Wrapping up #INKtober

This is it, the last day of #INKtober 2022 and my drawing for it! Assessing my experience with daily drawing using #INKtober prompts, I noticed several things that I think led to my success. First, my decision to do my best to keep it simple and quick. Nothing like knowing a drawing will soak up an hour or more to make one procrastinate but a ten to fifteen minute block of time was easy to fit in, even on the busiest days. I also found myself remembering and practicing the fact that one does not have to draw every line, that often something can be hinted at with just a few strokes. No need to get complicated though I tend to get caught up in details. 

But in sketches like this, details can sometimes muddy the picture and even obliterate what one is trying to capture. But truth be told, this last week started to feel more like a chore than fun, probably because of distractions that arose as life intervened. 

Still, when I ran across the quotation below a few days ago, I thought, yeah, there were days that felt like that, both in the drawing and in the living.

"We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric, giving shape to images that we ourselves do not know."

– Rainer Maria Rilke –

 More quilting on the Peace quilt ensued, three actually to my surprise. It is making a difference. I don't think I'll keep up with the sketch a day but exchange it for some time at the sewing machine each day. The usual once or twice a week I sit at the machine isn't nearly enough. I'm reviewing my work at the end of each session with criticism and a tad of disappointment that I haven't sewn those lines straight enough, being sloppy. I'm maybe a bit in the "energy gap" that Ira Glass speaks of when talking about how hard it is for creatives to get started. Austin Kleon illustrated it this way:

 

I know based on past work that I am good, but right now as I get back into it after a long time off, I think I'm not good enough. I hate it when I catch myself thinking, "Good thing I'm making this just for me." While I don't expect perfection, I do have my standards and at least on this quilt, I'm not living up to them. Next time . . .

Some Hits, Some Misses

 

I stand corrected. I said I hadn't done any quilting in the week leading up to my last post. Before I sat down to start the parallel quilting in the "border" area of Peace Quilt II, I checked my engagement calendar where I make note of work on quilting projects and found that I did indeed do a little quilting that week, finishing the stitching along the satin stitching of the applique. Why I didn't remember doing it in that week I can't imagine. I'm using the same thread on the sateen print as I did on the lighter hand-dye of the first Peace Quilt but because I am using an 80/20 cotton batting rather than felt, the quilting has more dimension. This is one of the "misses" of the week only because the quilting lines are a bit wavy here and there and in a couple of spots I didn't turn the quilting very well. But at a distance, that doesn't much show. At least it's going quickly. I find I don't have a very long attention span anymore and think the hour I am limiting myself to must be up only to find I'm not even half there.

My 3-month post op appt though was a hit. Gauging by how I got up from a chair and walked down a hall, the x-ray tech thought I must be there for a 6 month post op appt until she looked at my chart. Both she and the PA said I was progressing better than a lot of patients and now have no restrictions on bending and twisting, as long as doing so doesn't cause additional pain. Make no mistake, I am not pain-free yet but much better than before the surgery, and I was reminded that full recovery takes a year. Had to laugh when the above Garfield cartoon showed up in my paper a few days later. Ah yes, this has been my thing since surgery, merely waving at my toes, but at least now I can start working on waving at them from less far away.

As for my #INKtober drawings, some had to be done quickly because the first part of the week was busy with appts and errands while others I had more time to research and work on. But even so, most are not too bad. "Bluff" and "Bad Dog" are based on memories: motorcycle rides that ended at bluffs along the upper Mississippi River, and the pup who constantly escaped from her wire kennel and once neatly chewed the toe off a relatively new pair of snow boots. And I was relieved to find a definition of "Booger" that did not require me to draw someone picking their nose!

Just #Inktober Sketches

The week got away from me and I found no time to sew. I considered the next Zentangle in the current series and hedged on whether I wanted to mess with it so didn't. But I kept up my daily #INKtober sketching and feel myself getting more comfortable with the pen. Bear in mind, I do pencil sketches first before inking over them, which allows me lots of revisions if necessary. And I usually google images to work from - I have the hardest time drawing from memory. I still enjoy working from the official prompts, most of which provide a challenge. And I'm not missing adding color much. It's been good to keep things simple. Keeps me from getting crabby like the sketch above!

More Zentangles, More #Inktobers, and Some Quilting

Let's get to the quilting first. I'm slowly making my way around the satin stitched applique edges. Not much to see, it's a lot like stitching in the ditch. Holding the layers in place and starting to add some dimension.

And this is one of many reasons I dislike working with Misty Fuse. I don't care what they say about "fusing" it down, that if it loosens just iron it again, longer and maybe with more heat. I've had this "bubbling" happen to me on more than one project and it doesn't seem to matter how many times I hit this section with an iron, the Misty Fuse underneath still refuses to melt the two layers together. Am hoping the quilting will make this "disappear".

On to happier things. I can't express just how much I have enjoyed the steady drawing I've been doing. The Zentangles are meditative and relaxing, the daily #Inktober prompts quick and just the right amount of challenge to keep it interesting but not overwhelming. The Zentangle above starts with the star shape and then the Zentangle people flip their translucent tile and start working from the back. That I cannot do so where they were filling in dots with white gel pen all over the star, I simply drew small circles in a pattern pleasing to me. I enjoyed the addition of the "pods" around the outside of the star (pod is not the tangle's name but that's what the demonstrator kept calling it) but I skipped their final step of blacking out the rest of the space beyond those shapes.

I have to admit I found this next one way too fun. It turns out that the idea to start using the translucent tiles came from an old illustrated book that the Zentangle people own. In one part the illustration is done on parchment paper which is translucent, with part done on the flip side so that the thing being illustrated looks like it threads through a slit in the paper. Thus the idea for drawing Mooka tangles on a strip that would look like a ribbon threaded through the tile. Well, again, I'm working on regular paper but it occurred to me that I had some grey brush pens I could use to get the same effect they were getting by drawing on the flip side of the translucent tile. Because of all the background to be filled in with black, I switched to a Pitt brush pen which handled much better than the last time I tried it. They added just a hint of color with the pastel chalk pencil so I tried applying a little Art Graf with my finger and it worked fine.

And now a week's worth of #INKtober2022 drawings - enjoy!

Zentangles, Inktober and a Blank Journal

Definitely a productive week for a change. Something about following this current Zentangle series seems to have sparked a motivation to get back to drawing and being a little creative in general. This one is based on the Tripoli tangle and I must say, I deviated quite a bit in the use of materials. I think my triangles were quite a bit smaller than the ones on the example and my metallic gel pen did not leave as thick of a line as the Zentangle people got on their translucent smooth tiles. 

This made the step of outlining each stroke on both sides with an 01 Micron Pen a challenge, not made any easier by a shaky hand, eyes that didn't want to focus and the texture of the paper that made it even more difficult to make straight lines. By the time they got to the part about adding the pastel chalk inside the triangles, I was ready to go off on my own, especially since I didn't have the colors of Art Graf I wanted to fill the tiny triangles with. I continued to use the metallic gel pens to fill them in and the spaces in the flourishes - I forget what that tangle is called.

Here's another video to show the sparkling gel pens. In case you didn't know, you can click on the icon in the lower right to switch to a larger version easier to see. I noted this time around that some of the metallic sparkle escapes the ink and ends up on the page, much like glitter seems to get everywhere.

I thought I was done but at the end of their video, they flipped their translucent tile over and added the Paradox tangle inside each triangle, visible faintly from the front, especially if the tile is help up to the light. I already was thinking about adding a row of triangles along the bottom of the page and filling them with a different combination of metallic pen colors and if I made those triangles bigger, I could fit that Paradox tangle in them, unlike the small triangles above. I rather liked this.

And then the weekend came and it was October, time for #INKtober sketching if I wanted to give that a go. Last year I only made it a week before I lost interest and really wanted to spend my time elsewhere. This year I'd seen a preview of the official prompts and thought, yeah - I think I can work with these this time. So here are my first two, drawn with a pen that is new to me and primarily used for Manga Graphic Novels use, i.e. it makes some very thick lines if you are not careful. It is taking some getting used to. I'm not doing this drawing out of my head but referencing photos to guide what my mind envisions but my hand often fails to interpret without some help.

Finally, here's a very old unfinished project to add to my "finish more!" resolution for the year. When I lived by the lake over ten years ago, I was visited by a moose who eventually crossed the road and ambled down the bike trail, giving me ample time to take lots of photographs, some of which got printed onto fabric for padfolios. While experimenting with placements, I had several "rejects" that didn't work on padfolios, but never one to throw anything away, I could see that they might work for blank journal covers and one actually did.

This one which was sized a little big got as far as being fused to felt and WonderUnder fused to the lining before the two pieces were pinned to my design wall. You know, out of sight out of mind, and I figured this would be quick to finish up if I just kept it in sight. Well, not so. I added a little quilting to outline the moose earlier this year before it went back up on the design wall. I just wasn't up to adding as much stitching on it as I did the first one.

But now I wanted to finish it up as a thank you gift for one of the gals who helped me so much after my surgery and who I'd discovered liked to occasionally journal. And I wanted to see how things would go sitting at the machine as this one would require a satin stitch finish around the outside. I just had to trim the cover and the lining and fused them together before doing that satin stitching. Turns out sitting at the machine is not a problem. The signatures are sewn in with perle cotton and the closure is a button from my garndmother's/mother's button collections and an elastic loop.

And so I got the Peace quilt backing pinned to the front over the batting and set my machine up for quilting it with a walking foot. Lots of easy straight line stitching ahead whenever I feel like a sit-down.

Inspiration Can Be Anywhere

I've had this catalog sitting on my desk in front of the computer for several weeks now. I am not a chicken person when it comes to designs on anything, much less my quilting. And yet, something about these chickens fascinate me. Maybe it's the simplicity of the shapes, ones that should be easy for me to draw. And all those different sizes and shapes of the spots on them. Full disclosure, it took me quite awhile to realize that they were actually holes the the metal chickens and the green of the spots was just the grassy background showing through. None the less, it got me thinking of the many ways I could play with these chickens. Here are a few of the ideas I came up with:

1. Do a simple sketch with pen and fill in the spots and background with colored pens or pencils.
2. Use black acrylic paint to fill in the shape and then dab green acrylic paint on top for the spots.
3. Or use a green Maribu Art Crayon to dab the spots on a black background since it is opaque.
4. And finally, cut the chickens out of black fabric and free cut the irregular spots out of fabric with fusible on the back. Or if feeling really ambitious, cut holes in the black chicken shapes which will have fusible on the back and place them on grassy fabric.
5. Can you think of other ways to interpret these chickens?
   

But I did not try any of these because I had a bum week, spending most of it not feeling very good after I had my flu shot. This has never happened before but it would account for the two awful days when I really didn't feel like doing a thing but lying on the couch and the other days when I was not up to speed. Have decided that the reaction could be because my body is already on overload mending from the surgery. It has passed now, and although I did very little of anything last week, I DID spend a lot of time reading a lengthy science fiction novel with an impending due date a week away. If I had felt better, I might have felt guilty about the hours making my way through the end of the book.

So having done nothing creative all last week (Another full disclosure: all three of my motorcycle racing series were racing Saturday and Sunday so watching 12 races and 3 superpoles pretty much took up the weekend). I took a look at the next Zentangle in the recent series today, and decided it would work up pretty fast. I am not a fan of this overall shape (which they admitted looked like a wonky donut), but it did introduce me to the sand swirl tangle which I can see is a useful filler and similar to some freemotion quilting swirl designs. No metallic pens this time but I did use ArtGraf again in lieu of their pastel pencils and got a surprise. I expected this to be bright red, and if I activated it with water, it probably would be. Instead, it's more the color I was going for on the last zentangle to compliment the coral metallic pen when shading. I'm not crazy about the "rays" of color extending beyond the zentangle and especially didn't like the fact that the center was left blank - very unzentangle. So I filled it in with what they call auras, or what we call echoing.

Not A Snake

 

At least, I hope this Zentangle doesn't first remind Jan of a snake, like the last one did. I wanted to try a different filler for the segments as well as different colors and then decided I'd combine segments of the spiral idea with the next Zentangle in the series. I wasn't too keen on that one but I did like the idea of drawing something that looked like a twisted ribbon, and then was surprised by the addition of those things that look like fish swimming in the background. I pulled out my other set of Art Graf in earth tones for the ribbons and shading, although I'd hoped I could get a more rusty look. I also got out a different brush to apply it with - a stiffer kind good for stenciling - and even tried activating the Art Graf by dampening the brush. That resume paper held up much better to the moisture than I expected. 

This time I colored in the circles with coral metallic gel pens and shaded in the space between the two lines delineating the segments with a green one. The "fish" were drawn with yellow and gold metallic gel pens.

Tried to catch all that sparkle in another short video.

Had a day last week when I was full of energy and desire to make some progress in the studio. I managed to complete the pin basting of the second Peace quilt. A few days later, I started on the thread basting around the outside, a step I take both to keep the edge of the quilt top from flipping back on itself while under the machine and to stabilize the edge when trimming and binding. And one more day I was able to make my way around the rest of the quilt top edge. I could lean across better than I've been able to without actually bending or causing more pain. This will allow me to untape it from the table, turn the backing over the exposed batting (I sometimes also baste this with thread but this time I think I can just safety pin it) and remove it from the table altogether, freeing up space to work on other projects. I have a journal cover I'd like to finish up before I start quilting the Peace quilt, and it will be a good test of how well I can do sitting at the machine.

Making Strides

Here's the Zentangle I worked on last week from a recent "Project Pack" series. I like that the Zentangle creators have broadened out from their original tangles done with black micron pen on white tiles, to different color and shapes of their tiles and different colors of micron pens, to the latest of adding color to the shadings. I thought I'd show you step by step how this developed.

It starts by making a fairly open spiral, then subdividing it with double lines. Instead of using the suggested Micron pen, I used a Japanese brand brush pen I've grown quite fond of. Unlike other brush pens, this one is more like a felt tip pen and depending on the pressure you use, you can get a thin or thick line.Starting at the upper left corner of each segment, draw angled lines partway down, insert a circle and "capture" it with a line up and over it, darkening the space on either side. Continue echoing this new curved line until the segment is filled. This took quite a bit of time as I had more segments to fill than the example did so spread it over more than one day.

The next step is adding color with a pastel chalk pencil provided in the pack, but if you don't buy the pack full of tiles, pens, and various pencils, you are free to find something similar on hand. This Art Graf has similar qualities to a pastel chalk pencil but the trick was to find something to apply it with. This brush was handy and worked pretty well to work the soft pigment into the paper along the line of the spiral.

Next I used the felt eraser tip from a used up white board pen to gently move the pigment from the line to create shading. The same process was used to add graphite with a soft pencil along the other side of the spiral line. A tortillion moves the graphite across the paper for more shading.

It never ceases to amaze me how that step of shading transforms any tangle, giving it a depth that is often 3-d in nature. At this point I wasn't sure I wanted to continue on because I liked how it looked and had peaked at the next steps. But continue on I did because, you know, if I didn't like it, I could always draw it again and stop here.

Now it was time to spruce things up with gel pens - not just normal gel pens but metallic ones. I think this is new for the Zentangle people. On their example, they inked in those big circles with a colored metallic pen and placed white gel pen dots inside the double lines. I really didn't like what it did. Plus the paper in this sketchbook is a resume paper with cotton content that rather soaks up the ink while their tiles are I believe something akin to Yupo - a plastic translucent surface that the gel ink sits on top of. While the white gel pen dots really showed up on their tile, I knew it wouldn't on my paper. Instead I just went over the big circles on mine so they are firmly white. I DO have a collection of metallic gel pens that you can see all lined up for testing - I wasn't sure which color would look the best with my blue shading.

I chose a purple one which I am very pleased with. I think you can even see a bit of the sparkle. The graphite also has a sheen to it when you tip the tile. I tried to capture that in the video below - not sure why the sheen of the graphite looks so yellow though; may be the incandescent light I was shining on it.

As for other strides made last week, when I went into the studio to retrieve those gel pens, I looked for the umpteenth time at the second Peace quilt waiting for me to finish pinning it. I realized that there were some areas I could reach while standing straight up (I still have some issues with even the slightest leaning forward at the waist) so spent a few minutes adding pins - a small triumph. Eventually I'll be able to reach across to the far side to finish the pinning. I'm nearly done with Home Care, having my last visit with "the shower lady" and taking my first unaccompanied shower a few days later and sans shower bench. Best of all, I finished weaning off of the oxycodone once I made the connection that it was some of the physical therapy exercises and the number of repetitions of some of them that was keeping my pain level from coming down. I just have to double check with the doctor to make sure that was all that was keeping me from being cleared to drive. I'm about ready to transition to upstairs, moving the clothes and bathroom items I'd kept downstairs for convenience sake and to sleep in my bed. It dawned on me that I'd by making the couch in the livingroom my bed, I'd been living like one of those wealthy women of the pre-1900 eras who held court in their boudoirs! So close to being back to something more normal.