Category: Non-Quilting Art

New Sketchbook Joy

I have a friend named Deb who loves notebooks, and she uses them…. for to-do lists, for notes, for designs, for lots of things.

Now, I love notebooks too but often only the first few pages are used and then they languish in a drawer or on a shelf.

But, I just can’t help myself. When I see a fun/gorgeous/colorful notebook, it often comes home with me!!

Thus, I present the newest notebook in the Arnold household…..

Once in my possession, the question is “what am I going to use it for?”

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I try to find things to do with my hands while we are watching TV. The reason is because, if I just sit, I will probably go to sleep!!

With that in mind, one night I grabbed some black markers and my NEW sketchbook and propped myself up in the chair and decided to do SOMETHING!

The first drawing was something that I had seen on a Reel one day….. drawing wavy lines in all directions, drawing a daisy-like flower in each section and then filling the blank areas with black. (By the way, I had intended to do process photos along the way but got excited and forgot!!).

This was my first one….

After I “finished”, I wondered what would happen if I colored in the flowers but found that the markers I had were too narrow tipped to FILL each flower. But, this is what I ended up with…..

….and the next day, I bought some brush markers for future drawing!!

Next, I divided my 5-inch square into 1-inch sections and started adding straight and curved lines……

Wouldn’t a simplified version of this be an interesting FMQ design??

My last drawing for the night started out with a classic FMQ design…..

I call them wormholes!!

I then wondered what would happen if I added a grid to the background….

I like that, but what happens if I fill in those grids…..

NOW it is getting interesting!!

I then decided to take it one step further…..

Now THAT one I REALLY like!!!

I am planning to continue playing with non-fabric crafts at night and will post more as I finish them.

Who knows…..maybe this will be one notebook that I WILL FILL!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

Other Art is good too!

On Thursday, I showed you all of the quilts that were shown in our Lyndon House Art Juried Exhibition.

Today, let’s look at some of the other amazing art!!

I love this painting….

“At the Beach” by Michael Johnson

The colors and designs just seem fresh!!

AND, I love the lines in this piece…..

“Majorca Rooftops” by Dortha Jacobson

This one was so cute and captured the image perfectly…..

“Hand in Hand” by Adam Houston

This next one is a fun fiber piece….

“Land of the Candy Moon” by Chris Taylor

I was interested in how she used the fabrics to create rosettes…..

This next mixed media piece starts with a great woven background….

….adding lots of found objects….

“Wildflowers” by Erika Lewis

I appreciated the intricacy of this woodwork…..

“Kumiko Table” by Abraham Tesser

I do like the table, but love the idea of this quilt design…..

Finally, I enjoyed this piece which used recycled expired Covid tests…..

….but hadn’t seen the quilt underneath the design…..

“Mandala CLX” by Susan Lenz

Now I like it even more!!!

So, there is a brief roundup of some of my favorite pieces from the Lyndon House Art Show.

I love that I live in an area that supports and encourages the arts!!

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I-Pad Art….

In continuing with my “OTHER” types of art plan, I have been playing using ProCreate on my iPad.

I found numerous YouTube videos from “Art With Flo” that would walk me thru the creative process.

Isn’t it amazing what you can find online…..you just have to look!!!!

The first one helped me to draw this picture…..

The next morning I wanted to see if I could do it again…..WITHOUT assistance.

I couldn’t remember how to do the “window” so just did a mountain range…..

It turned out okay!!!

Then I tried one of her seascapes…..

I particularly like how the wave interacts with the beach in this one!!!

At the gym, I ran across the YouTube channel for “James Julier Art Tutorials”. His drawings are MUCH more detailed and, when I watched it, I thought that I could probably do it……

NOT…..SO…..MUCH!!

I did learn a bit about doing pine trees so, instead of working on the entire scene, I just did a few pine trees……

I think that they look okay and I really like that I was able to show the light coming in from the right and also that the three trees are in three different dimensions.

Do you know of other ProCreate classes that I might enjoy???