Beginning my Garden Journal/Sketchbook

Keeping a Garden Journal and Sketchbook is one of my goals for 2018. I'm going to start January 1 and try to keep it for the whole year. It will be interesting to see how the garden changes over the year. I plan on sketching not only flowers and plants but creatures and insects that enjoy the garden.  I'll record what the garden looks like in different types of weather and different times of day.

I'm using a Moleskine Mixed Media Sketchbook with a hard cover. It's approximately 5 X 7 inches. I will use a variety of media and pens/pencils for the sketches.

With 2018 just around the corner, I thought I would do the Title Page today so I can start right into sketching on the first of January.

I first drew some flowers in pencil from photographs of my garden from last summer. Then, using a black Uniball Deluxe Micro pen I went over all my drawing lines.

Once that was done and the ink had dried, I erased all my pencil lines with a kneaded eraser. Then I got out my watercolours and painted the flowers adding details with watercolour pencils. The Title was copied from my computer screen where I pulled up a font I liked.

I filled in the font with a black Uniball Vision Fine point pen. I can't wait to begin my sketches and I really hope I will give myself time each week or every couple of days to draw something in this book.

Attempting to meet 2018 Goals and Latest Projects

Well, it's not even the new year yet and I have made my first attempt to meet goals set for 2018. Since I moved to this neighbourhood, I have wanted to enroll in courses at the Franklin Carmichael Art Centre which is just up the road from me. So far I haven't because they didn't have any courses I was interested in or I didn't think I had the time for a course.

Last week I received their schedule of winter classes and workshops and saw some that I would like to take and that would also help me attain my goals. Starting in January, I'll be taking an 8 week class on Oil and Acrylic Painting for Intermediate and Advanced Painters. I should be able to attain my goal of at least 2 acrylic paintings by taking this course and also improving my skills.

I also enrolled in a Portrait Workshop in Acrylic. This is a one-day session that will give some good instruction. I'm really looking forward to these sessions.

Below are some of my recent fabric cards and other projects.

Assessing 2017 and Setting Goals for the 2018 Art Season

It is almost the end of the year and I like to take stock of what I actually completed as far as art goes in this year. Sometimes it feels like I haven't produced anything of worth probably because I'm always feeling I'm behind or spending too much time on one project. So it is good for me to think back on the projects that I tackled.

In 2017 I made 128 fabric cards (the most I've ever made in a year, 8 watercolour cards, 7 graphite baby portraits, 2 art quilts, Sketches for digital photobook and various other sketches.

Considering the time it takes to make fabric cards and art quilts, I've been really productive this year.

I would like to do some other art that I haven't done in a while such as acrylic paintings. In order to be able to do that I'm going to have to let something else go. That would mean doing less fabric cards because this year I usually spent most of my Thursday Art Day designing and making them and not getting to other art.

Goals for 2018

* make less fabric cards
* do more watercolour and drawn cards
* make at least 2 fabric art quilts
* make at least 2 acrylic paintings
* take an art course
* experiment with dying my own fabric
* keep a garden sketch book

I'm not sure this is all realistic but I'm going to try to grow in my ability by also drawing more. I want to keep learning and getting better at my craft.

Below is my first watercolour card for 2018. At the moment it is just the drawing on watercolour paper. I still have to add colour. It was drawn with my Deluxe Micro Uniball using one of my photographs of birds around my bird feeder.

A Long Unfinished Project Completed

Perhaps you remember me blogging about a couple of wing-backed chairs that my daughter and I picked up off the side of the road just after Amy returned to Toronto. We were able to take the first chair apart and reupholster it fairly quickly after we claimed them. However, the second chair presented problems because it was a chair with a built in foot rest. I'm not sure this is the reason for our procrastination but probably part of it.

I finally made it a priority, and Amy and I started to take it apart. I took lots of photos of the process so I could follow them as I put the chair back together. I made notes on the old fabrics as to what side was up and where it belonged on the chair. Using the old fabric pieces as patterns, I cut the new fabric out. I found that I had to take the structure of the chair apart to get to some areas and that was a bit of a challenge to put back together. Somehow I was successful and the chair is now done! There is a real sense of satisfaction when you complete a project like this.

Chairs in the original fabric