Drawing the boys

Normally 6am - 10am is my most productive time of day, when I get all the various household jobs and errands out of the way. Lately, however, it has been so hard to get going in the morning, which leaves me frustrated for the rest of the day. Of course, the ongoing hot weather hasn't helped! 

It's time to make some changes to my day, though, to allow myself to start out a bit slower in the morning and save some energy to tackle some of the household tasks later in the afternoon. So yesterday, once the bigger children had gone to school I sat myself in the playroom with the boys and my sketchbook for 15 minutes or so.

 

Caleb and Daniel loved  me being there and I managed some little sketches of little boys playing (amazing how many different postures that involves).

 

 

 It was a most relaxing quarter of an hour, and helped to set the tone for the rest of the day (sounds rather psychological, but it worked for us!)

Drawing, thanks to my modelling team

Tuesdays are currently no-sew days for me. The plan is to focus on my various drawing projects instead. Today that meant a quick before-school photoshoot. 

Thankfully I have a live-in modelling team.

 

 

Today's illustrations dealt with blaming others and self-examination. Thankfully artistic license enables me to wipe those self-satisfied smirks off those faces!

After a day of drawing, I'm looking forward to getting back to my sewing machine tomorrow!

Caleb draws Jeremy

 

Over the weekend I was thinking about all the various drawing 'tasks' I have to do over the coming weeks, and about how nice it would be if Caleb was more interested in drawing, so that he could join me. Unlike Aaron and Hannah who were always busy doing art and craft at this age, Caleb is perfectly content to play with his really useful engines all day long. 

 

Then yesterday, out of the blue, while he was busy with the trains and their friends he suddenly declared "Mummy, I'm going to draw Jeremy" and off he went. 

 

I love the fact that instead of drawing a stereotypical plane, he put Jeremy next to his paper and drew what he could see - exactly what every high school art teacher drums into his/her students...

 

Now he's back with his engine friends. I'm curious to see when the next artistic urge will strike.

Artwork in the mail

 

I got some pretty awesome mail this week. Sometime ago I asked my 3 year old nephew to draw me some people. He must have gotten inspired last week!

 

I love to see childrens' early drawings of people. It's fascinating to note which important features they pick up on. Like the fact that the drawing below is clearly Hannah because she has much longer hair than the boys do.

 

And here is my favourite... Can you guess who this is?

The caption says "Ruth's boys being all silly pretending they are octopuses". (I didn't guess either).
Thank you very much for all the lovely pictures, Sam! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sketching boys at play

Besides eating, I have also spent some time in my sketchbook over the last couple of days. I've been trying to draw children playing.
Sometimes I like to try this 'from memory' but I find that then my drawings become very stereotypical. There really is no substitute for referring back to your subject matter and drawing what you see. Because the boys were in bed, I referred to my photo collection and found these...I love noting the various angles of the head, wrists and ankles, and the tongues sticking out......the fingers working to place the trains just so, and the position of the knees, chest and bottom working together for balance......all working together to create an infinite number of poses depending on the activity of the moment.Now wasn't that a sneaky way to include way too many pics of these gorgeous boys (and their daddy) in a post about sketching! Have a good day...

How I make my quilts

My plan today included showing you further progress on my 'school' quilt, but I didn't get around to taking photos while there was still daylight. Instead, far too much time was spent doing battle with Blogger. We made a bit of headway this evening, so now I can tell you that at the top of my blog there is a new page titled 'How I Make My Quilts'. People often ask about my quilt making process, and this new page gives a general overview of the various steps involved - designing, cutting, piecing and quilting. Maybe one day when I'm not quite so mad at Blogger, I will upgrade the images to a larger size, but I'm afraid these smaller ones will have to do for now!
Please check it out, and do let me know if you don't understand what I have written!

Inspired

There are so many eucalyptus trees here at our new house and on our new street, that I have not been able to resist the urge to work on some new quilt designs.
As I go for my morning walk, I keep seeing clusters of leaves hanging 'just perfect' for a quilt design, so I feel a few more of these coming on in the next little while!

Forming habits

Sitting in hospital gave me a lot of quiet time to think about priorities, and establishing good habits and daily routines. There are various things which I have long tried to make a part of my regular daily routine, but for which I have a whole range of excuses for not getting to them regularly enough... So now I have made myself a little reminder card in my diary, which lists five regular daily activities which I want to introduce into my day, or improve on in my day. These include paying more attention to my skin and hair (like actually combing it in the morning - I told you the other day that hairstyling is not my strong point!), daily pelvic and abdominal exercises, regular exercise in the form of a walk or bike ride, personal Bible reading and prayer, and also a drawing a day (or thereabouts, excluding Sundays)... So far, pretty good, all things considered! For example, I have 5 consecutive days of drawings in my journal now, and am also enjoying doing them!

Baby steps

I am happy with the beginning of my 'drawing habit'. It is already becoming an easier thing to do, and ideas are becoming firmer. Now to see if I can keep it up for a while!

To make a habit of drawing...

There's something about being pregnant that makes me want to establish some firm goals - I suppose it's probably something to do with the idea that in a little over six months this household is going to be turned upside down for a while! In the past, my goals have included completing certain 'milestone' quilts, or holding my exhibition.

This time my goal doesn't relate to specific quilts or exhibitions. I am often frustrated that my drawing skills are so limiting. I have many ideas in my head which I really struggle to get onto paper in a visual form. Part of this struggle is not being confident with my drawing abilities. When it comes to drawing for and designing a new quilt, I spend a whole lot of time staring at a blank page, which seems wasteful to me.

So what I would like to work on in the next six months is to train myself to draw more easily (and hopefully, through this, to learn to draw better). I'm not initially concerned about the drawings being perfect, but more, that I learn to draw regularly, without sighing, or wasting time looking at an empty page! I hope that if I make drawing a habit, I will have a better supply of current sketches and ideas from which to work.

In my drawing, I am inspired by many children's book illustrators. Some favourites include Shirley Hughes (I love the way she captures everyday moments in such a warm way), Graeme Base (I love that there is always more to discover on a closer look) and Shaun Tan (I love his attention to detail, and use of collage-like techniques in some books).Two other books I am enjoying for their illustrations and graphic design are :"The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish" and "Pink Piglet".

Three little monkeys

Today I am going through old sketches and making new sketches, to formulate some of the quilt ideas in my head. This is often a bit frustrating, as I don't feel as productive as when I am busy cutting and sewing fabric. I have already spent a lot of time looking at an empty sketchbook page this morning, as I try to get my ideas on to paper.

Beginnings

The beginnings of a new quilt... If my 'quilt' posts seem unrelated and a bit mixed up its probably because I usually work on several quilts at a time, at various stages of progress, with several more quilts brewing in my mind!