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Another in the Four Letter Words series of pseudo woodcuts. Watch this space for updates about the book.
Ukiyo-e on iPad. Click to enlarge.

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Ukiyo-e on iPad. Click to enlarge.

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I'm still experimenting with Ukiyo-e app on iPad as a proofing tool prior to committing designs to actual woodcuts. This is the second image for my new book project Four Letter Words:


Ukiyo-e on iPad. Click to enlarge.

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Today's letter is "C".
Ukiyo-e & ArtStudio on iPad. Click to enlarge.

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Another take on the evil tomato witch for the Almussafes Book of Children's Dreams.
Gouache A3 size. Click to enlarge.

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"You know those letters that you did with the dark blue edging and light blue center were far to bold for mural?  They real drew too much attention."

"Yes, I know.  That's why I changed the centers to green and posted pictures.  I thought the green would blend in a little bit better."

Dark blue edging with a green center

"Weeellllllll, it's still not working.  That dark blue edging with the dark green is still too demanding."

"Oh, it's fine.  Just live with it a little bit.  You'll get used to it."

"Come on, who are you kidding?  You should know to trust your instincts by now."

"Do you realize how long I've spent hunched over on the floor doing these letters over and over?  My back is sore, I've got a kink in my neck..."

"Yes, I know.  But, I think you're making excuses.  Do you really want to drive by the mural for years wishing you had changed the color?"

(Grumbling...sigh)

"Alright, you win.  I'll repaint the letters AGAIN.  I'll use a dark green/light green comination so that it is more harmonious with the background...BUT THIS IS THE LAST TIME!"

Dark green edging with light green center

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Let the fun begin!

This is the "before"

This evening I thought I'd go back to the first panel, the first place I started over a month and a half ago - the sky.


The "after"

The first layer was just Cerulean Blue and white.  Going back through it, I am using the original mixtures plus an added mixture of the Cerulean and Ultramarine Blue which takes it a step deeper and darker = more contrast.  I work with 3 mixtures at the same time - dark, medium, and light. 

I kind of thought I'd get through more panels this evening, but I only made it through the first two.  But, this is my favorite part - I've got the basic color layer down, and now I can build and fine tune (OK, one of my favorite parts).


I also completed the tractor study.

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My favourite fabric so far is a new version I designed of the Art Deco Parrot, this time in a blue, white and grey colour scheme.

I ordered a yard so I could make a pair of cushions in the cotton-linen blend fabric they offer. Being able to design the fabric myself was great because I actually adjusted the scale slightly so that I could fit two cushions with parrots down the middle of the front and back with just 1 yard.

Here's a picture of the cushions:
I love this fabric, it has a bit of weight to it and the nice feel of linen while the cotton makes it less floppy than pure linen. Incidentally, I also love the new Kona cotton that Spoonflower is now offering for a quilting weight fabric.

So I feel I've finally reached the point where I can design exactly what I want to decorate the home without having to compromise. I'd like to do curtains too, but that's a lot more expensive so it may be a while!

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My first post in Monday Artday is...raining...

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click for cards or prints

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Thank you for your “get well” wishes–I’m feeling much better today with the exception of the occasion coughing fit.  I had to leave the house to drop off some packages at the P.O. so I threw on this outfit.  (It’s quite warm and Spring-ish today so no jacket needed!)  I decided to snap a couple of pics since I haven’t shared this hankie top with you yet.

It’s a pullover style and has to fit loosely (to avoid tearing while slipping it on) because of the delicate vintage hankies, but it’s looser than I would normally prefer.  My concern with too-loose fitting clothing is looking shapeless, but I think it’s okay with fitted pants.  (Dare I say jeggings?  Yes, jeggings.)   Maybe I should add a ribbon belt to cinch it in a bit?

The pattern I used is Simplicity’s Built by Wendy 3835, my fave as you know.

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I've been working on some commissions recently, a couple of which were for visitors to my exhibition in the summer. I was very interested, during the exhibition, to know which drawings people liked the best; not for any particular reason, just for curiosity, I suppose. The drawings of collections of little things always seemed to come out on top.

This is one of two 'small thing' drawings I have completed since then. I love these drawings. It's kind of like doing a jigsaw. There's so much satisfaction in finding another piece that slots perfectly into the blank space.

There is one issue I have with being commissioned to complete one of these drawings though; the moment when I have to ask "would you like me to include the pube?"

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I was harder on Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking than many readers were.  I thought it at times too self-consciously clinical, too reported, less felt.  Many of my students at the University of Pennsylvania disagreed with me.  I listened.  Of course I did.  I wanted to be convinced.

I do not feel disinclined about Blue Nights, which I have read this morning and which will break your heart.  The jacket copy describes the book as "a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter."  It is that; in part it is.  But it is also, mostly, as the jacket also promises, Didion's "thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old."

A cry, on other words, in the almost dark.  A mind doing what a mind does in the aftermath of grief and in the face of the cruelly ticking clock.  Blue Nights is language stripped to its most bare.  It is the seeding and tilling of images grasped, lines said, recurring tropes—not always gently recurring tropes.  It is a mind tracking time.  It is questions: 

"How could I have missed what was so clearly there to be seen?"

"What if I can never again locate the words that work?"

"Who do I want to notify in case of emergency?"

Joan Didion, always physically small and intellectually giant, is, as she writes in this book, seventy-five years old.  She is aware of light and how it brightens, then fades.  She writes of blue—a color and a sound that has long obsessed me, and has obsessed writers like Rebecca Solnit.  She writes of the gloaming, a word I will forever associate with the immensely talented Alice Elliott Dark. 

Here is how she writes:

You pass a window, you walk to Central Park, you find yourself swimming in the color blue: the actual light is blue, and over the course of an hour or so this blue deepens, becomes more intense even as it darkens and fades, approximates the blue of the glass on a clear day at Chartres, or that of the Cerenkov radiation thrown off by the fuel rods in the pools of nuclear reactors.  The French called this time of day "l'heure bleue."  To the English it was "the gloaming."  That very word "gloaming" reverberates, echoes—the gloaming, the glimmer, the glitter, the glisten, the glamour—carrying in its consonants the images of houses shuttering, gardens darkening, grass-lined rivers slipping through the shadows.

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"Aster" - Flower of September

Yuppers, it's turnin' into autumn!

First thing's first...

The new Flower of the Month fairy for September is finished! It's been finished for a few weeks (sorry for my delay in posting). I have started November, she should be out by the end of September, if not the first week of October.

My Mama

My mother's birthday is in September, so any time I do a piece that has to do with Libra, September, Sapphire, or Autumn I tend to show features that resemble my mom.

She's a constant source of inspiration for me in the women I wish to show having courage and maturity. Plus, she has long gorgeous black hair. That inspires me EVERY time. :)

View the entire image and print listing on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79669617/print-fairy-september-sapphire-flower


A Painting for Halloween

I don't normally paint for Halloween. It's been years since I even had the desire to. Now...that's not saying I don't like Halloween, but my work tends to be something that could be used year round. I like that. But I do so love a good mask, so I thought I'd paint one. :)

Here's the work in progress. She's pretty small; a 4x6 painting. Something quick but elegant. I have always wanted to throw a Masquerade Ball, hopefully someday I will. But until then, I must live through my paintings.

I hope to have her finished by the end of the week. If not, I'll go crazy! Not quite sure what to call her yet...

Have you ever been to a Masquerade Ball? If so, was it as much fun as they look? I want to know!

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All I want to do is sew clothes.  I have many ideas for other crafty projects, including shop stuff, but at the end of the day I just want to make a skirt or cut out a new blouse.  Life has been a bit crazy lately and sewing for the pure fun of it is my therapy, I suppose.

The clothes I’m working on are fall items I can wear now.  Because, you know, it’s not really going to get chilly here ’til late October or so.

Here is a blouse I made combining pattern pieces from McCall’s M5977 and New Look 6022.  I shortened the sleeves, drafted the v-neck and made the bows.  I don’t recommend attaching sleeves to bodice pieces meant for a sleeveless top (which is what I did) because the armholes aren’t quite right but I don’t think it’s noticeable and fits comfortably anyway.

The original design had 5 larger, pointier bows going done the front.  Even after testing the placement I didn’t get a feel for what it would truly look like until I had made and attached all the bows.  (You might be able to see bias tape stitched down the center front on the inside; this was placed there to support the bows.)  But I didn’t like it afterall.  Don’t know why, it just seemed too stiff or something.  So I re-cut 2 of the bows and attached them just near the v.

The skirt is my favorite of the 2.  The colors look blown out in the photo where I’m modeling it but the fabric really is so pretty and has a nice, slightly coarse texture.  (By the way, I probably wouldn’t wear those shoes with this skirt out and about because they are too orange but I’m currently without dark brown pumps.)

And yes, I used Simplicity pattern 8418 for this skirt.  Of course!

I’m so glad it’s Friday.  Do you have any fun plans for this weekend?

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For the first time ever I’m planning out my sewing projects for the next season in advance so that they will complement each other.  It’s fun in a sewing/fashion-nerd sort of way.  I’ve reorganized my fabric stash into fall/winter and spring/summer instead of fabric-type to make it easier to pick out things that work together.  As usual I’ve gotten pretty ambitious with what I’d like to make up but at least I’m getting a head start.  (I’ve already finished one quick project this weekend and have started another.)

I’m showing you two palettes.  There are a lot of browns; no surprise there.  The first one consists of pale muted blues and greens and ivory.  Toile and houndstooth and dots and cotton velvet.

The second palette is warmer although there is some black in there too.  Rust and mauve and mustard yellow brighten up this set.  Faux fur and florals here.  All of it, naturally, very vintage-inspired.  Pretty, faded, old-fashioned prints and textures.  I’ve got some ’30s patterns picked out, some from the ’60s (for basic shapes) as well as modern ones too.

Have you started planning or even working on projects for next season yet?  Do you like to plan in advance and to what degree?

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This skirt must be shy because I had a heck of a time trying to photograph it!

I think it has to do with the color or perhaps the fabric (err, or both).  Overall I’m happy with the quality of the construction but the camera picked up wobbliness in the fabric that I cannot see with my own eyes.  Is my stitching too tight or is that just the way the camera captured the light reflecting on the fabric?  Eep, oh well.

I’ve made this skirt a couple of times before, you can see my first version here.  It’s a great vintage pattern, Simplicity 8418, c. 1969:

This pattern works really well in lightweight denim.  I made another denim skirt after the first one that is a bit longer and with rounded pockets (and navy sailor buttons) that I wear ALL the time.  I don’t have many work-appropriate skirts (2 to be exact) and thought I should make one myself as the ones I’ve been seeing in the stores lately are boring ol’ pencil skirts that are overpriced and do nothing for me anyway.  (I need the slight flare of the a-line skirt to give me shape.)  I wanted something bright and happy!

Like the others I’ve made from this pattern I omitted the waistband.  And in this version I took out some of the flare (just a little).  Also, I lined it as this fabric is a little sheer and perhaps the tiniest bit scratchy (since it’s wool).  The spring-summery colors inspired me to draft some tulip-like pockets:

This photo has been lightened so you can see the details better.

I actually have another skirt cut out, ha!  It’s Kelly green corduroy with baby blue and white gingham-lined pockets.  (Notice a theme here?)  Perhaps I’ll get to it this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, all of L.A. (OK, the media that I know of) is talking about Carmageddon; this is where part of the 405 freeway is shutting down tonight through Monday.  Shut down a freeway in Los Angeles and it’s the end of the world.  Good thing I don’t drive much.  I’ll be sewing or drawing (and very likely, cleaning!) anyway.  Do you have any fun plans?

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Happy Tuesday!  How was your weekend?  I spent the better part of mine sewing…I haven’t felt this productive sewing-wise in a long, long time.  I’m pleased as punch with my new summer clothes; for many years (and even now) I’ll sew something that I never end up wearing either because of fit, comfort or that my homemade creation really looks “home sewn”–and not in a good way.

Most of the blouses I have I think of as work clothes and I rarely wear them on other occasions besides going to the office.  So I thought it was high time I made some casual blouses that I could wear to work but would also want to throw one on with jeans or a skirt in lieu of a t-shirt.  I used voile for all three which is perfect for warm weather.

Two of the tops use the above pattern, McCall’s M5977.  I chose this pattern because it has no closure and I liked the ruffles around the neck (reminded me of 1920s and ’30s styles).  I made the first view minus the armhole ruffles (which I think look weird dropping down like that).

I made this one as fitted as I could and still get it over my head.  I reduced the ruffle by almost 40% and edged it with black to mimic the design in the fabric.

The other one I made has a slightly looser fit and fuller ruff.  I also added a ribbon belt and gather under the bust just a little to give it shape.  (Because of the eyelet border this blouse would be worn untucked unlike the one above).

The last top is from New Look pattern 6022:

I really liked the top part of the dress (particularly View B) and while I had my misgivings about the boxiness of it I went ahead and started to make it, thinking it would look better with some adjustments.  Nope.  Once I sewed up the side seams and tried it on it became clear this it was going to hang off of my like an insubstantial rectangle and even a belt around the waist wouldn’t be enough to make this wearable in public.

So I cut my losses and chopped off the bottom and kept going with the neckline and sleeves.  Thankfully I really love it as a blouse (and wore it yesterday!).

I may try to make this again as a dress but would combine the top with a different dres

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