Inspired by Teasels

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ink, inspiration, nature, sketchbook, teasels

While taking a walk at Thanksgiving, interesting spiral shapes caught my eye in the dried teasels along the edge of a meadow.

After the walk I drew this page of motif ideas in my sketchbook inspired by them. There are also shapes inspired by small puffy white wildflower seed heads that reminded me of dried cotton boles or large baby’s breath. I wished I had also taken a photo of them.

From Sketchbook to Scarf

Tags

blue, charmeuse, digital fabric printing, georgette, ink, scarf design, sewing, silk, watercolor

my ink and watercolor sketchbook page

After purchasing a new 11″ x 14″ hard cover sketchbook for a workshop with Susan Shie May 2017, I decided to try drawing some mandala designs. I was also trying out a new pen from the workshop supply list, Uni-ball Signo 207 Bold. It’s a retractable gel pen which dries to a waterproof ink line. The line of the Bold size pen is wider and the ink takes longer to dry than the pens I usually use, but held up nicely to painting with watercolor after drying.

one end of my rectangle scarf design

I worked with a scan of my page in Photoshop, selecting and copying motifs to create a long 11″ x 58″ rectangle scarf design. I flipped the main mandala motif vertically and combined 4 together in a row alternating the flipped versions. I then selected and copied smaller motifs to fill in the areas between.

digital printing with fiber reactive dyes on silk

On the digital fabric printer at work, I test printed a sample on silk charmeuse. The colors appear dull right off the printer before steaming. After the dye is laid down by the wide format ink jet printer, the fabric is rolled in steamer paper and steamed under pressure. That’s when the fiber reactive dyes bond to the silk and the color  becomes more vivid.

I made a few adjustments to my file based on the test print, then printed the full size scarf on silk crepe georgette. Since the georgette fabric was more than twice as wide as my design, I printed it together with another of my scarf designs lengthwise on the fabric.

my silk georgette scarf designs after steaming

I finished the scarf with a hand rolled hem.

©2018 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

See the other scarf design I printed at the same time in this post.

Lady Beetles Scarf

Illustrated Pride Flag

Tags

creative, decorative, flag, flowers, hand lettering, healing, ideas, illustration, ink, LGBTQ, life, nature, peace, pride, rainbow, spirit, sunlight

I spent Monday wrapped in thought and prayers for all touched by the Pulse Nightclub shooting last year. Remembering so many times members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters have touched my life, inspired creativity and shared pride in personal expression, I took to my sketchbook, trying to express emotion and meaning for each of the stripes in the Rainbow Pride Flag.

Uniball Signo 207 Bold ink pen on 11″ x 17″ Borden & Riley sketchbook

Below is a colored pencil study on a smaller size copy to show my concept for the colors. I hope to eventually create a larger version and add watercolor.

Color study in Prismacolor pencil on an 8.5″ x 11″ print.

Being out-of-town and away from my scanner, I used my favorite scanner app, Scanner Pro by Readdle Inc. to capture an image of my inked page so I could print a copy for making a color study.

I make it a regular habit to capture every sketchbook page with Scanner Pro as I finish working on it, no matter where I am. This way I always have a library of sketched ideas with me on my iPhone as a resource I can refer to in further development of my ideas.

Sketchbook: Adding Color

Tags

colored pencil, floral, illustration, ink, motifs, pattern, Prang, QSDS, sketchbook, Susan Shie, watercolor

This week I’ve been trying out some of the new art supplies I purchased for the QSDS (Quilt and Surface Design Symposium) class I’m taking this weekend. The class is Lucky Drawing: Freehand Sketchbook 2 Day, with the wonderful, amazing artist and teacher Susan Shie.

I started at the top of my page with a set of Loew Cornell watercolor cakes that I already had. Then switched to my new Prang semi-moist 16 watercolor oval pan set recommended by Susan for the middle and bottom rows of flowers, leaves, and insects.

The Loew Cornell colors were very chalky and too opaque, covering up my ink line work. They also flaked off the paper when I tried adding colored pencil on top. The Prang colors were much more transparent; letting the ink line work show through. Colored pencils layered over the Prang watercolor paint very nicely. I definitely preferred the results with the Prang set.

You can find out more about classes taught by Susan Shie on her Turtle Moon Studio website.

©2017 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

Read about the scarf I design from this artwork in this post “Lady Beetles Scarf”.

May 16

Tags

drop cap, flowers, hand lettering, ink, ladybugs, M, motif, pen, sketchbook, sunflowers

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

May Sketchbook

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floral, hand, ink, lettering, M, Melissa, motifs, pen, sunflowers

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

Sketchbook part 4

November Sketchbook part 3

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acorns, bugs, design, eyes, fancy birds, floral, geometric, ink, line drawing, mandala, owl, pattern, sketchbook

More pages from my November pattern motif sketchbook.

Motif Sketchbook part 2

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design, floral, geometric, ink, leaves, motif, owl, pattern, sketch, sketchbook, snail, sunflowers, turtle

Here’s more of my November 2014 pattern motif sketchbook.

Pattern Motif Sketchbook

Tags

acorns, design, fern, floral, hosta, jellyfish, oak leaves, ornaments, owl, paisley, pattern motif, sketch, sketchbook, snails, spiny, squid, thorns, urchin

My November sketchbook in progress.