Daily Drawing : 30DaySketchbookChallenge2020 Part 2

Well I completed the #30daysketchbookchallenge2020   and stuck to the prompts ( mostly) although some of my interpretations  were  a bit  off piste. With the confidence of have drawn for a year, I didn't count it as cheating that some were done in collage, Photoshop, a piece of fabric or a copy of  some artwork done previously rather than   conventional art materials , it was more important that  what I  did   meant something to me or came from my own images . 

Like last year, for January 31st  I did a page of thumbnail sketches ( above) showing my responses to the prompts.  It was great to share my work and to see the imaginative  interpretations  of over 5000 participants (  and several of my friends also took part )     

 Day 15  'Something that Floats'    Day 16 'Something that smells good' 

Day 17 ' Something that smells bad'  Day  18 'Supermarket' 

Day 19 'Technology'           Day   20 'The Four Seasons'

 Day 21 'Reflections'  Day   22 'Cartoon'

Day 23 ' My Hobbies'    Day 24 ' The Zoo' ( woodlice in my compost bin and all the vernacular names for them) 

 Day 25 'Famous People' ( Zandra Rhodes in fluorescent markers)   Day  26 'Fairies and Goblins'  ( ancient goddesses )

Day 27 ' Weird Science'    Day 28 ' Favourite Place' ( Fleet Lagoon while I was there! )

 Day 29 ' Film'  ( Chesil Beach)     Day  30 'Goals'  ( Stitch Samples )

 1 and 2  February  :  Views from underwater camera at Fleet Lagoon;  Streets of Chiswell  

 The prompt for ' My Favourite Place'  was excellently timed for when I was actually at my favourite place, the Chesil Beach visitor centre overlooking  Fleet Lagoon !  And  I made a  good start continuing  in February drawing   while on  holiday in Weymouth.  

Musa's Clinic Online Quilt Sale 02 Dec

I've donated  two 25cm ( 10 inch) square quilts , backed with  4mm felt and a hanging loop to the African Fabric Shop online quilt sale in support of the Sukuta Health Centre in The Gambia.

They both incorporate  Musa's Kola and Indigo fabrics which I've used in  many of my quilts from Tunisian Door to Fleet Mudflats ( I was  one of their first online customers , ordering fabric on Boxing day 1999! )  As with the conservation projects I've been involved with at Kew, a relatively small amount of money can make a big difference.

UPDATE. I'm pleased to say that these sold within  hours of the online sale opening  and will be heading off to buyers in UK and Qatar  soon. Thank You! 

Latest Stitching

Last week I was on retreat with 10 fellow CQ members at Rydal Hall in Cumbria. Excellent company as always ,  and as usual I did some  walking, sketching and hand stitching. Among the projects I had taken along with me was a  12 inch square I'd put together for SAQA Benefit Auction  using leftover from my 'Fleet Mudflats' quilt. Only 3 years late....  This one was sold  for quite a bit of money so hoping this indigo piece will  do well too 

And while I was in 'stitch everything to death'  mode, I finished my February Journal quilt also based on  Chesil Beach and the Fleet lagoon at Ferrybridge . I like putting together collaged compositions as reminders of places I've been - I'm now  stitching into a moody Rydal inspired piece.

Printmaking Week 8 - Aquatint , Develop Your Drawing Week 7

 I was really pleased  with  the effect of aquatint , it  looks a bit like my original watercolours of Fleet mudflats.  I still need to work out  how to disguise the accidental  marks - maybe some drypoint?

  On a scanned copy of my etching  I used some    grey Pitt pens to   colour in areas with 2 different  tones. Then using etching stop-out varnish ( as sticky bituminous  mixture)  on my plate I painted the areas that would  be reserved as white, a counter-intuitive  procedure!

Then donning mask and gloves,  a thin layer of resin was  applied to the plate using aquatint box ( basically a dust cloud of resin! ) I should really have used the stop- out afterwards as it's inflammable and part of the process involves heating the plate from underneath to melt the resin.  





 Then the plate was put in week acid for 15 seconds, more stop-out varnish applied to  light toned areas just etched   and for the darker tone the plate was put in the weak acid for a further 45 seconds.

Then  the stop-out varnish was removed with paraffin ( resulting in this rather nice  effect of the gold of the resin) ) and the  resin removed with methylated spirits. 

 

Then the exciting bit! There was just time to ink up with Prussian blue - I'm getting better at judging how much ink to take off , and put it through the press.  

 

 I'm not sure  I'll want to do etching and aquatint  in  the future,  as it requires access to facilities and there's a lot of processes involved.  But I've gained a whole new respect and insight  into  what goes into an etching and  looked at the prints in the RA summer Exhibition  with a new perspective  on my visit on Wednesday (more in another post)

 

 

The 'Develop your drawing ' class this week  was off-site  around Waterloo Bridge collecting sketches  and information   for a 2 week project  on the theme of Journey.   My sketches really were sketchy but I had a lovely time scribbling .Below are some of the photos I took as a reminder, I'll probably do a bit of playing in Photoshop to develop some ideas for next week.

 



Printmaking 2, Develop your Drawing 1

 A bit of a frustrating morning trying to track down among my packed up studio contents, where I'd put the notes, sketchbooks and materials from previous weeks  printmaking class. I also spent some time selecting images  that might work well for lino cutting this week.  So I should have been a bit miffed that when I arrived at class,  that the tutor  set me and a couple of others doing collagraphs instead . I was delighted  however  as although I was  prepared to do lino again, I  had specifically expressed an interest in  this technique.  Had a fine time  with torn bits of masking tape, scrim, foil, tissue and lots of PVA ( my fingers were very sticky by the end of it). Photos above  and below are  before applying the shellac, based on a  sketch and  photo I had with me of Fleet  mudflats . They should be nicely dry for the next session in 2 weeks time, can't wait to see the results once inked up.

 

In the afternoon I'd had the first of ' develop your drawing' session,   a popular class because  of its experimental approach , there were 15 of us with a variety of backgrounds and  levels of experience.
This first session was devoted to mark- making mainly with charcoal and ink . My easel was already liberally coated with charcoal dust ( and I'd come prepared dressed in black t shirt and jeans)  so I got stuck in with gusto. We folded a large sheet  of paper into 16 and did  studies of  a variety of items, concentrating on trying to express their texture while making each study  as different as possible in terms of marks. We stopped regularly  to turn the easels round and look at each others work. Amazing variety  but also could soon see the development of peoples specific 'handwriting' and vocabulary. There were several sculptors  and  their style was quite distinctive in building up of form. The feeling of landscape was  picked up  from my work, perhaps because most of the objects I chose were organic

ceramic  pitted jar -  rubbed charcoal with eraser

bone - charcoal

wooden spoon  - charcoal, white chalk and eraser

wooden spoon - pencil

resin block - charcoal

Wood - ink

Wood - ink, white chalk

Golden Time in Weymouth

Just  returned for the evening  to our 'home -from-home' cottage in Weymouth after a tasty fish supper of local plaice at the Chesil Beach Visitor Centre, accompanied by golden views as the sun set  

 

 

This was  first place we went to on Tuesday   for a leisurely lunch overlooking the constantly changing colours and shapes of the Fleet Sandflats ( as featured in one of my quilts)   One of my favourite places anywhere, I never tire of it. 

 

 

Well fed and watered , we went into Weymouth for some shopping ( Dorset Red cheese and a new rucksack) , watching all the dogs  being walked on the beach (they're not allowed on in summer so make up for lost time in the winter) 

Wednesday we visited our friends in Wellington, very early start  but lovely to see them ( could have done without the delay at Castle Cary tho')

Thursday we walked across the causeway to the Cove House Inn in Chiswell, Portland for lunch - very low tides revealed sandbanks and it was a glorious sunny day. After lunch we walked to West Weares- amazing patterns of waves on Chesil Beach - they looked too regular to be real!

 Today (Friday) we caught the bus into Dorchester to have a look around the Roman Town House and lunch at the Blue Raddle.
In between walks and eating, not much stitching has been done but I've painted several 'thumbnail' watercolours the  proportions of  this years journal quilts to develop design ideas

 

 

 

I've also just had fun experimenting with recording the variety of weather conditions and looking out of the bedroom window attempting to capture the colours of first light over Portland

 

Fleeting Moments

'shibori 'Clouds

'Shibori' waves on Chesil Beach

You would be forgiven for thinking that our breaks in Weymouth revolve around food and real ales! Today we had the treat of a traditional afternoon tea at the 'Height's' Hotel and Restaurant overlooking Chesil Beach. The first time we've been inside, we usually make our way there at some point for the amazing views.

Probably our favourite spot however is the'Taste' Cafe at Chesil Beach Nature Centre- we walked there for lunch both yesterday and today. I never tire of  watching how the Fleet lagoon changes by the minute, with the tide rising and falling and different light and weather conditions.It formed the basis of my 'Fleet Mudflats' quilt  and I've had various bits of fabric marinating on my design wall for the last few months.

Lots of little waders (Dunlins?)spotted when I didn't have my  new binoculars with me ! 

colourful beach debris 

Seedheads at Smallmouth Bay 

Thumbnail sketches 

The dining table becomes my studio space - scraps of fabric for journal quilts today, mono-printing planned for Thursday (we're  visiting friends in Wellington tomorrow) and beer festival on Friday ( our 3rd)