Good Design Nature!

Sometimes when I'm hiking I see something like this and stop.  And all I can think is "Good Design Nature!"

I mean really, you could totally steal this design and it would work, in any medium.  Makes me think that  I really should copy what's around me more than I do.

The redwoods make me feel so small and insignificant sometimes.

 Finally the lime kilns, which are barely standing up anymore.


















Sitting on top of the lime kilns are two siblings who hadn't seen each other in a while.

And two nature lovers (my husband and I).

Black & White Designing

Recently I got the opportunity to teach a short workshop for the great quilt group I belong to, CQFA. I chose to present a design exercise from Katie Pasquini Masopust's great book "Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter" that I really enjoyed doing myself.


This exercise is all about line and composition and uses pre-fused black fabric and a white fabric base. For this first one, the instructions are to cut up one of the pieces of black fabric into strips of various widths and then to arrange those strips so that all the edges are parallel to the edges of the base fabric. No diagonals allowed.
Before beginning you are to select a composition type from the book's nine designs (diagonal, vertical, horizontal, asymmetrical, symmetrical, circular, radiating, grid, frame) and keep that composition in mind as you make your design. I chose asymmetrical for this one.

The second exercise uses the scraps left over, a different composition type and you are to only place pieces on a diagonal.

I chose to try for a diagonal composition for this one.

The third exercise has you cut up another piece of the black fabric into only curves, trying hard not to make a specific shape (circle, leaf,etc.). I chose a radiating design for this one.

In the final exercise you chose another composition and use the scraps from the previous exercises together. I was going for a grid composition with this one.

Once you are all done designing, you fuse the black fabric down and have a very useful record of your design work. Give it a try, I think you'll find that taking color and texture out of the equation is very useful to make yourself concentrate on making a good solid composition.

Holding Still

I'm participating in a group study using the book "Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter"
This is written by quilt artist Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker, a fine art painter and teacher. It makes for a different kind of how-to improve your quilt design book because of this partnership in presenting the information. Basic art concepts presented with the quilter in mind. Because it is such a different medium than drawing or painting, learning to make that connection with the basics can be hard to master.

This is what I've accomplished so far from the Contour Drawing chapter.

First step is to set up a still life, lit with a strong light from one side so that you get highlights and shadows. This particular one was rather pungent, what with the very ripe banana and spicy onion. I had to restrain myself from eating that fat little mandarin orange while I was still working with the still life setup.

A blind contour drawing, where you hold a paper above the one you are drawing on so that you can't see the drawing so far. This helps keep your eye on what you're actually drawing.
You really have to concentrate on the shapes and how they relate to one another.

A contour drawing (no shading), this time able to look at the paper.

Then using pre-fused fabric, doubled up , then you freehand cut the basic shapes out, no marking, just cut with the scissors.

Using one set of the shapes, you make a fabric still life. Fused straight down onto the backing fabric. I found that I cut most of the pieces too big and had to trim them down to fit onto the backing fabric size. Also, don't forget to remove the paper backing from the fused fabric before you cut, I made this mistake and then had to sit there and pick it off of each and every little fiddly piece.

Using the other set of shapes you create a composition that is pleasing to your eye. This is a diagonal composition (could you tell? hope so!)

Lastly looking at the still life, you free-motion stitch directly onto a white quilt sandwich (top, batting,backing). This is quite similar to the contour drawing. Except of course, you don't draw any guide lines or marks, you are just using the sewing machine to draw. It was easier than I thought it would be.

I was interested in how the reverse of the stitched still life looked.

Next chapter is Line and Shape, which I'll post about once I've actually done the exercises!

Seeing

This is how my camera saw it.
Here is how I saw it. (through the lomo-izer on dumpr)

My eldest son is noticing that his photos with his digital camera aren't the same as what he sees with his eyes. He started using a film camera recently too, and is very excited about how much closer the film images are to what he sees. We've been having an intense discussion about this lately, which is pretty cool. How important it is to be able to get across to another person what exactly we see, how it makes us feel, and how much we want someone else to see something similarly. It turns out that this issue isn't just about the science of rods and cones in one's eyes, or how the lens on your camera gets the image to the film or the memory card.

I am loving checking out Jane Dunnewold's Daily Visuals blog. She has such a great and thoughtful way of analyzing imagery and pointing out design inspirations from any source image. I really appreciate her ability to share what she sees.

Have you tried This Is Sand?? If you ever enjoyed making those layered sand pictures, this is the no-mess internet version. It even has the sound of falling sand. Very fun. Oh and addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I found the link through COLOURlovers. A really comprehensive look at colour and design and pattern, very wide-ranging and thoughtful and, of course, colorful!http://www.colourlovers.com/