Peeking Behind the Easel – Page 6

The daffodils are in full bloom here in Pennsylvania! I love watching them open and turn up towards the sunlight. I had to stop and grab my pencils and capture their simple beauty.

The weather is still iffy with rain, so I took some photos as references to work from. I start my drawings with a very loose sketch with a HB graphite pencil of the basic shapes of the flowers and leaves. For a small drawings, a clip board is a great tool to mount the paper on.

I worked with 4B, 5B, and 8B soft graphite pencils. 4B is my favorite because it is just dark enough to get great contrast in the details and still be able to lift it off with an eraser to create lighter areas. I started in the negative space between the leaves to establish the darkest parts of the drawing, and began laying in the stems and leaves. Stay tuned to Part 2!

January 9, 2013

Kathy

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A New Fresh Year

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel

2013!

Time flies when things get busy! The holidays are over, 4th quarter is finished, as are wholesale orders, my favorite clients Christmas orders, studio has been scrubbed clean, and things have settle down a bit. I love the freshness of a new year : )

As I am working on several private client orders, let me share a some pet photos.

These guys are my part time doggies who hang out with me during the day. Meet Delilah and Sherlock.

My college aged son took in an injured cat, who began to look a little fat…..yup. Kittens….. and not just a normal batch of 3 -4 . Nope she had 6 (!) healthy kittens. Recently petless, I offered to take two:

Meet Finn and Cleo And then one more kitten needed a home, so now it is three.

Meet Dora with her sister kittens.

All the kittens and dogs get along great and have fun playing together. The kittens look forward to the dogs arrival in the mornings and then play like crazy together when we are dog free in the evenings. They are all really fun and I enjoy their antics and sweetness. No pets allowed in the studio keeps things under control so I can work and keeps my studio clean. And that is a peek behind the easel… actually from outside of the shut studio door. 🙂

July 3, 2012

Kathy

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New Years Resolutions……?

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel

So how about those New Years Resolutions?…… Oh yea, forgot about those! : ) Anyone remember what yours were?…. I’ve forgotten mine….

Ok so now that I cheated and looked up to see what they were…. Blog more often, oh yea….. that one needs some work. And the one that says paint one new painting a week needs more work too. The last one that about getting more organized is actually one that I’ve had quite a bit of success. Yea!

Opening a second shop this spring derailed the first two. Should have made that a resolution! I forgot how much time it takes to open a shop, all the writing that goes into a shop – policies, profile, descriptions for new items….making items and starting from scratch promoting the shop. But it’s all come together and I’ve even made my first sale! So as we are half way through the year, I will resolve to blog more, paint more, and sew! Hope you have had better success with your resolutions…. if you remember what they were!

May 18, 2012

Kathy

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Purple Clematis Wall Hanging, Part 2 Finished

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel, and Sewing: Finished Bags & Pouches

It's finished! What fun this quilt was! Take a look and see what you think : )

My favorite parts are the painted clematis and the quilting. I used a heat sensitive pen to sketch out the clematis across the purple and white blocks to use as a guide for the quilting on the side panels.

I'm ready to start the next one! You can find this quilt later this morning at my SibStudioSewing shop at Etsy

May 16, 2012

Kathy

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Purple Clematis Wall Hanging, Part 1

Posted in Peeking Behind the Easel, and Sewing: Finished Bags & Pouches

I rarely used a pattern when creating a quilt. I usually have an imagine in mind and the trick is figure out how to make the imagine a reality. If I am designing something way out of the box, I use the tracing paper sheets taped together to draw out the actual quilt and proceed to make the pattern pieces. In the case of this quilt, graph paper worked just fine to draw out my design.

The little notebook on the right has the quilt idea that I am working on. I sketch out sewing ideas the same way I do for painting ideas. The graph paper has the nuts & bolts measurements and design for this quilt.

I wanted the quilt to be a vertical rectangle with a center panel of painted flowers. The sides will be narrow strips that picked up the colors of the flowers. The main color will be white to give the over all quilt a fresh, bright, contemporary look. I have finished the center strip of painted flowers.

I used photos of clematis taken in the yard as my reference. Stay tuned to see the finished quilt – it is almost finished!

Category: Peeking Behind the Easel

Daffodil Drawing, Part 1

A New Fresh Year

New Years Resolutions……?

Purple Clematis Wall Hanging, Part 2 Finished

Purple Clematis Wall Hanging, Part 1