30 Days of Drawing, Day Six: Drawing Noir

I wasn’t able to get into the studio first thing in the morning yesterday, so I ended up doing this pencil drawing right before bed.  I’d forgotten how pretty the beads I used on this necklace were.  I think today I am going to render them in color.

30 Days of Drawing; Days 3-5

Now with more cowbell.  If I had a cowbell to draw.

Saturday was a lazy drawing day, as my son had two hockey games and we had to run errands in between.  So I did this quick gestural sketch of the game.  Not every drawing has to be finished.

I drew this pendant from one of my necklaces before heading out on Sunday morning.  The background is inspired by the many layers of paint on my drawing table.

I’m still working on how to render the bone beads in my piece.  I’m much happier with how the bone turned out on this drawing than I was with the bone in yesterday’s pendant.  Having the right tools makes all the difference.  This piece mixes Prismacolor, Supracolor, and Neocolor II crayons.

I had so much fun with the light colors on the first drawing that I decided to do another rendering of a different necklace.  The button in the lower left is kind of muddled, and next time I would leave it out of the picture.  I also went with a different color scheme.  The original necklace is dusty pale blue. 

Yesterday I picked up a roll of drawing paper, 36” wide, and a few graphite pencils and sticks.   The next few days of drawing may be process photos of a larger piece.

30 Days of Drawing, Day Two

This is a drive-by posting as I have to go play Mom’s Taxi in a minute.  This is a glass bottle I picked up at a yard sale and one of my Gran’s brass bell collection.  Supracolor II pencils and Prismacolor pencils on chipboard. 

30 Days of Drawing, Day One

Traci Bunkers, of Bonkers Handmade Originals, is hosting a challenge to draw every day for 30 days.  It will be a little tricky with the holiday season and all, but I have been getting back into my drawing and I decided to play along.  You can find out more information about how to join us at Traci’s blog.

Earlier this week I started a series of small drawings on recycled chipboard, so for now I’m going to continue in that vein (smaller drawings also makes it easier to do a whole drawing in a day ;)

Last year I made myself a necklace for my birthday, and this drawing is a detail of one of my favorite beads from the necklace.  I used a Derwent Graphitint pencil to lay down the initial outline (after drawing a guideline square in the center of the chipboard), then filled in the rest with Caran D’Ache Supracolor II and Prismacolor pencils.  I’ve been painting in the backgrounds of most of the drawings with various acrylics.  This piece is painted with Jo Sonja acrylic gouache, Martha Stewart craft paint in aqua glitter, and a thin wash of red iron oxide to provide the shadows.  I like how the smooth surface of the paint contrasts with the rougher surface of the drawing.

You can see the other pieces in this series at my Etsy shop. 

Winner!

Well, I guess everyone was busy preparing for back to school.  I contemplated postponing the draw for the Pulp Fiction book, but as I am busy with my own back to school prep (oldest son starts college in one month) I decided to just draw today.

Melinda, send me a message and I will get the book and goodies out to you ASAP!

Thank you for playing :)

Back to School: Not Just for Kids Any More

If you’re like me, you’re looking at all the flyers and ads for the cool new dorm furniture (I want a red coffee maker!) and maybe buying a package of crayons or a notebook or two (or three, or four….).  Let’s face it, back to school is fun, maybe more fun now that we don’t have to go back to school and can do whatever we want with our crayons, markers and notebooks.  (Do you remember when you were finally allowed to write with pen instead of pencil?  Purple paper? Crayola vs Cray Pas?)
In the spirit of starting something new, I am very happy to have a giveaway.  Mark Montano has very generously offered a signed copy of his amazing “Pulp Fiction: Perfect Paper Projects” for one lucky winner.  With 24 projects to choose from, you won’t be bored, and you will have use for all those back to school sale flyers :)

Here’s the cover.  I am really intrigued by the mask and the Mona Lisa briefcase.

You can see where he signed it, and a sneak peek at some of the projects.

I really like these lightweight earrings.

And of course no book on paper would be complete without a book project.  These mini journals are too cool.
I will throw in some of my painted papers and ephemera from my personal stash as well, just to sweeten the pot. 
To enter :
Become a member of this site (link on right)
and
Become a member of Mark’s site
for extra entries :

Like my Facebook page 

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet this giveaway or share on Facebook

Leave a comment here and let me know what you did to enter

I will draw the winner on August 24th, just in time for back to school.  This time entries are limited to people in the US or Canada.  Good luck and happy crafting!

The Art of Bead Embroidery: A Preview

Over the years, my bead embroidered creations have drawn the most comments and admiration.  I learned the basic techniques from Joyce Scott and Robin Atkins, and took them from there.  I even wrote an article for Quilting Arts about bead embroidery.  You could say I know a lot about the technique.

I am currently in the process of writing an e-book about how I do my bead embroidery, with tips and hints to help you make this simple technique part of your embroidery repertoire.  Here’s a sneak preview of some of the work I’ll be sharing.

The technique can be used for jewelry, as in the two pins shown above.  These are great for using those accent beads that you’ve been collecting but don’t know what to do with.

This piece is designed to be wearable, but it could also serve as an embellishment on a quilt or piece of wearable art.

A detail of “Grandpa’s Garden” a bead embroidered tapestry.

The full panel “Grandpa’s Garden” 2003, bead embroidered tapestry, approximately 10″ H x 30″ wide.

My e-book will explain how to make objects like this using simple embroidery stitches with beads.  It will also include a gallery of work to inspire you and a listing of suppliers so you can get started on your own bead embroidery journey.  I am really excited about sharing this knowledge with you, and love that in the e-book format I can go deeper than I was able to in the article.  I will post when the book is closer to launch, I look forward to sharing it with you!