Sketchbook Challenge : Trash, Ruin, Decay

 

For me, this is a "juicy" theme for the month, because there's so much trash, ruin, and decay around ...  And if you look closely, you'll see some wonderful textures and character in that old junk.  

These are some pictures from a walk in my Dad's woods.    It's an old junk pile, back when people had their own trash piles on their land ...  This barrell is looking very good for future rust-dyes.

Looks like moss, doesn't it?  I think it's an old carpet.  Definately not of the natural world. 

The theme got me thinking of Grappa and Gramma Smitmajer's first date more than 60 years ago ...  Grappa took her to the town dump so Grappa could shoot rats.  He was a "manly man" in those days.  Isn't that romantic?  Sheesh! 

Here's a picture of Grappa's Bus when they were getting ready for the farm auction :   

It was parked next to the machine shed for years and years.  He was always "saving it" and getting it ready for hunting / camping trips.  But I don't think it ever left his yard.  A tornado came through in the early 1980s and planted the roof of the machine shed on top of it, and there it sat for another 30 years.  Grappa just didn't have the energy or the heart to clean it up.  I was amazed that someone actually purchased it at the auction, and dragged it away. 

As further inspiration for this trash and ruined theme,  I offer Ransom Brigg's "A Most Peculiar Trip : Searching for Miss Peregrine:"



I just read his novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and finding this video was kind of a eureka moment.  It fit in so nicely with the theme.  Enjoy!

Sketchbook Challenge : Ordinary Things

I worked on a couple of sketches today. This hearkens back to Jane Lafazio's Ordinary Things Sketchbook Challenge Theme from last summer. This is the new "cabbage" mug I bought at the Arts & Crafts Sale last Saturday :






Both sketches were done with pencil, Sharpie fine line marker, and water color crayons.

Buttons at Bigsby's

Look, Ma! This is how I spent my Birthday money. Ooooh! Ahhhhh! Purty!

$43 worth of buttons that fit in the palm of my hand. I feel a little like Jack and the Beanstalk ... Was it really worth it? or just a bunch of worthless beans? To me, it was worth it! Aren't they gorgeous? These buttons are destined to become closures on some of my hand-made journals. Thankfully, I only need 1 per journal--not a dozen for a sweater. Next time, I'll have to bring in the journal covers, and more perfectly match the button to the cover. I just picked out the ones I liked on this day.

On Friday, my husband and I went to Milwaukee I had a Library meeting in town for work. My local Art Quilt group has been talking about Bigsby's Sewing Center in Milwaukee ... I missed the field trip a while back, so Bigsby's was one of my destinations in Milwaukee.


Bigsby's, has a whole WALL of those fantastic and expensive ('highly prized") buttons sold individually and displayed in tubes. After letting things "mash-up" in my brain for a few hours, it got me thinking of Diana Trout's Grid exercise from the Sketchbook Challenge. The buttons displayed this way are all laid out on a grid ...






These will be a nice library of designs and patterns for future projects.

But now ... Back to more buttons. ;-) Enjoy!

Baba Yaga's Cottage

A special Halloween treat! Yes, you are seeing correctly. That cottage is walking around on chicken legs. That is one of the iconic symbols of Baba Yaga!

I have long been a fan of Baba Yaga. But I wasn't always a fan. Indeed, there was a time I tried to avoid her like the plague. But she kept coming around, and would not be denied. "Consider the uses of adversity," says Baba Yaga. I've met a few Baba Yagas in real life, and finally come to terms with them many years later. Now I can appreciate her very important lessons.

Read more about Baba Yaga at some of these sites :

The Vasalisa Project - Bare Bones a Digital Fairy Tale by Joellyn Rock
A modern telling of this old tale. If you don't know the story, or happen to own the storybooks above, you can get the full tale here--online.


Baba Yaga and the Wise Doll
I love this version for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Baba Yaga's toads wearing jeweled vests and collars! If you don't own it, try you local public library, in the Children's section. This little girl even looks like me at that age.


Baba Yaga and Vasalisa the Brave
Another beautifully illustrated children's storybook. Try your local public library.

Vasalisa the Wise - Chapter from Clarisa Pinkola Estes' The Women Who Run with Wolves. This article explains the lessons of Baba Yaga briefly, but do read the original chapter by Estes if you can. It is well worth it--It literally changed my life so many years ago! This is one of my all-time favorite books--ever. I re-read this chapter this week, and it still rings true for me.

PHOTO [little doll sitting stop Baba's house in my sewing room]



I drew the sketch a few years ago. I've transferred it from one Sweet Leaf Notebook to another--all with the intention of making it real one day, presumably with fusible web and applique.

Last month, the 3 Creative Studios Technique-of-the-Month was Thread Sketching with Monika Kinner-Whalen. Someone posted one with white thread on a black background -- like Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings :



A light went on in my head, and this long-stuck image leaped into a new life as a thread sketch!



It's not quite finished yet, but I couldn't resist posting what I have so far on Halloween Night!

This actually works for the Sketchbook Challenge November Theme : Imaginary Animals. Baba Yaga's house runs around on chicken legs. It must hae been a wild ride for Baba Yaga and any of her guests!

Siblings Thread Sketch : Sketchbook Challenge - View

Thread Sketch on Hand-dyed Fabric
Size : 9-1/2 x 8-1/2 in.

I did another (much simpler) thread sketch based on this photo my sister took of her kids in Japan this past Spring :



She took this picture after the earthquake in March 2010. The kids were walking in the middle of the street in Ginza during a celebration where kids were allowed to walk in the streets. Having lived through that terrible earthquake, tsunami, and the ensuing nuclear scare, it literally changed their View of life. You can read about my sister's thoughts on it here and here, if you are so inclined. Although many foreigners left Japan at that time, my sister decided to stay.


Here's the initial sketch.

Notes on the Making :
Stitching through the Golden Threads tracing paper worked fine in this sketch as it was not so densely stitched as Elephant Reunion.

I went over all the lines at least twice. I added the heart to frame the kids. They really are heading into the future shaped by this experience. Even though they are too small to remember much, they know the world is different. The Japanese People know the world is different. Not unlike 9-11 after my son was born.

I see the Heart as a Blessing or Protection for them on their journey, so far from family in WI.

Since it is small enough, I decided against any background filler quilting for this one.
For their shadows, I just used a black Sharpie marker to fill in the shapes. I didn't want it to get heavy or distorted with stitch.

Elephant Reunion : Sketchbook Challenge

To see what this sketch developed into, read more here.

Unfurl : September Sketchbook Challenge

Like many other Sketchbook Challengers, my first response to this prompt was fern fronds unfurling. So I pulled up this picture that I just happened to take this picture last spring. ;-)


Photo by Art Wolfe from here.
This got me thinking about the symbolism of Maori culture. I'd seen an Art Wolfe Travels to the Edge episode on PBS in which he visited New Zealand and captured spectacular photos of Maori people, highlighting their beautiful tattoos. They also explained the symbolism of the unfurling fern frond being the symbol of all creation in Maori culture.


I guess PBS did their research, too, because that's the symbol for their Create channel.


Fern Fronds Unfurling. Done in the style of free-motion feathers.
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.


Ribbons Unfurling
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.
You can see some of the fern fronds from the previous page embossed thought the underside of this page.


Prayer Flags Unfurling
Materials : Pencil, Neocolor 2, ink.

A good explanation of Tibetan prayer flags explains that they are hung so that the WIND can carry the special blessings of these prayers around the world. The colors generally represent the following :
Blue - Sky
White - Clouds
Red - Fire
Green - Water
Yellow - Earth.

Inspiration photo from here.

Sketchbook Challenge : Fire Flies : Summer Wonders

These Fire Flies are done with Neocolor 2 Watercolor Crayons.

Remember catching fireflies when you were a kid, and putting them in a jar, thinking they'd be your lantern? They were never quite the same contained in that jar as they were flying free. We've seen a few around here this summer.

On J's cross country trek in her plane, she hopped from small airport to small airport. Many nights she slept under the wing of her plane. One night she said the fireflies were dancing in a field of soy beans in the midwest. I couldn't figure out how to render that scene, so I opted for the above. Maybe someday I'll figure it out ...

Sketchbook Challenge : Ordinary Objects

Piper Cub at Sunset
The original was done in gouache watercolors on some heavy watercolor paper (What a difference that makes!). I'm going to give the original to my best buddy J (Shhh! Don't tell her ...) since this is a silhouette of her plane, a Piper Cub.

This summer, she flew across the country, from Rhode Island to Idaho, to start her dream job as a wildlife biologist, tracking animals with radio collars (among many other things). She did stop to see me in WI. ;-)

Although seeing one of these little planes, and even flying in one, is a rare treat for most of us, this is an everyday thing for her. See how I'm shoe-horning it into the August Sketchbook Challenge theme : Everyday Objects?

Pathways : Sketchbook Challenge

My new laptop is an Apple with a non-Windows operating system, which means I can't use Paint.net on it. So I've been playing with some alternative image manipulation software. Today, it's Seaside 3. These started out as pictures of windfall helicopter seeds (Do you realize that every one of those millions of seeds is different? Some have this lovely curve, others are rail straight ... they are like snowflakes in that way.)

Anyway, I wanted to bring out the "pathways" and veining in the wing. I was just playing around and not taking any notes, so I don't think I could recreate these effects deliberately--yet. I'm just getting comfortable with the software.


This one looks like an old etching.


I think I used the Sepia filter on this one. This is my favorite one so far.


This one is one of the original photos where the veining stands out nicely. No special effects needed.


This is one of the first pictures I took of these seeds. The veining shows up pretty well, but the background is way too busy. So that was lesson #1 : Use a neutral background.

In the Tornado's Path : Sketchbook Challenge : Pathways

Materials : Neocolor 2 water color Crayons
Blending many colors is the key to richness in these pages. The Tornado is not just black, but gray and blue (several shades). I tend to keep the shapes simple, letting the colors add complexity.
I also used the hard tip of a paint brush (not the brush end) and "drew" scribbles on the white of the page, to add a lower spots where the crayons would not penetrate. You can see the scribbly swirls around the tornado column that resisted the color. (Leftover from last month's theme.)

May has been a particularly bad month for Tornadoes. Like everyone else in the Midwest, I feel it, too. I think most of us have had to go down to the basement, or hide under a desk at some time in our lives to let the storm pass. I must be working out some terrors with this one ...


This is the page just after I colored it with the Neocolor 2 watercolor crayons. Not so impressive at this stage, is it? Just a little water and the colors blend and deepen. I love these crayons!

Sketchbook Challenge : Can't Resist This

The Sketchbook Challenge theme for May is "Can't Resist This." This is based on a picture from The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I used a white crayon on white paper, with a blue water color wash. The paper was not designed for water color and it got kind of water-logged, so I decided to iron the page dry.--totally forgetting that it would also melt the wax crayon. LOL! The white disappeared, but it made a darker blue on the page.

Other things in my Sketchbook this month :


May Zentangle


The Red Dress. I saw a dress in a catalog, and decided it would be an easy shape to draw. Pen with NeoColor 2.

Sketchbook Challenge : Red-Wing Blackbird - Harbinger of Spring

Red-Wing Blackbird
Made with Neocolor II water-soluble crayons


This is the line drawing I started with. I usually do these on a loose piece of paper. When I get it to where I like it, I trace it in pencil, flip it over and burnish the image into my sketchbook. That's why the final piece is in reverse. I've also been gluing the outline drawings into the sketchook near the final piece. That way I have a record of how the piece developed.


This one is BEFORE adding the water to blend the colors.
It's amazing how a little water adds such vibrancy!

History : We have another red-wing blackbird pair nesting in a tree in our back yard.
That means, I'll have to watch my head in the back yard : If we get too close to their tree, they dive-bomb us. Good thing that only lasts for the nesting season!