Loose and colorful poinsettia, completed at open studio today. I used a limited palette of lemon yellow, Winsor green and quinacridone red. To finish, I splashed on some metallic yellow paint in a starburst pattern.
Watercolor Wednesday: Holiday Fun
Sunday Sketches: Winter Birds
Today I am pondering a painting subject that illustrates wintertime. Pretty quickly I settled on the humble chickadee. It is an ever curious, constantly moving little bird. Today our backyard chickadees are flying back and forth from the tube feeder. Each bird selects and grabs one sunflower before darting up to a tree branch where it consumes its quarry.
Fortunately for me, Bill has shared two photographs of chickadees suitable for my planned painting. But working out a composition that uses both birds is not coming easily to me.
Chickadee 1.
Chickadee 2.
My first try at a composition is awkward and unsatisfactory to me, so it won’t even get shared. I decided to make ink sketches of these two photographs, which will get them familiar and warm me up to the task.
On an 8 by 8 inch piece of paper, the little chickadee, which measures barely 4 inches, can be drawn at its full size. First, I worked out the placement using pencil, then inked the contours lines, adding value with various types of marks. My sweet subjects, black and white IRL, were rendered with ease.
This one is very curious indeed.
This one is demonstrating his love of sunflower seeds.
My two chickadee drawings are numbers 42 and 43 in the 100day project.
Now I need to figure out a scene that will serve as a setting for the two birds.
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Friday Finish: Tutorial with Shari Blaukopf
Earlier this year I shared some work made following a tutorial taught by Montreal artist Shari Blaukopf. She is an urban sketcher and watercolorist who offers a wide range of online lessons through Teachable. Today I finished painting A French Village Scene, which is the final lesson in her course by the same name.
https://learn.shariblaukopf.com/courses/
The challenges were multiple: perspective drawing, sketching in ink, and completing the scene with watercolor.
Here is Shari’s reference photo. She took it while teaching in France this year.
I labored over the perspective drawing for 2 or more hours. Perspective drawing doesn’t come easily to me, and I wanted my work to be believable, if not 100% accurate. When satisfied, I inked the important lines and erased the pencil marks.
I was forced to take some liberties with the scene, because my paper was not proportional to the original. Mine is wider.
I did most of the painting before our Thanksgiving trip to Wisconsin. Returning home, I was keen to finish this and get it off my workspace. Other projects, both started and planned are stacking up awaiting my attention.
Here is my (almost) final painting.
It’s a truism, at least for painters, that they must take some time away from a work before deciding that it is finished. So that’s what I will do. Even looking at it now, I see a few areas that need more work.
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ThWIP Thursday – SOCK!
Back from Wisconsin and fresh off my no.1 cable needles is this fancy sock – the first of a pair for my beloved husband. It turned out to be a pretty good travel project, as long as I confined my knitting to daylight hours. Under artificial light, the tiny stitches were very difficult to navigate.
I used Kate Davies’ pattern for the Mary Delany sock, with some significant modifications. The first was to make it wider to fit a man’s foot. Fortunately, choosing a larger needle got me most of the way there. I also substituted a 6 st. by 7 row stranded pattern for Kate’s 37 stitch diamond flower pattern.
This pattern is found in 750 Knitting Stitches, the Ultimate Knit Stitch Bible. It worked up beautifully with a light solid and dark-to-medium variegated yarn.
This sock is knit from the toe up. When I got to the cuff ribbing, I switched from a size 2 to a size 1 needle. For a looser bind-off, I went back to the 2..
Now to quickly cast on its mate, before losing enthusiasm for the project!
If you’d like to try this pattern, here is the link.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany
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Cast-on Monday: World Traveler Socks
Here we go a-stashbusting among the leaves so red. Fall is here in all its glorious splendor. I am working my stash again – this time to eke out a new pair of socks for Bill. He is down to one pair of LauraKate knit socks, the poor man.
This time I have three (3!) skeins from the stash. I am working from a Kate Davies pattern called Mary Delany.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany
This project’s yarns originate from three different continents.
My North American selection is a multi-hued beauty purchased at the farmer’s market in North Madison three years ago. Two skeins were acquired from a British native who was rearing sheep in Wisconsin, spinning and dyeing the wool. In 2020 I worked one skein into a hat called Rose Window.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rose-window-2
I honestly do not know anything else about this yarn, except that it is a two-ply sport weight. I know that the maker eventually returned to her native land.
My South American yarn is an alpaca blend from Peru.
I was given several skeins by friend Kathy who is allergic to wool. Its composition is alpaca, wool and acrylic. This may be my third project using this yarn. I do hope to high heaven that I can finally use it up.
And from Europe comes the remains of a skein by West Yorkshire Spinners.
I purchased this in Madison also and made Bill a pair of socks last year. He absolutely loves them. There is enough left of the skein to form the toes and ribs of this pair.
This sock is constructed from the toe up. I am using the 2-needle system, superior to working with four straight needles in avoiding dropped stitches.
I found that the stranded pattern used in the Delaney socks was too feminine looking for Bill’s taste. Instead, I chose to use Diamond Link and Dot from the 750 stitches ultimate knit bible – my well-thumbed reference book for stitch patterns.
I marked out the chart onto big graph paper to make it easier to use. This will become important when I’m travel knitting, something I see in my near future.
Daily Fiber 