Nefertiti

Nefertiti, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Ah - a series is born. (Famous last words, as soon as I declare that the urge to continue will fade away!!)

The women of Art History 101 - I've been stitching them onto little muslin/batting sandwiches. Liking both sides - bobbin side and top side...

At the same time, at home drawing homework in process - the hubby was the model, can't tell if he's miffed at being the model or ticked off at how the Dolphins were playing :-)

Matilda button babe

Matilda button babe, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Declaring today Finishing Friday, I've applied five minutes of effort to finally complete this button babe pin.
Sheesh - avoidance for so long on such a simple project.

I don't think it was as simple as avoidance. There was overwhelm with other projects - this pin was a leftover from a group workshop. And there was disorganization and lack of focus to overcome.

S-l-o-w-l-y organization, enough to make a difference, has helped me produce. Focus without rigidity of time schedules is an on-going effort.

Still, she's a fun little pin. Matilda the meek, perhaps?

good morning

good morning, originally uploaded by jckirner.

It's raining.

School's in session and no one's home sick (total fabrication picture - that's the guest room!!)

Need to study.
so...
avoid...


avoid..


avoid.


Fiber Art Traders (link in sidebar) Haunted House journal quilt prompt. Got as far as the door in my random piecing effort and ran out of room in the page size restriction.

Now I really HAVE to go study....

Have a good day!

Pirate skull?

Pirate skull?, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Hmmm - maybe that's what it will be when I'm done.

After all, isn't it Talk Like A Pirate Day? Or was that yesterday.

Skull portrait

Skull portrait, originally uploaded by jckirner.

My friend stopped by and while perusing my skull prints remarked that this one looked like an x-ray.

That comment ,and the drawing exercise from Weds. nights' class (draw nude model then add clothes), prompted me to play with this in study break moments.

color test

color test, originally uploaded by jckirner.

See what I mean? Endless variety with just one stamp.

Acrylic paint stamped on silk drapery sample. Slubby goodness!

orange overdyed silk fiber from the threadgatherer trimmings pack.

(Update: okay, so I haven't visited the ThreadGatherer site in a long time. Back in the day - ahem - you could get a bounty of silk overdyed fiber samples gathered from their dyeing process. A lovely mixture grabbag for a mini cost. I have plenty left!)

Skull stamping and printing

Skull stamping and printing, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Endlessly fascinating - and a lightening fast hour spent with one of the skull stamps this morning.

First up plain stamping on 2 grades of muslin. Colorful acrylic paint brushed onto the stamp or spread on printing plate then stamped. (Ahhhh - can't get blogger to stop rotating my pics!!)

And pulled print off the printing plate too!

Then stamping and printing light onto dark cotton fabrics. Again pulling prints from the printing plate.


So much more to explore!

It's interesting to see the different textures picked up by varying how the paint is applied to the stamp, which ground texture is used, and the varying pressures applied to the stamp.

Skull stamps

Skull stamps, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Play time coming up soon. Waiting for my new stamps to dry and I'll be at the paint and fabric pronto.

Fun foam glued to discarded cardboard...

Then again...

...maybe the 47-year-old brain is so full of references that everything I read brings up too many tangents to follow. It's not that stuff doesn't stick, it's that too much is stuck in already.

Case in point... reading about Ancient Egyptian burial rites and the mummification procedure. The brain was considered useless and discarded - Sheesh - the mind whirls - what did they consider the brains function to be? the mind bounces around for awhile then gets back to the text.the heart was considered the seat of intelligence heart, heart, smart, heart - and who's been playing with a heart motif at the moment? Arlee, Jude - so off I go on that tangent. Back to the text - painters and sculptors did not sketch their subjects from life but applied a strict canon...first drew a grid on the wall.... yeah, yeah, I've seen that scribes grid at a museum visit - now was it the King Tut one in Ft. Laud. or the Treasures from Britain in NC - and off I go researching that. Sheesh.

At 20 there was less fodder in the brain to reference, I could FOCUS!!

Used to be easier

Used to be easier, originally uploaded by jckirner.

This 47 year old mind is full of holes. Things read and memorized just slip out and off to who-knows-where!!

Art History I - the online college course - is kicking my butt. An interesting, but oh-so-slow slog through the textbook each week. Followed by online quizzes and little papers to write.

This was so much easier at 20 - a glance at a page and it was glued to the brain. Now - different story, different tactics. Lots of repetition in reading and lots more writing is helping attach the info in the brain.

Hope I get better at this!

Early Morning Needs Coffee Monster

Early Morning Needs Coffee Monster, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Continuing on in the 5" x 7" pieces. These inspired by the yahoo group Fiber Art Traders (link in sidebar) prompt to create Monsters for a trade in October.

Who Is This?

Who Is This, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Signs are that I should continue practicing my drawing skills.

Querying folks to identify who I drew in this quick contour sketch came up with 3 names:

Barack Obama
Jimmy Carter
Don Knotts

One of them is correct. I'm glad the gender was easy to identify.

Who do you think it looks like?

Nude World

NatsNude, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Evening drawing class last night so we're a weary lot this morning. And amused - by my daughters drawing.

My daughter has been viewing, with a mix of curiosity and awkwardness, the results from my figure drawing class.

She feels a sense of revulsion and shock at the nude figure. Yet I feel it's important to show her it is a thing of beauty in all its shapes and sizes.

Locally this has been a bit of an issue...

Brave nude world -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Posted using ShareThis

It's something she'll gradually sort out for herself.

On the bulletin board today

On the bulletin board today, originally uploaded by jckirner.

Yesterday's fabric dried, and a prompt from the Fiber Art Traders group to create little monsters in a 5" x 7" size resulted in this little face.

Mostly painted over the stamped background with dynaflow, lumiere and neopaque acrylics. Stitched first and stitched after painting. Added some pitt pen too. It's really glittery, yet that doesn't show well in the photo.

A piece of fun. Will I trade it?

Maybe.

I made a stamp

I made a stamp from cutup foam

glued to cardboard remains of a notepad.

Using acrylic craft paint I experimented with layers of stamping

on thin gauzy muslin.

Letting that dry overnight I water-thinned Setacolor transparent paint in two colors of green and washed across the fabric.

Dropping clear water and adding wrinkles to allow some variation in the color as it dries.

Leftover paint, what to do?

Crayon rubbings of the stamp on paper, indented paper

color washes.

Things are drying!!

Figure drawing class

Figure drawing class, originally uploaded by jckirner.

These pics will be a little difficult to see - soft pencil on aged newsprint didn't photograph too well!!

First live model figure drawing class last night. Challenging and fascinating all at the same time. And I progressed during the evenings class.

After the warm up gesture drawings we did a 10 minute continuous line contour drawing. As in - don't lift the pencil from the paper. I certainly got lost in the curled leg and need work on getting the overall proportions balanced. Still - not complaining!!
>

Then several 20 minute poses - which included me playing with this foot for too long. (Find that line! when in doubt try 20 more!)



And the last pose I got a better handle on proportions, although her head seems squeezed by the edge of the paper and the foot fell off the other side!!