Blankets & A Process

Forgive the dreadful photos (especially this one)…I was drawing/painting in the wee hours of the morning (have no idea why I’m up so early these days:( ) and taking photos at that time is  near impossible, but there it is.

The blankets are out in full force around our house and in use! Perhaps for you too.  Most of our blankets I’ve crocheted at one time or another. My favorite is this big, huge granny square blanket made with lots of leftover yarns.  To see a couple of other drawings of this blanket, click here and here.  Should you be a crocheter and want to make this blanket, click here! It’s one of  my FREE PATTERNS available to you!

So I thought I’d show you a drawing in process where I’ve made use of a page that I began for another drawing (see this Knitting Brown drawing). I drew the knitting needle and decided to abandon ship and start over.  Why? I don’t know. Hm.

Anyway, I started a continuous line drawing on the abandoned page.  Continuous line is lovely for early morning drawing: restful, thoughtful, meditative. It should be noted that I have several continuous lines on the page. I typically take a line as far as I feel it can go. Then pick up my trusty Bic pen and begin somewhere else. I just love that way of drawing.  It frees me from feeling I have to have everything “correct” or have to have every detail. The witchy looking thumb was weird…but oh well, not gonna stress about it…let it go!

Then I splashed on some watercolor.  When I have lines on a page, no matter how wonky looking, I tend to be very loose and free with the paint.  Choice of colors is aligned with similarity to the local colors around me. For instance, the chair I sit in to think, write, draw each morning, is burgundy.  It has a matching twin.  The closest color on my palette to “burgundy” is quinacridone magenta, a favorite delicious color which is much more exciting than burgundy.  I have a yellow pillow in the same fabric as the hassock, but they aren’t quite so bold a yellow as I used here: cad yellow is way more vibrant and fun! So this is how I “think” when I paint.  I do not attempt exact colors of my surroundings.  I let my surroundings guide me, but pick what is close but perhaps more jazzy. 🙂

Another note about color:  I’m always thinking about connections…between colors of each of the “things” in my drawing.  I love looking for the echoes of burgundy in the blanket, the hints of green in the blinds, the blues showing up in shadows of the burgundy chair.  Making color notes in your drawing this way allows it to be cohesive and a whole unit. That’s also why I love splattering…splatters of colors from the blanket over the chair area allows them to be connected to each other.  I love connections…in BOTH continuous lines AND in color!!

*I also went back into the drawing with my Bic pen to add the tip of the Bic pen.  Sometimes continuous line doesn’t allow some necessary details you may want added in later. Tee Hee!

I wanted to add oil pastels to this.  Just a bit of the juicy dark colors, especially in the blanket since oil pastel has a natural textured look which mimics the look of yarns.  Defined the cropped out area too, as this was my first focus in the drawing.  It kept spilling outside the borders of this drawn rectangle.  I don’t mind these things…I just go along with Pen wherever he goes. Oh, and the oil pastel over the cropped box, helped the witchy thumb look less, well, witchy. 🙂

In the end, I decided to go back into the drawing with Bic pen to add a few of the lines on my sketchbook page.  And by this time, the light is a bit better in the house for taking a photo and I think you’re getting a better look at the color.

So, draw up a chair,  a blanket too, and sketch what you see.  Splash on some color.  Add a few accents. Redefine what you need.

It’s all good, in the land of sketchbooks.

0 thoughts on “Blankets & A Process

  1. Dr Cornelius Snorter says:

    Somehow I missed this post.
    I want to draw and paint like you. If you know my style, you know that is never going to happen. Then again, who knows but I would like to be more free 🙂
    Your colour choices are just perfect. It’s a shame you dealt with the witchy thumb so well – I liked it!
    Stew.

  2. Mari says:

    I like it a lot, so relaxing and fun way to draw (great lines), paint and sketch and I like it how you made it.
    All our blankets are out and very much used every day now, Im not good at working with yarn so all our blankets are store bought… But sure is something I would ike to look in too though, looks so relaxing when people knitt .

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