Drawing Tuesday - crumpled or folded fabrics

 

This is a random find, in a flea market in New York, from Instagram. Very realistic! More trompe l'oeil fabric, filling entire rooms, is at https://www.pinterest.co.uk/tawkinslo/trompe-loeil-fabric/

Alison Watt made a series of paintings of white fabric - they were exhibited at the National Gallery, which of course also has all sorts of colourful drapery in paintings. 

Drapery, ah ... bit of a bete noir for some people. Apparently artists used to dip cloth in plaster before starting to paint it. Or perhaps it was the art students or apprentices who did that, thereby getting proficient at it.

For drawing drapery, this short video  offers information like: start by drawing within the folds; pay attention to whether a line peters out or just stops; try drawing dark lines and lighter lines [and that's as far as I've got at time of writing]. It's the shortest video I could find - all those in the sidebar were 4 or 10 times as long!

A collection of how-to articles for drawing folds and wrinkles is at https://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/drawing-lessons/drawing-faces-lessons/howtodraw-clothingwrinkles-tutorials.html.

From Carol - I enjoyed revisiting drawing fabrics.  Perhaps the next stage would be trying patterned fabrics.  Well done to those of you who did this – something to aspire to.

From Gill - This is a drawing of a beautiful shawl I bought in Spain. I've only worn it once and that was to a fancy dress party.

From Richard - Watercolour, and I'm still trying to get the hang of mixing in Payne's Grey. By chance, this seems to be begging to have a head poking out of the top, but it’s a much smaller heap than that.

From Sue K - Here’s my collage of pillow, bed sheet & wheat-bag. 

From Ann - A drawing completed for another session. It's a dress draped over the back of a chair. 

From Mags -  Placing Colour Catchers in a net bag ( to prevent them from disappearing into the depths of the washing machine ) produce some wonderful subtle shibori ... I have  built up  quite a collection .  Stitched into them on the train , took rubbings  and drew around some of the outlines when I got home.

From Janet K - the link on 'how to draw drapes' was very helpful. It gave me confidence to attempt drapery.

From Joyce - My study of a tea towel, I enjoyed looking at all the valleys and hills once I got into the drawing!

From Judith - Crumpled newspaper using Procreate.

From Janet B - Playing with the shapes and colours of this scarf has been a relaxing way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon.

From me - a droop rather than a drape - drawn from the imagination, during a phone call. A4 size. I had hoped to use felt pen to make "fat threads", weaving them together, but found that as I spent more time on the drawing, adding complete layers of pencil marks, it morphed into something (possibly) more "real" each time. It's still a work in progress....

Drawing Tuesday - crumpled paper (or fabric)

It's always helpful to do a little "research" on the topic, and fortunately I found a short video which showed a drawing taking shape. I tried to follow that method. In an intense hour, I looked and looked and looked - and shaded, shaded, shaded. Every change in one area needed adjustment across the entire item. I wanted to bring out the highlights and the areas of reflected light and make the drawing bold, but always felt it was already too bold!

Done - on a sketchbook page crinkled by a watercolour on the other side

An earlier version

I was sitting near a window as the sun sometimes went behind clouds. As the light changed, different types of shadow came and went, giving yet more aspects to pay attention to.

From Jackie - This was absorbing  and challenging especially since the paper kept blowing about on the garden table

From Sue B - my 2 hour sketch of crumpled paper using HB and 4B…a good exercise for really looking at shadows and angles!

From Judith - Yesterday painted the fabric then wondered about paper and squares. Not sure if it makes the drawing easier or not!

From Sue S -  my study of a crumpled napkin. Those stripes gave me quite a challenge! Perhaps a plain white would’ve been easier!! 

From  Carol - Much respect to those of you who have included text and pattern in your crumpled fabric/paper – I was not so brave but enjoyed the folds.

From Richard - Only found time for one quick pencil sketch today. So lucky that my sketches look better when photographed!

From Janet B - After my first two crumpled pieces kept moving in the wind and eventually blew away, I resorted to a pencil case paperweight. 

From Joyce -  I really enjoyed getting absorbed in such a simple(?) subject, nothing else to distract.

From Janet K - From the archives. A still life exercise at Morley College. Ah, the days when we went to painting and drawing classes.

From Hazel - Here's my drawing of crumpled paper using biro and watercolour. Some beautiful, reflected shadows and light. Very hard to capture the subtlety of it. Enjoyed trying though! 

From Ann - Crumpled fabric over a chair from a few weeks ago. An enjoyable theme!

From Gill - Made a study with a graphite stick then another with ink and a brush (after I finished eating the sponge fingers from this packaging)

Studio Saturday - Dolly

The summer sun is at the right angle to catch the leaves of the peace lily - yet another possibility for a woodblock print -

- but not yet, the grandbaby must have a doll.

I found a pattern, and dug out some recycled linen and a remnant from a favourite dress -

Failure to re-read the instructions led to some tricky moments attaching the head - "next time" I'll sew it on to the body as instructed, rather than stuffing it first!

 We got there in the end -

The tricky part is the hair; the scary part is  the embroidered face. This, I decided, is too much detail, and could so easily go wrong -

Better to leave the child to decide whether she's happy, sad, etc -

Dolly was well received -

Apart from Dolly, a new woodblock is under the knife.

First project of 2020

My favourite tablecloth, the one with subtle grey checks, revealed itself in its true colours 

when I found some remnants of the fabric - the white had, over the years, become rather more grey!

I recently used the remnants (backed with recycled shirt fabric) to make placemats

but had, on discovering the sad fading of the favourite cloth, ordered some linen from Lithuania, which arrived before Christmas. Once the festivities were past, I pre-washed the linen, ironed it while damp, and set to work on making the tablecloth.

 If I'd ordered 10cm more, a false hem at the ends wouldn't have been necessary

 ... but it worked out in the end, mitred corners and all -

 Ahhh - done - and I'm not unhappy with the brown check -

Meanwhile a charity shop find was a curtain made of ticking, which will (one day!) make another tablecloth, with a jolly print around all the hems -

Christmas 2019

It's been a busy time, one way and another.

Today, a quiet morning and a chance to peacefully and appreciatively open the collection of cards kindly sent. It's amazing that the one from Germany reached me through the rain!

I'll be sending New Year "cards" by email, which saves paper and postage and allows funds to be diverted to various good causes (it's that time of year).

Over the past few days the joy of the season has centred around Freya, who has no idea what it all means but is just getting on with her fresh-every-day life. She's starting to crawl - watch out, world! -

The new puppets were a delight both to her and to all the adults who watched her reaction -

What she notices, and what she explores and returns to, is a constant surprise -

I got much pleasure from finding books on my shelves that might interest friends, and wrapping them in fabric from my stash -

(Actually it was a selfish ploy in the ongoing fight against the accumulation of possessions.)

More fabric wrapping, in the form of (book) bags -

When there are many to be made quickly, the algorithm simplifies itself. What evolved was a process of fabric (and cord) selection, approximate sizing, cutting or tearing inside and outside fabrics, sewing a "tunnel", pressing the drawstring casing, sewing it to the open ends of the (turned, pressed) tunnel, sewing up the sides, and threading the cord. Exact timing is unknown, but I can make one in less than half an hour, including finding suitable fabrics.