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By now you have likely noticed that I'm having lots of fun working with animal images. Whether it's sketching, painting or making soft sculpture, animals have captured my imagination.
Here's a recent lamb sketch (below) and painting. I do love complimentary colors.
I love fortune cookies - the almondy flavor, the three dimensional shape and the fortunes! Here's your fortune for today (taken from my vast collection of fortunes from real cookies)-
Your charm has inspired a secret admirer.
(The punch line is "unlisted")
Like many people, I don't appreciate my own handwriting. However, I recently have wanted some lettering in birthday cards I was making. So, what to do?
My solution is to transfer letters: First, find a font you would like to emulate (such as my fave, CAC One Seventy), and create a document with the font and layout you need for your project. Print out the document. Next, layer your project on the bottom, a piece of transfer paper (such as Saral) in the middle, and your document with the correct layout on top. Draw over the letters on your document. You will be adding your own hand to the letters - they will not be exactly like the printed document. Finally, remove the layers and trace over your transferred letters with a pen.
Once you do have your own handwriting that you like, make it into a computer font with Fontifier.
I was once very involved in teaching, publishing stamped images, and exploring what I could do with rubber.
Someone sent this magnet piece to RubberStampMadness, and I was published again - several years after I made the piece (p. 52 of the 08/09 Holiday issue).
While I don't do much stamping any more, I very much appreciate how my interest in stamping became an interest in collage which became an interest in painting and so on.
What led up to your current interests?
I love fortune cookies - the almondy flavor, the three dimensional shape and the fortunes! Here's your fortune for today (taken from my vast collection of fortunes from real cookies)-
Tomorrow your creative side will shine forth with exceptional ideas.
As I've been working in my sketchbook more, I've become interested in what others do to collect and explore ideas.
I've looked around the web for what others call this process or where they record ideas in the rough. It seems to be a private activity that not too many people share. However, I found a book, An Illustrated Life, that sounds like a journal book but is excerpts from artists' sketchbooks. I appreciate how artists have described some of their thought processes and sketchbook pages in this book.
What do you do to collect and explore your ideas?
I've been discussing how stuffies are constructed, and the third type of stuffie stands on its feet. This construction style often includes an interesting gusset in the bottom to help the legs be configured to stand up.
The piggy shown here is another pattern from the Martha Stewart website made with wool felt. I whip stitched the seams, which has a softer look than the blanket stitch. This guy is stuffed with rice and polyfil, but next time I will try all polyfil. The rice makes his legs a little wobbly sometimes. I modified the ears and made them shorter than the pattern, and I used twist-ties to shape the tail instead of pipe cleaners.
I like this construction style the best for a couple of reasons. (However, I also like the sitting up style.) I like how the head is incorporated into the body (instead of being a separate piece to sew on). I like how they stand up, which I think gives a lot of personality, and I like how this style works with wool felt. That is my favorite material to work with so far. I also have been using upholstery thread for stitching, and I like how substantial it feels. The seams are very well constructed.
Now it's time for me to venture in to making my own patterns! If you were going to make your own animal patterns, what would you make?
This week's theme for Illustration Friday's is pale. That is a tough one for me! I started thinking about the letters instead of the concept, and this drawing is the result.
I'm sure there are many solutions to the word puzzle (change one letter at a time to shift from one word to the other), but mine is dark, park, pare, pale.
Right now I'm experimenting with just pen and ink. I miss the color a little bit, but I like the minimalist idea, too.
See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here.
I've been writing about different construction styles of stuffed animals, and this post is about the "flat out" style where the animal has splayed out legs. The little whale-bunny here is a free tutorial from Kwoozy (pattern here). I slightly modified the pattern by taking out some of the fullness in the front.
This little guy is made from hand dyed wool felt that I found at a local shop. You can barely see that I made a pom-pom out of embroidery floss for his tail. (I make them like this.) I also experimented with using a blanket stitch to give a folk art feel. I'm not sure how I like that on the center seam, but it works well for the edges. I stuffed the bunny with some rice in the bottom and polyfil in the top portion of the body. I like that the rice gives it some weight.
Below is a similar style stuffie from DIY Fluffies on Etsy. I think my version is particularly ugly, probably because of the blanket stitching around the face which eliminated any natural shaping into a flat surface. I also reduced the size of the head. I do love the look of old shell buttons for eyes, and I need to get some darker shell buttons to use.
I learned that I don't think this construction style fits my vision for patterns I want to make myself. But, I love experimenting, so it wasn't a waste of time.
This week's theme for Illustration Friday's is contained. Growing up in Oregon meant no fireflies! I feel a little disappointed that I missed out on catching them. It's a coincidence that I drew bunnies this week and last week. (The runner up drawing was a mouse sailing in a bath tub.)
I'm showing a drawing from the sketchbook because the simple lines appeal to me. Something is lost when they are refined and colored, I think. What do you think?
My goal continues to be to sketch every day. This week has been challenging to find time to draw, but I made up for it over the weekend.
See the rest of my blog here. See the rest of my Illustration Friday drawings here.
