These are my notes from my class without indents, which I will fix soon. I will also include my sketches and exercises I use in class.

 Drawing Class for Quilters

Saturday, July 21, 2007
10:13 PM

I. Ideas and Inspiration
  a. What to draw
i. Photo
ii. Life drawing
iii. Still life
iv. Abstract
v. Landscapes
vi. From memory
b. Where to draw
i. Zoos
ii. Museums
1) Animals don't move
2) Art museums
3) Fossil museums
a) Great for learning anatomy of animals
iii. parks
a) Great for people drawing
iv. Pets, friends and family
1) Especially when they are sleeping or eating
v. Camera
1) Take tons of pictures to work from
2) Keep a digital camera with you all the time, you never know when you find something interesting
3) Sometimes people get intimidated by drawing around others, so take a picture
a) But drawing from life is always best
b) You see depth better
c) Color better
d) And lighting better
e) Try it, I get a lot of positive remarks when I go out and so will you. People are fascinated with artists, even new ones. Practice at home for a while with pictures until you gain confidence. Draw one type of animal, concentrate on it for a month. Then go to the zoo and sketch it. For example, draw cats at home, then at the zoo draw all the cats in the cat family, tiger, lion etc. This will also force you to see the likenesses and differences in the cat family. I have forced myself to only quilt cats this year so that I don't have to concentrate of learning new animals while trying to learn new quilting techniques. I am also creating a body of work for my portfolio and focusing on the one subject shows my growth as an artist. I can draw other things too and as I create my body of work and feel more confident in my quilting technique, I will branch out and show the world my other subjects. But cats and horses are my favorites.
4) Take pictures of your sketches and progress. I take digital pictures at several stages of sketches and my quilts. They always show me what needs to be changed. Sometimes photos will show you that you did too much and overworked the piece. Yikes!
vi. Sit in the backyard and sketch your garden, get some sun.
vii. Buy flowers at the market, put it in a nice vase and draw
viii. Find a painting of an old master, put tracing paper over it and trace. The movement of tracing will help you train your brain.
ix. Get an anatomy book and trace the skeleton and muscle structure, many times. Knowing the under structure of things will make it easier to get the outer structure right. Especially difficult poses. When you first started free-motion quilting, the boks all say, trace then patterns with your finger and an empty needle to train your brain, same with this.
II. Sketchbook
a. Keep a small sketch book with you all the time
i. If you have a few minutes at the doctors office, or waiting somewhere there is always something to sketch.
1) Carpet pattern
2) Flowers
3) Fabric
4) Tile patterns
5) Ant trails
6) Anything
ii. Start really looking at things, the more you look the more you see.
iii. I keep mechanical pencils for sketching because you don't have to sharpen them and they have an eraser. Keep two. You can draw in pen if you are brave. Not I.
b. Practice. The best way to draw better is pencil mileage. I make sure that I draw one hour a day.
i. Buy a sketchbook and force yourself to draw something everyday for a month. This helps it become a habit. And for me an addictive habit. I love sketching so much I have to force myself to quit after an hour. Remember no one but you has to see this and after a month you are allowed to rip out and burn the sketches you hate. I do. Why wait, because a sketch you hated right after you drew it may seem a lot better a few days later.
c. What to put in your sketchbook.
i. Practice sketches
ii. Fabric swatches
iii. Stitch tests-samples you made for a quilt and glue them in.
iv. Quilting ideas
v. Quilt background ideas
vi. A journal of your thoughts
vii. Brain maps
1) See my brain maps
viii. Writing ideas
ix. Collage ideas
x. Artist trading cards
1) Baseball sized cards artists make to trade with other artists. They are fun to do because they are small and you can experiment with techniques. I use them for business cards.
xi. Postcards
1) Same as Artist Trading Cards (ATC), but postcard sized.
xii. Website design and ideas
xiii. Who am I? A journal
xiv. Art history pictures I copied that give me inspiration
xv. Quilt history pictures I copied
xvi. Color wheels
1) Painted or felt tip pen wheel
2) Solid fabric wheel
3) Printed fabric wheel
4) Tone, shade and hue wheels
5) Color swatches
xvii. Project ideas
xviii. Embroidery
xix. Challenge and show themes and ideas
xx. Thread paintings
xxi. Class outlines
xxii. 5 things to be thankful for
xxiii. Life journal
xxiv. Improvement
xxv. Copies of quilts and paintings I love
1) I learn a lot about my style by the quilts I pick. I seem to always pick the same colors and styles. I copy them on my printer at 50% of the size they may be on the web or in a book. This way I can put several to a page. Kinko's won't copy for you because of copyright. This is for personal use only. Sketchbooks are very personal and confidential.
xxvi. Ideas that my children give me, told to me or drawn. They are a great source of inspiration.
III. Research
a. When I start an new quilt idea I read and read at the same time I am coming up with the first sketches. I always start with an idea in my head. Then I use bits and pieces of research to accomplish this. As I am becoming a better quilter I need less research. I am learning what techniques I am drawn to. I try to learn a new technique every month.
i. I read books, magazines and websites. Looking for ideas about how I want to do the quilt.
1) What techniques do I want to use to accomplish my vision and the sketches.
2) What colors I like.
3) Design styles
4) If I have a problem, I do research to solve it. Thank God for the internet and Amazon.com. I must buy 2 books a week. Then I make sure I do 1 hour of research a day. I LOVE MY BOOKS!
ii. Art History-I look at paintings in my art history books.
1) Borders and Barnes and Noble's always have good art history books on sale cheap. You must get one.
2) The things I study are
a) Technique-How was it painted? Look at brushstrokes, the medium the artist used. Really study it. Think as you aare studying it, how could I make this into a quilt? Not that you want to but it will give you ideas. Look at Saurat's Les Poseuses. How would you do it?
b) Style
c) Composition-see picture. The famous painters know their composition. You can steal it. Your quilt may be totally a different style and subject matter but a great composition will make a quilt, well, great. Trace several famous paintings to get a composition you like and that will work with your sketch. Then take the sketch and rearrange it a bit to work with the composition. More on this later.
d) Lighting-How did the artist create light in the painting, the colors, shapes and lines.
e) Drama-What did he do to create emotion?
iii. Quilt History and quilts done by others-What draws you to this quilt?
1) Study the same as above, technique, style, composition.
2) Plus:
a) Colors-some people are drawn to the same colors. I did not know this until I looked at al my quilts and noticed, they are all red-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange colors. This was subconscious.
b) New techniques
c) New ideas
d) Improvement-I study their stitches and technique. I study award winning quilts. How can I bring my workmanship to this level and beyond.
iv. Self-teaching-Taking time to research techniques and then make samples. I make small stitch tests and 12"x12" mini technique quilts with color samples. When I run into problems I put the problem to my brain and let it roll around in there for a day or two. This has never failed me. The answer always comes when I am taking my bath. Which is meditative and quiet. The only time in the day that is with 3 kids, a husband, 14 cats, 2 dogs and 3 mice! Find your quiet place.
IV. Materials-I am keeping it simple. These are the materials I use in designing every quilt I make.
a. #2 pencil
b. Light box
c. Set of 12 good markers in primary and secondary colors- red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown, yellow-orange, red-violet, yellow-green, blue-violet, blue-green. You can substitute colored pencils. I just like the flat color markers make, especially on large patterns.
d. Set of grey scale markers
e. Sketchbook 9"x12"
f. Tracing paper 9"x12"
g. Grid paper 9"x12"
h. Copier
i. Camera
V. Design Principles
a. Lines, shapes, direction, color, value, scale, proportion and texture are the principles
i. We try to arrange these to create unity through rhythm and harmony
ii. We also want to find visual balance and focus
iii. In one design, one element, such as shapes, may be the focus and the other elements take a back seat.
iv. What elements are going to best represent the quilt design?
b. Composition
c. A strong value pattern-light and shadow shapes that unify and give power to the quilt.
d. A center of interest
e. An overall mood
f. Balanced shapes
g. Balanced color temperatures
h. A sense of freshness
i. Interesting spacing
j. Varied edges
k. Places for the eye to rest
l. Repeated colors and shapes color intensity
m. Something left to the imagination
n. Simplification
o. Planes of depth-foreground, middle and background
p. Contrast in color intensity

VI. Sketching the Idea
a. Thumbnail sketches are the first step in making a quilt for me. I take the vision in my head and put pencil to paper.
i. They are small quick sketches that give you the overall feel of your idea.
ii. They are quick and sketchy
iii. Put down the major shapes
iv. Write notes on the sketches
v. Format-rectangle, square, circle, oval or other. What format will work? Strong vertical lines make a good vertical rectangle. Horizontal rectangles are best in landscapes. Squares work best with lines that radiate from the center or medallion quilts.
vi. Study your thumbnails and pick the best one.
vii. See handout of my thumbnails
b. 8 1/2" x11" sketch based on the thumbnail
i. Create your line of action
ii. lines of action
1) A line of action shows the motion in a design. If you are drawing a jumping horse, the line of action would be a ine showing where the body has moved from to where it is going.
2) This line may or may not be an element in the finished design.
3) This line also gives us a place to put the other design elements.
iii. Types of drawing
1) Line or gesture/contour drawing
a) Line is functional
i) You can draw, doodle, and write
b) Line can be artistic and interpretive
i) Line has personality
ii) Can convey emotion in how you draw it
iii) Line defines edges, makes contours and creates shapes
iv) Demonstration of how line can convey emotion
v) Gesture shows action
vi) A vertical line has strength, such as a city skyline
vii) Horizontal conveys calmness and rest, like a landscape
viii) Curved lines gentle motion, a sleeping cat
ix) Jagged lines cause anxiety
x) These are only a few examples, study paintings and how others have used it. Draw them yourself. What do you feel
c) Contour drawing is also a fast sketchy lines. You are trying to convey the emotion of the scene. No shading. As you draw try to feel the shape.
d) Exercise in contour drawing. No erasing. When you are done it can be cleaned up later. Sketch loosely and keep it simple. Do not try to draw details. Just draw. You have 20 minutes.
2) Shape drawing
a) This is using shapes to create your subject matter
b) After drawing a line of action on your paper then you add the shapes.
c) Simple forms are the key to starting a drawing
d) It is easier to draw a portion of an animal rather than the whole. It is easier to focus.
e) See handouts on how I broke down the kitten in my quilt.
f) Lets take out the picture of the kitten. Put tracing paper over it. Find the major shapes and trace them. You can do this with any photo.
g) I am letting you trace this time but the whole point of this exercise is to be able to break down any subject in to shapes and draw it. Seeing objects as shapes rather than things is critical to seeing them well. So lets do it again this time no tracing.
h) How do you know if you have gotten the proportions right?
i) Turn it upside down
ii) Look at the drawing in the mirror
iii) Take a picture of it
i) How can you get it right?
i) Compare straight lines to the sides of pages.
ii) Compare sizes of shapes to each other
iii) Compare angles of lines to the sides of paper, is it 45 degrees or other
3) Comparative anatomy
a) Studying anatomy is crucial in drawing
b) Comparing the anatomy of a horse to a human, or a dog to a cat will open your eyes and mind
c) If you want to learn a particular animal, build it up from the skeleton up.
4) Isolation drawing
a) This is something I invented. I wanted to learn to draw my daughter. I took a picture of her the same size I wanted the sketch to be. I started roughing out the shapes of her head, eyes nose, ears and so on. I was having problems getting the features correct. So I isolated each feature. I folded the photo so the only thing I saw was the nose in the picture. I put it next to where I drew the nose and drew it. I did this for each feature. This was an "a-ha" moment.
b) isolation exercise
5) Grid drawing
a) Draw a grid on your photo and a grid on your paper. Then you draw what is in each square like it is in the photo. It is best to just draw lines at first.
b) This technique is also good for enlarging a photo or smaller drawing. Just make the grid squares larger and draw it larger to match the squares.
c) Grid demonstration.
6) Perspective
7) Final Sketch
a) By using one or many of the above techniques you should have a sketch that you like to make a quilt with.
b) Let's clean it up. Erase all the lines that you don't like. Check the sketch for proper proportions. Simplify the lines if needed.
c) Retrace or copy to a clean piece of paper.
d) This is your final sketch that you will enlarge to make your freezer paper pattern.
VII. Value Study
a. Make several copies of your sketch and get out the grey markers or a pencil. The grey markers are faster than a pencil.
b. At home make a grey scale out of fabric
c. Take out the grey scale handout. We are going to make a grey scale. 10 values.
d. Everyone needs a good grey scale.
e. Value conveys lighting, emotion, and motion.
f. Value needs to b e balanced in a design.
g. Without contrasting values your subject can get lost. It can make or break a quilt.
h. Value patterns control the movement of the eye within the work.
i. This is where you control shading, shadows and highlights.
j. If you are working from a photo, take a black and white copy of it
k. If you are working on a quilt and you are worried that the values may not be right. Take a picture. Turn it black and white. Or the old fashioned way is to squint at it.
l. You may decide to add more drama by playing with the values. That is why I had you make several copies of your final sketch. Play with it.
m. Once you are satisfied with the value study it is time to play with color.
VIII. Color Study
a. Make more copies of the sketch and get out the colored markers
b. Decide if you want to go with the colors of the photo or change them.
c. Using your value study, color the final sketch. Making sure that the values are the same.
d. Then when picking fabrics you will not be surprised. If you keep the values the same most of the time it will work. I copy the fabrics I want to use in my quilt in color and in black and white.
e. Color in shadows and highlights
f. Color temperature
i. Warm colors-red, red-orange, orange, orange-yellow, yellow, red-purple, purple
ii. Cool colors-violet-blue, blue, blue-green, green, yellow-blue, yellow-green