olivia was home sick and I was stuck here, I finished Madeline's drawing.

And here are all four together. I really like them :)

Quilts

In November of 2010, a friend of mine called me and asked me if I would like to go to the store with her to help pick some fabric for a quilt she was just finishing up. I thought, "sure, why not, I don't have much else going on". I had no idea what this would lead to.
First of all - some background. My Mom made quilts off and on while I was growing up. They were mostly taking two large sheets or pieces of cloth and putting them together and tying them. I am actually not a fan of tied quilts - I don't like the texture of the yarn. Silly, I know, but the yarn has always bugged me a little.  When the kids all left home, my Mom got into quilting more and she started doing it more often. There were more pieced quilts, and many baby blankets for donating to the Humanitarian center. I kind of always thought of quilting as something "other" people do, but not me. It seemed like an old lady thing or something. Silly, but that is how I felt.
Now, back to the quilt store. When we were looking around, I saw a quilt hanging from the ceiling. It was a very cute pink and brown quilt made of the softest material I had ever felt. I fell in love instantly and said, "I HAVE to make this quilt."  As I look back, this seems so ridiculous. I knew nothing about quilting. I sew a little, but not much, really.  I bought all the material, got some basic instructions and had my friend show me how to cut the pieces. Let me explain that I had no idea you could get these rulers and cutting wheels for making straight cuts. I seriously tried to make a quilt once by hand cutting all of the pieces. It was SO bad that I never got past the second row. Now I understand why. There was no uniformity at all.
Well, I made the first quilt and my youngest child decided it was going to be hers. "Okay" I thought. No biggie. Well, of course, then my other children wanted one, so I made more. Then I made one for a girl who babysat for us, and one for a friend with cancer, and one for my sister, and it just kept going. I loved quilting. Most of them were made with this soft material called Minky. I branched out to a regular pieced quilt, but that is part of another post.  These were all done in the course of a few months. I kind of went a little crazy and bought a new sewing machine and everything so I could do this. I took a break for awhile, through the summer, but when the school festival came up and needed auction items, I made three more. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos.
Here are some photos of the quilts I made:

 This is that first pink and brown one that I fell in love with

 This brown one was for my son

 This (above and below) was for my daughter. The top was made from flannel and cotton and the bottom was minky. I know they don't really match each other, but this is what she really wanted, and this tiger minky material is so amazingly soft, we just couldn't resist.

 I made the one above for my daughter, and the one below in similar color schemes for my sister.

 This one (above) I made for my husband

And another portrait

I am really enjoying this portrait thing. I am learning a lot as I go and I think these are improving over time. I have been in such a mood to do art lately, and it has been fun. Unfortunately, other things get set aside that probably shouldn't, but I guess it all gets done eventually, and the house hasn't fallen apart yet.

There is a little story to this particular drawing. When Jeff and I got married I had this picture in my head of a boy, about 7 years old, with a baseball cap on. And, he looked a lot like Jeff. So, it was no surprise when Jonathan came along and he looked a lot like Jeff.
This is that boy. And, he happens to be seven.

Another portrait

Well, it sort of looks like her and sort of doesn't. I can't figure out what I need to change. I have looked over it many times. The one thing that should be fixed is that her hair is not that full and thick. But, all in all, it is better than the last portrait of her. I found out that I may be able to take an art class from someone who does portraits for a living.  She is really nice and I think that she could give me some pointers. Hopefully I can make that work in the near future.

General Conference Art

 This is the result of an afternoon watching General Conference in April 2011. I listen better when I am doing something with my hands. I thought it would be fun to attempt a landscape drawing, so I tried this one of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. My husband liked it so much that I framed it and it hangs in his office at work. I hope to do 2-3 smaller companion drawings to go with it on the space on his office wall.

 After writing my post about portraits I decided to try doing Olivia again. I like this one better. It actually looks like her more than the other one.

I did this one today during Conference.  (October 2011)

Portraits

Ever since I had my first child, I have wanted a pencil drawing done of them. I have looked into professionals doing it, and it costs a TON of money. My sister in law offered to do it as a Christmas gift one year and she did do one of my youngest daughter, but never did the others. In the mean time, my kids get older and older and I felt like I missed my chance.
In the beginning of this year, a friend of mine and I got together and started reading a book called "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  I will probably write a post about that another time - that book really changed things for me, especially with my art. I was talking to this friend, however, about how I love drawing but I just can't draw people. I would love to have a drawing of my kids, but I just can't do it.
And, she said "yet".
Yet. A simple tiny word, but it has so much power. I can't draw people YET. That means that maybe sometime I COULD.  So then I thought, "well, I have wanted this for so long and apparently it is not going to happen unless I try to do it myself.  I guess it won't hurt to try. What is the worst that will happen? I will try and hate it and throw it out."  What has kept me from trying all these years? I don't know. Fear of failure, I guess. It seems so silly and so simple.
Well, I decided to give it a try. I took a photo of my daughter wearing her Luigi hat - the photo is SO her. And I drew it. Now, I still look at this drawing and I see lots of things wrong with it, BUT - I did it. I drew her, and it does catch the essence of the picture and of her personality. Then, I tried my son. That one worked out really well - it looks even more like him. Then, I did my other two daughters. They both wanted pictures of them when they were younger (though now I want to do some current ones). Again, I look at them and I see things that are off and disproportionate, but still, they aren't too bad, and they do look like my kids.
But the best thing I got out of all of this was confidence to try. And to try again. And, if I don't like it, I will try again. The only way for me to get better is to keep doing it and keep learning what works and what doesn't. In the mean time, these drawings hang in my childrens' rooms for them to see. I think they like them :)

What I did in art class

The attendance in my art class, which was already small to start with, dwindled down to just me most of the time. We were originally going to try various mediums and rotate through requests with the students so that everyone could try what they wanted. I don't mind painting and pottery, etc, but my love is with drawing. Because I became the only student, the course objectives changed. We started drawing with charcoal. It was back to the basics with boxes and balls and a lamp. But, I did learn how to better use chalks - they work very differently than pencil. I had never really done much with charcoal and pastels before, and this opened up a new medium that I really enjoyed. I think I still like pencil the best - you can get tiny little details in with pencil that you just can't do with pastels, but I have enjoyed trying some pastel drawings and I think I will continue to do them. Here are some of the drawings I did in class:

 For most of the semester after we finished our little statues we did drawings like this - find something in the studio - mostly stuff like boxes and balls and art supplies - and draw it during the class.  I like lines and shadows, so the upside down stool seemed like a fun challenge.

 This is the first time I got to use something besides black and white. We added some earthy colors into the drawing, and I really liked it. Because this went well, we moved into color drawings in the second semester.

This last one is my favorite. The teacher thought I was completely insane to set up such a complicated still life. I did it while she was on the phone in another room. Because I had started drawing, she didn't try to change it. Otherwise I think she would have made me do something different. Maybe it was just a silly act of rebellion at the time. I love cloth and I wanted to try something bigger and more interesting than just boxes and balls. The art studio was also part of a theater, so they had all of these random things available for a still life. My only regret with this is that, when I finished, I got up to wash my hands and while my back was turned, the teacher grabbed some pastels and adjusted one part of it because she thought it should be done differently. I was so shocked I didn't say a thing. I wish I had. I don't think anyone should draw on someone else's art, especially without permission. It is a pet peeve of mine. Now, I am more cautious about it and hopefully if it happens again I will say something before it is too late. Every time I look at this drawing, I see the one part that isn't mine. To me, my teacher owns it.  It is too bad, because I worked really hard on this drawing over the course of several weeks, and I like it otherwise.