Sunday 16 September 2012

Fun with patterns - Sketchbook Challenge and beyond.

Another week has flown by, but here in Bedfordshire it has been a mostly glorious week with my favourite weather - beautifully sunny, but not too hot. I have mainly been having sketch book fun this week, although I have done some work towards my  C&G.  My tutor,  Laura Kemshall,  has managed to give birth to her rather gorgeous daughter a month early, so I don't suppose she's hanging about waiting for my next submission!!!! Congratulations to her.

So here are some pages from my sketchbooks for a change.
This month's theme for Sketchbook Challenge is pattern - which is really open to almost any interpretation you care to give it. Here you can see two pages which have merged.  
I long to be able to throw together an abstract pattern and on the left, underneath the circles you can see an attempt I made some months ago.  It has been lurking and unloved - a page I quickly turned over, until I saw a little demo on the Sketchbook blog when I though it was time to do something about it.  On the righthand page you can see a print of a repeat pattern lino block I made after  watching a DMTV demo from Laura.  I also bought myself some glazing medium to use with acrylics which I used in this to modify my original page.   I can now linger a little longer on this double spread, without feeling it was letting the side down.

When I made the leaf block I tried it out on some newsprint which I then flooded with some orange and yellow washes.  Black acrylic acted as a resist and the back of the paper had some interesting patches so I tore up the print and used it here, some showing the back and some the front as a background below. The sunflower image was made from different stencil techniques, including gold Markal stick and some bottle top prints.


Here a completely different pattern.  I used to make pattern an art topic with my seven years olds when I taught.  I feel it is very empowering to young artists who maybe frustrated by their inability to draw.
A good old favourite was to fold a sheet of paper into rectangles and use these to create a repeat pattern. This could be a very tedious task, but I would encourage my class to use large shapes, rather than trying to draw a robot or princess in each square!  Here's my attempt - not as impressive as some of my classes' used to be - it may need rescuing one day with an abstract over painting!


Here's another page - inspired by a post on the Sketchbook challenge - more of an elaborate doodle, but fun.


I couldn't go without sharing some stitching with you.
Below is the Rising Star block I quilting with free motion machine stitching.  Practice is definitely the key to improving this skill and I found this wavy line quite soothing.


My Courthouse bock has some straight lines which have also improved.


And finally my rather wonky Rising Star block got the hand stitching treatment, to add to the rustic look.


I'll leave you with a few close-ups and hopefully I will by playing with a few more patterns during the week ahead - have a good one yourself,
Jill







12 comments:

Heloise said...

Some really lovely patterns here. Thanks for your kind comment on my blog.

laurie said...

you have definitely been busy! i love your journal pages and see some fall colors appearing on them.

Gretel said...

How beautiful - reminds me of what fun I used to have experimenting when I was a student and how I should really do some more of it as it's clearly so productive. The repeat pattern is so pretty - I don't think it needs rescuing at all, it has a very 'Charleston' feel to it.

ju-north said...

Such an interesting array of colours and shapes! Do you ever sleep?!

Anna said...

I so love your posts Jill, you are so productive and experimental, with inspiring results.

Clare Wassermann said...

It's certainly a new departure isn't it....very bold...very liberating I suspect.
I think your stitching is most interesting...to see the change. I just want you to stitch the patterns now and combine the two. Xxxx

Maggi said...

Lovely pages and the stitched samples have worked really well.

LAC EMP 2020 said...

Jill, your productivity puts me to shame. You are really going for it and I think that leaf pattern repeat is excellent. It would look good printed in two separate colours and slightly mis registered. I think it has endless possibilities. As for that quilting, well, I can only look in wonder at that vermicelli stitching etc. You are on a roll!!

Unknown said...

Wow - love the sketchbook work. The patterns are so alive and vibrant and interesting, and the details you've posted are worth lingering over. My favourite of the quilting patterns is the slightly wonky one because it has something of the freedom and liveliness of the sketch book pages.

Great work Jill - keep on inspiring us!

menopausalmusing said...

I don't think I could relax enough with a sewing machine to achieve THAT level of competency in quilting! Wow! Loving the freedom of your pattern making.

harmony and rosie said...

Goodness, you have been super busy, I don't know where you find the time. Love the cheery colours.

Emma said...

These are great & especially the detail shots, getting right close in. That was a fabulous demo on the Sketchbook blog - I feel I may be drawn back again!