anika mari

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been flipping through a bunch of quilting books lately.

The book on Amish quilting in particular caught my interest. Simple is probably the best word to describe an Amish quilt, but that is precisely what makes them so intriguing to me. I find them incredibly striking, and I love the bold colors and geometric patterns. I decided to draw a geometric composition, inspired by the quilts.

I started drawing the triangle pattern from my memory without referencing the book. Once I had the lines drawn in, I realized that it wasn’t quite right, but I went ahead and finished the drawing. I added color with watercolor paints, and then added in some detail and texture with pen. In the end I think the drawing has more of a Native American feel than Amish, but I’m really happy with the result. When I look at it, I’m reminded of Native American woven rugs or tapestries. This drawing is a serious contender to be enlarged. I think it would look great hung on the wall, just like a tapestry.

For the next drawing I referred to one of the quilts in the book, but gave it my own twist.

I purposefully drew it in two sections that were slightly skewed from each other because I didn’t want it to be too perfect. I colored in some of the triangles with watercolor, then added some texture with pen. Initially I intended to add black to the triangles that didn’t have color, but as I was working I liked the contrast that the white triangles added to the overall composition.

The next drawing was a free form composition, but it was a continuation from the geometric triangular forms in the previous two. This time I added some curved lines, and it took on a life of its own.

As I was working, the drawing started to spread apart, away from the grid that I’d tried to stay in. I don’t mind it, and I like the drawing as it is, but I still wanted to fulfill my initial vision.

I drew a one inch grid and then worked within the grid to lay out the pattern.

I really like this pattern. The variation of the watercolor adds a level of depth and interest that I wasn’t expecting, but that I’m very happy with.

I’ve finally picked up where I left off with the Creativity Boot Camp. Drizzle was the next theme on the list, and the main thing I thought of was rain, perhaps because we really need some here! Our grass has given up and is now brownish yellow and crunches underfoot.

But I digress. For the “drizzle” theme, I drew rain drops in the soothing colors of light gray, grayish green and grayish blue. So far this was the quickest drawing I’ve done for the boot camp. It’s simple but I quite like it.

Maybe it’ll help bring some real rain!

I was able to finish up the next Creativity Boot Camp theme, ornament, over the weekend.

When I thought about the meaning of ornament, I considered it to be decoration that is added to some surface that might otherwise be plain, purely for aesthetic purposes.

A few possibilities came to mind, but I liked the idea of ornamental tiles. Little ceramic slabs can be quite plain without some decoration. Indeed many times they are, but in some traditions they decorate the heck out of them. Talavera tiles are one style that I admire quite a lot, that I’ve taken inspiration from when creating a previous design.

Although making a tile pattern isn’t something new for me, I wanted to create a more intricate design. I chose a monochromatic blue on white color scheme, inspired by the ubiquitous blue and white porcelain designs. I’m often amazed at the level of detail artisans are able to achieve using only one color, so I took the one color approach as my jumping off point.

I did the outline first, as I often do, and scanned it so I could re-color the tile if the blue didn’t look as good as I hoped. You might notice that in the center medallion, each of the four “leaves” are a slightly different design. I penciled in each one, intending to choose a favorite to repeat, but I liked them all, so decided to leave them as they are. In a way this could serve as a “sampler” tile. With the designs worked out here, I might just have to make 4 different tiles using each of the different leaves.

Once the outlines were in place, I added a few shades of blue prismacolor marker for extra depth and interest.

Although I might have had a moment’s doubt that prompted me to scan in the outlines only, I am very happy with the all-blue tile. Now if only I had some actual tiles to ornament!

By now the Creativity Boot Camp is officially over, but I’m going to finish up on my own anyway. Only five more themes left, and the next one is “drizzle”. I have two ideas at the moment, and I’m not sure which way I’ll take it, but I’ll figure it out soon.

I had a hard time coming up with viable ideas for the “fluid” theme for the Creativity Boot Camp. Initially I had an idea to some how use flowing hair, but the more I worked on that idea, the less I liked how it was looking.

In the end I went with water. Water is one of my favorite things, so I don’t even mind that it’s obvious. Once I’d settled on an idea, the rest went pretty quickly.

To start, I actually took inspiration from an old drawing of mine of green waves.

I liked the loops of the waves, but I changed my approach to make the drawing more fluid.

The lines were drawn with pencil instead of pen to keep the contrast low. I only darkening a few of them strategically. I also used a more fluid and elongated stroke. When I had the lines in place, I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d do for the colors, but as I was working I decided to go with a soft and subtle color palette.

This isn’t the most complicated piece of art I’ve ever created, and I really don’t have a lot to say about it. It was just an easy, relaxing drawing, and it’s pretty nice to make one of those once in a while. I think it looks quite serene. Plus, it didn’t take too long, and I only drew one drawing for this theme–all things that make me happy.

The next theme is “fly” which I hope to work on tomorrow if I can find the time.

I had to spend a couple of days working intently on a web design project, but today I had some time to get back to the Creativity Boot Camp themes, and I finished up a drawing for the theme, “grow”.

This is the first year I’ve really paid attention to how seeds grow into plants, and I was amazed to discover that the first pair of leaves that sprout up are practically identical for all plants, and that it’s the second set of leaves that are unique to the variety. I was completely charmed by the miniature leaves, and kept exclaiming deeply insightful gems such as, “wow these little chard leaves look just like big chard leaves, only tiny!” and “look at these mini-parsley leaves! you can really tell that it’s parsley!”

Although you might not have guessed it from those excited comments, I do know a thing or two about plants and gardening. I find it completely fantastic that I can still be surprised and learn new things.

When the theme of “grow” came up, the first idea that sprang to mind was to represent my new discovery, so it was just a matter of having the time to do it.

I first drew the little plants in pencil, outlined them in black, and then filled in the leaves with various shades of green.

Shown are swiss chard, parsley, nasturtium, and basil seedlings. After scanning in the drawing, it seemed too flat, so I added some details to the leaves.

Adding detail was a good call since it makes the plants a whole lot easier to identify in the drawing, at least in my mind. I briefly thought about filling a pen with white ink to draw the lines on the nasturtium, but the desire to just get it done won out.

At some point I realized that the drawing was perfect for a repeat pattern, and it was more than halfway there already. In Photoshop the only adjustment I had to make was to the positioning of some of the individual plants in order to get the repeated pattern to look balanced.

I repeated the pattern once more to get an idea of what it would look like smaller.

I’m very happy with the result, especially since I didn’t specifically set out to make a pattern, but to simply draw my interpretation of “grow”. In the drawing itself, I’m most satisfied with the swiss chard. I think the basil and parsley could be a little better, but they are ok for now.

I’m looking forward to working on the next theme which is “fluid”. I have a couple of ideas, but I’m not totally sure about which direction I’m going to take just yet.