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Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Sketchbook Challenge: Sketch #2

My second sketch for The Sketchbook Challenge’s January theme – highly prized — is my eye. It represents how much I value my vision. Whatever would I do if I could not see my children’s beautiful faces, or the colors of leaves changing in the fall, or the first amazing greens of spring? 

Regretfully, my eyes are not really this green. They are more of a muddy green with brownish hazel at the center.

It is interesting the things I notice about my drawings once I photograph or scan them and look again. In this case, I drew the eyebrow way too small and out of proportion. Perhaps it was because I drew the eye at the top of the page, and didn’t have enough space at the top for the brow. 

The thing about photography is also true in the case of both my art quilts and my traditional quilts. It is very valuable to photograph them at different stages, and to examine the photos, because I learn a lot about whether I am using values and colors properly, about whether a piece is in balance, or out of sync. If something bothers me about the photo, it tells me what I need to fix in the piece.

6 comments:

  1. I, too, always notice things about my work after I have finished it. Many times I feel much better about my work once I have detached myself from it. From an outsider's point of view I was mostly struck by the vividness of the eye color and the detail of the eyebrow rather than the proportion. Thanks for sharing.

    (seen on flickr)

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  2. Thanks for posting your two sketches. Time and vision are very highly prized. Its so helpful for us to see each artist's thoughts and lists! Thanks for "walking" with us in this journey!

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  3. Your eyes sound like they are the same color as mine!

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  4. You are right about photographing your work...I have found that it is a very useful tool! It lets me step back and see my work as the viewer will see it. I've found some glaring mistakes that I would have missed otherwise.
    I love your sketches! Thanks for sharing them!

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  5. I love your sketch using the eye. I have been sketching faces for cloth dolls that I create. I never considered this for January's theme. A wow moment. Thank you for sharing.

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  6. I like this! Beautiful color variations. I would love to see this done with thread. I threadpainted an "eye" for a group postcard swap a few months ago. I did not get the color variation I wanted. Still learning and I think your latest QA video workshop will help me too. Plan to view it today. If you do ever make one in thread, I hope you will post a photo.

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