100 Day Project

 Have you heard of the 100 day project? I have heard about it for the last few years but never participated because I am always so busy. But, guess what? I will always be too busy.

This year, I read that you only need to do something for 15 minutes a day to participate. I have wanted to try watercolour for ages and have dabbled a little but found it very difficult.

I had recently bought a book called Creative Abstract Watercolor by Kate Rebecca Leach. I set up some paints and some paper and made the commitment to paint for 15 minutes a day and follow all the projects in the book. 

Creative Abstract Watercolor

I was hopeless at first, I didn't know how much water to have on my brush or how much paint I was supposed to use but I persevered and I started to get the hang of it. I didn't give up, I kept reminding myself that I am a beginner.

Not only did I keep going, I really started to enjoy it.

Here are some of the pages that I have done. Don't be too hard on me, I am a beginner who is teaching herself.

I have finished all the projects in the book and now have bought an online course called Sketching for Watercolour. I am loving it so far and some days I spend much longer than 15 minutes. 

One of the things that I am enjoying about it is that it is such an easy clean up compared to acrylic painting. I love painting in a compact sketchbook.

I started this adventure on the 1st March and so I suppose the 100 days will finish in June.

It is quite amazing how you can improve by just trying for 15 minutes a day. You have no idea how bad I was in that first week.

I love learning a new skill too, it's supposed to be good for us!

Bye for now,

Linda

Drawing Practice

 The theme for the Waverley Art Quilters this year is Back to Nature. We have a different topic every month to research and draw. Our topics for the last couple of months have been Insects and Birds.

I have enjoyed working in my sketchbook and I think I am improving with my drawing. At least it makes me do it, otherwise there is never enough time no matter how good my intentions are.

Here are some of my insect drawings. I like using a fine liner pen but I sketch lightly in pencil first until I am happy with the result.

Our most recent topic has been birds and I have found them much more challenging. I wanted to start adding some colour to my drawings. The book is only A5 size and because the drawings are not very big, I have tried using water soluble coloured pencils when I have added colour instead of paint. I've tried Derwent Inktense and Derwent Graphitint pencils.

For the yellow bird below, I bought a mini class from Design Matters TV, about drawing birds with watercolour pencils. Mine is very ordinary compared to Linda Kemshall's bird, but I have to remember that this is new to me and approach it with a beginners mind and not be too hard on myself.

I don't spend a lot of time on my drawing, but I do enjoy them. There is still a couple of weeks until our next meeting, so I think I'll try drawing a few more birds to try and get better.

Bye for now,

Linda

Sketchbook Fun

 I have hardly done any sewing for the last couple of months. I am the Convenor of the Victorian Quilters Showcase which is usually held in July but it was cancelled twice and now it is finally going ahead as a virtual show. Instead of sewing, I have been on the computer with my head in spreadsheets.

I actually find it quite overwhelming at times and when I have a break I cannot concentrate on any sewing. I have gone back to the sketchbook that I was playing around with last year and adding to the pages. I had made the sketchbook a few years ago and finally started filling it in during lockdown 2020.

I wasn't happy with some of the pages and didn't know how to fix them. I had started this page with some yellow and orange paint and added some collage paper to the edge.

I decided to try and emulate the collage paper with some green ovals in paint. I wasn't happy with that so I tried to add detail with a felt tip pen.

I didn't like that and so I left it that way for nearly 12 months. I have been on so many Zoom meetings or have watched so many on-line interviews that I felt I must do something else as I listened. I reached for the sketchbook and thought I would try again, I had nothing to lose.

I found that I really loved adding the detail and that page looked so good, I thought I would add to the next page as well.

I can't believe the difference that it made, now I love it and it was so much fun to do.

Here is another failed page.

I didn't like what I had done, so I had painted over it and finally added a stencil. That didn't improve it and so there it sat for 12 months.

Last week, I covered it with some collage paper, added some circles and painted around them.

Probably not as successful as the first page but still a vast improvement.

Here are another couple of pages that I've done, I did them as little 30 minute classes on-line.

So much fun. At least it's something arty to do when you are a bit stressed and pressed for time.

I am looking forward to doing some sewing again though.

Bye for now,

Linda

Drawing and Collage in Lockdown

Seeing as we are still in lockdown, I treated myself to an on-line purchase, some Tim Holtz fabrics.

I have decided to work a bit more on collage as I love the layered look that you get with paint but it is harder to achieve with fabric. So, I thought I would make myself another sketchbook and do some more on paper first. I find the sketchbooks that you buy with the spiral binding annoying when trying to draw, if you are using both sides of the paper.

I used some large watercolour paper folded in half and made a cover with some really heavy interfacing. I went looking for some fabric to fuse onto the cover and decided to use some of my new Tim Holtz fabric.

Usually, people hand sew the pages into the book, but I did it with a large stitch on the sewing machine. I've done it that way before and had no trouble.

So, now I have a lovely new sketchbook to use.

I have also been doing some mono-printing with some eucalyptus leaves, I think they were too big and I don't know if I'll ever use them. In fact, I am much happier with my sun-printing results.

I might see what one or two look like with some stitching on them.

I have also been trying to draw everyday, just a little pen drawing in the concertina sketchbook I made.

That is a benefit of staying at home all the time, you get to play around with this and that.

I've also been quilting my latest improv quilt that I finally finished piecing together.

I have been busy and luckily we are locked down because I haven't done my art quilters homework. That's on my to-do list along with lots of other stuff.

Bye for now,

Linda

Collage Course

 A couple of months ago I signed up to a Collage class called Process and Possibilities- Connecting Through Collage. The teacher was Cordula Kagemann from Germany and it was through the Fibre Arts Take Two group. They run fantastic workshops.

People from all over the world took the class and we had a private Facebook group. I decided to take the lessons slowly and really immerse myself into the techniques. It was interesting that most of the other participants did the same thing. Nobody wanted to rush through the lessons.

We worked with sketchbooks at first, trying out different compositions and techniques. We were encouraged to use lots of different papers especially Chinese, Japanese and transparent papers. I had to buy most of the papers on-line.

Here are a couple of sketchbook pages where I was trying out an Image transfer.

Sketchbook Page

Image Transfer

The image transfer is done with a laser print, so I had to go the Officeworks to get the photocopies done, apparently inkjet prints are not waterproof and smudge as you try and do the transfers. I found the image transfers difficult but effective. The first time I tried one, I made my finger bleed from rubbing too hard!

We did monoprinting onto transparent papers, which was a first for me, I have always done it on printer paper.

Mono print tissue paper

After a lot of practice we were encouraged to try a collage on an artist canvas. here was my first try, it is mainly in Cordula's style.

Collage 1

Then I tried another one, this one was called a low relief collage, I did mine in Autumn Colours and used the techniques that Cordula taught us.

Late Autumn Collage

Next we were encouraged to try and use our own inspiration and see where it took us. We had to use a day in our life as inspiration.

I had recently come back from my short stay in Adelaide when I judged the South Australian Quilt Show. I chose photos from the day that I visited the cemetery and Art Gallery with my brother. I had by chance taken photos of doors and windows when I was there and it was a perfect focal point.

Journey triptych

I was really happy with what I had done but it still felt a little bit like Cordula's work. I had another canvas and tried again, this time just trying to do my own thing. 

I loved the result, it is hard to explain what happened but I felt as if it was coming from me and was truly my work.

Journey Home by Linda Steele

Now I have all these artist canvasses around the house, I realise why painters have to sell their work, it is much easier to store a quilt than a bulky canvas.

The course is over now, although we have a lifetime access to the lessons. I really want to try and translate what I have learnt onto fabric. That is on my list of things to do. It's a long list though.

It has been quite drama filled around here, we have just had a 4th lockdown and last week there was a terrible storm that caused a lot of damage and power outages. We lost power for 2 days, it was cold and dark, so we stayed at my daughter's house until the power was restored. Grandchildren Jack and Anna loved having us stay. It just so happened that shopping Centres were allowed to open on that first day, so we went to see the sparkly magical Beasts display.

Apparently Blogger is not going to send blog posts by email anymore from June 30. I don't know why, maybe blogs aren't in fashion now. I read most blog posts that I follow by email, so I think it is really annoying.

Sorry to those people that usually read my posts by email. I am going to continue to write my blog because I find it really handy as a record of what I am doing. Maybe I'll start doing more posts on Facebook and Instagram now. I might change and start writing a newsletter to send by email. I'll see what happens.

I have a Facebook page- www.facebook.com/LindaSteeleQuilts 

and Instagram is instagram.com/lindabsteele

Bye for now,

Linda

The Sketchbook Challenge

 A couple of months ago as the UK went into lockdown, Laura Kemshall from Design Matters TV announced that she was teaching an on-line sketchbook challenge that would go for 8 lessons.

We were actually just coming out of lockdown as we had no more virus cases and all the shops were opening, but I decided to sign up anyway, just for fun. Laura suggested that we don't use a sketchbook that was spiral bound and of course all mine had that except for one that I had made years ago and had never used.

I had made this sketchbook out of good watercolour paper, so it was perfect for the project.

Week by week, she went through many ideas and examples of what we could do. What a perfect chance to get out my paints, pencils, stamps, stencils and bits and pieces and play around. Laura suggested that we try lots of things and all different media, to discover what we really like to do. Not to worry if something doesn't work out, you just paint over it and try again.

On one page I glued in a magazine picture of some apples.

Apples

Then I painted the background green, added some text with some stamps and did some drawing with a black felt tip pen.

Apple page 

I wasn't happy with a page that I had painted orange and black, but I was trying not to be too pretty!

So, I drew some jugs on some white paper and glued them in and added another drawing on the other page.

Jugs and bottles page

Not perfect but I liked it a lot better than before. 

I glued another magazine photo of a rabbit.

I didn't know what I was going to do with this page, so I tried doing some painting around it.

I still wasn't happy, it was far too messy for my taste. When we got up to the text lesson, I tried again.

Time page

I like it better now, but I am just experimenting and trying things out.

I had painted a photocopy of a dead agapanthus flower a few years ago and so I glued that picture down.

I decided to paint blue onto the rest of the paper and then draw some agapanthus flowers in various stages as they were just coming into flower in our garden.

Agapanthus page

I had a mono-printed vase on one page and then drew another on the facing page.

Vase page

I had glued down a photocopy of some red leaves and painted around it. 

Once again, I tried stamping some text and added my own drawings to finish it off.

Leaf page

I'll just show one more page, I had some spare copies of a photo of two of my grandchildren, cousins Jack and Savannah hand in hand doing some Christmas shopping last year.

Laura had taught us to paint some gesso over the outside of the photo so it could accept paint. Then I drew some Christmas pictures around it.

Christmas page

It was a lot of fun to do. Drawing with a felt tip pen can be scary but you just have to be brave and put up with drawings not being perfect.

I guess it is pretty decorative and not really art but it's my book and my chance to play around.

I've done lots of other pages and still have 4 or 5 blank pages to do. I love doing this so much more than I thought I would. The pages can be quite time consuming and I could probably just keep going and do nothing else. 

I think I will make another sketchbook and keep doing some pages every so often next year and see where it takes me.

I already know that I like neat rather than messy, so surprise there! I love text and love drawing with a black pen.

I haven't had a lot of practice mixing paint colours, so I would like to improve on that. I'll have to spend some time doing that.

Bye for now,

Linda