Evening Class - Art Textiles

I have been a bit preoccupied this past week or so and for good reason.  At the end of August I decided after much thought to sign up for an evening class.  I used to like to do one during the winter but over the past 6 years the day job has just taken off to such as extent that every evening seems to be spent doing work.  Well the past year has taught me that you should not put things off and I am certainly not going to spend so much of what is really my unpaid time working.  What is essential will of course be done but I want my life back, my spare time to do what I want.  By signing up for an AS Level in Art and Design Textiles I shall spend my time doing something I really enjoy, hope to learn more and hopefully at the end of it get a qualification.

I am teaching more and more types of art at work plus a new textiles course so it will come in useful for there but I am doing it for me as well.

So the first week was spent on the course introduction and then we were asked to start thinking about natural forms and creating backgrounds.

So above Yo can see some papers that I stained.  Some I have ripped the edges for.  It is funny because I ripped pages for my sketchbooks during my BTEC and degree and that is some time ago now!

As regular readers will know I love dried Poppy seed heads so of course that had to be my first scribble drawing.

Blogger has sadly tipped this the wrong way and the shading should be facing downwards.

I then moved on to a pomegranate which is a new area for me to draw but the sketchbook that I was working on in the summer by following an on line course by Alisa Burke has helped me to try this sort of thing more easily.

This has turned out a little shiny but I think you can see, one half has the many seeds and the other side is showing the skin.

This is just the top half of the pomegranate and I prefer this one.

Then the good reliable pepper!

I think I prefer the black pen drawing here but even the pencil drawing looks better in the flesh.  It was good light for taking pictures by the time I got home today.

I have always liked drawing in pen and rarely feel the need to rub out anything or have thoughts that it does not look right, unlike with pencil. 

I had the second session this week in which we had our drawings looked at and we started some simple samples of free machine embroidery but it is not ready to show just yet.

This weeks homework is to spend this coming week adding to the drawings but looking at different natural forms this time and using a wider range of media.

Plus, to start adding what I have made already to my A3 sketchbook.  Plenty to do and I am really enjoying and as intended, I am finding and making the time to do it.  I am so glad that I decided to sign up for this  and I really look forward to my two hours of structured fun and tasks set for homework.  To tell you the truth I miss being a student ans if I could afford it I would really like to go back to college......well maybe one day but for now I am happy with this.

xx