I’m sticking pretty well to my daily creative commitment, although I seem to have spent more time with my needlepoint than with the sketchbook. Never mind, it’s all doing me good.
The thing that’s bothering/interesting/engaging me at the moment, is shading.
The piece that I’m working on is inspired by stained glass windows and what I wanted to achieve, is a feeling of the texture of glass as light moves around it. Now this I feel needs some shading.
This is how it’s coming along – should keep me busy for a few months yet.
I have bought quite a lot of Appletons crewel yarns, because you get some gorgeous subtle graduations in shade, and the thickness of the yarn works well on the variable weave of the canvas.
Trying the jagged edge approach to shading
But actually doing the shading is teaching me some interesting lessons. I’m trying a variety of techniques – which range from jagged blocks of colour, to something almost approaching pointillism (although I just don’t think I have the patience to keep that up for long).
Trying out mixed colours
When I went to Canon’s Ashby earlier in the summer, I had a close look at some tapestry chairs, to see how they’d done shading in the seventeenth century – it seemed more like the graduated jagged blocks.
My biggest issue is with working at night – the time that I prefer to sew. The trouble is that although I can easily distinguish shade variations during the day, at night, under my lamp, I find it very difficult to see the real colours. It makes it quite a surprise in the morning, when I get to see it in daylight.
Happier with this bit, four different shades here, can you tell?
Ah well, on we go – it’s all a learning experience.
Well, I said I’d draw every day, and so far I’m managing to do it – but it’s a strange process. If I don’t have an idea of what I want to draw, I end up doodling – relaxing, but not exactly developing the drawing technique. But what to draw?
I have various books on the subject, most suggest that you draw your breakfast (or coffee cup, or bathroom cabinet, toothpaste tube – etc) – in other words that you draw what’s around you. OK I suppose, but it doesn’t make my spirit tingle – and I do want to get that ‘flow’ sensation.
So instead, I had a think about the sorts of things that I do like to draw, or more importantly perhaps, the things that I’d like to be able to draw.
My list is short. I like drawing (for which also read painting) trees and landscapes. I would like to be able to recreate buildings, in particular ruined castles and churches – but these I find very difficult indeed.
Well, I don’t have to be a genius to know that if I want to improve, I should practise the bits I find hard – and so (drum roll please)…
Lanercost Priory – pen and watercolour sketch.
Here is my first sketch of the inside of Lanercost Priory. We went there on holiday, on a simply horrendously wet day, and I absolutely loved it. The lady at the ticket office deserves a medal for being so enthusiastic about the site, despite the weather. She gave us a fabulous description of what to see, which even managed to inspire the daughters.
It took a lot of sketching to get this far – how on earth do you get those gothic arches to look even vaguely pointy, rather than distinctly wobbly? I think I could go mad. Anyway, this is as much as I can manage on this picture – I’m seeing arches in my sleep.
I’m using ultramarine, new gamboge and permanent magenta – my scanner doesn’t know that.
The new term has put a spring in my step. I have never really understood why people talk about fresh starts in January – for me, Autumn is the time when I feel energised, enthusiastic and ready to start again.
So the children are finally back at school and I’ve just about re-established contact with the bottom of the laundry pile, and at last I feel able to have some ‘me’ time. It’s been ages since I wrote here, but that’s because we spent most of August camping in Scotland (well I know that might not suit everyone, but we had the best time imaginable).
It’s my intention to scatter the odd post about the holiday on my other blog Mostly Motleyfrom time to time, so if tales of wet walks up mountains, soft golden sandy beaches and castles galore are your thing, do pop over there occasionally and have a look.
But this blog is my creative space, so it’s time for a quick update.
Well full of good intentions, I actually took a small bag and some tapestry supplies away with me, thinking that I would sit and watch the sunsets, whilst putting in a few stitches. But in truth, I never actually took out the contents during the whole holiday. The fact is that we were either too wet or too tired to sit outside very much, and on the occasions when we did, I found that simply gazing at the views was enough. Oh and I suppose that having to move around quite a lot to avoid being midge fodder was an additional disincentive.
I did however, take a lot of photographs of the sort that my husband calls ‘arty’, but are in fact simply pictures without him or our daughters in them.
Kirkaig Falls, near Lochinver.
I also spent a great deal of time just looking. The scenery on the West Coast of Scotland is unsurpassed in my opinion. Ever since I was a small child, going there on holiday with my parents, the combination of mountains, lochs and the sea has had me in thrall. We drove to the Corran Ferry through some of the most atrocious rain we’ve ever experienced, but as we got to Glen Coe, the rain disappeared and the weather changed. We got out of the car to stretch our legs before the ferry arrived and tears came to my eyes, it’s just unspeakably beautiful and I felt that I was being welcomed back.
After three weeks of Highland scenery, I feel well and truly re-energised. My inspiration levels are topped up and at least for a while I’m calm again.
For two years now, I’ve been mangling my brain, trying to fit my square career experience into the round hole that is the real me, and I think that I might now have tipped the balance properly and decided not to beat myself up any more, (well I expect the occasional relapse), but no more attempts to come up with the perfect solution. For now, I’m going to be nice to myself and see where it takes me.
My Autumn resolution is to draw and paint every day. I can’t do that when the family are at home, so I’ll make time during the day. At night, I’ll always be able to sew – that remains my best therapy.
It’s been thirty-three years since I gave myself permission to draw and paint just for pleasure – I wonder what’s lurking inside.
Anyway, enough of this introspection.
Here is a pastel sketch of Hadrian’s Wall from a picture I took while we were there. I did it yesterday. Well, it’s a start!
Dreaming In Stitches 