Showing posts with label 2020 Creativity Reading Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2020 Creativity Reading Challenge. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Wrap Up of 2020 Creativity Reading Challenge

I read 4 books for the Creativity Reading Challenge.  I expected to read more but was busy using these books for instruction and inspiration in my own artwork.  I have completed 5 colored pencil drawings in the past six months.  The books that I read were:

Botanical Drawing in Color by Wendy Hollander

Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting by Allie Aller

Lisbon Sketchbook by Fabrice Moireau

Landmarks of Malaysia Sketchbook by Chin Kon Yit

Favorite Book:  Botanical Drawing in Color.  I have used this book a lot throughout the year as I move into botanical drawings.  I have worked with colored pencils for 20 years but am just starting to draw these types of drawings.  The book has been extremely helpful.

Second Favorite Book:  Lisbon Sketchbook.  I have all of Fabrice Moireau's sketchbooks and view them often.  I am learning a lot about perspective and how to draw detail by absorbing his drawings.  The sketchbook is part of a series of watercolor travelogues. 

I am planning on participating in this challenge next year.  Perhaps I will read and review all the weaving books that I bought this year but never got around to reading.

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Landmarks of Malaysia Sketchbook

I was so pleased when this book arrived in the mail today as it has 360 pages, 5 times the length of the other watercolor sketchbooks that I have.  Most of the drawings are full page drawings printed on actual watercolor paper that enhances them.  It is unusual for watercolor sketchbooks to have this many full page drawings. In fact, there are many two page spreads too. Artist Chin Kon Yit has a style that is detailed, similar to Fabrice Moireau who I believe is the best watercolor travelogue artist at this time. 

The drawings are divided by area.  The areas are the capitals and Selangor, the northwest peninsula, the south, the east coast, and Sarawak, Sahab and Labaun.  I was surprised that Malaysia has so many areas with exquisite architecture. I thought that Kuala Lumpur was the only modern city but I was wrong. There is so much to see in this country that I could spend a few weeks there. Before I read this book, I thought that there was only a small area in Kuala Lumpur that was modern. Travel companies only give their customer a half day in Malaysia, which is where I got my view of this gorgeous country.  

A paragraph is written to describe each drawing.  I love the font used for these paragraphs.  It is a handwritten font and makes it look like the artist handwrote the descriptions himself.   Lim Take Bane wrote the descriptions as well as the introduction.  I have Kon Yit's Penang and Kuala Lumpur sketchbooks.  They are just as gorgeous as this book is. He has become one of my favorite artists.

5 out of 5 stars.

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Lisbon Sketchbook

I have all of Fabrice Moireau's travelogue sketchbooks. His Lisbon Sketchbook was published last month and I couldn't wait to receive it in the mail.  When it finally arrived I was delighted to view its pages, printed on actual watercolor paper as were all of his earlier watercolor sketchbooks. This fantastic book is just like his Paris, Provence, Loire Valley, Brittany, Gardens of Paris, Rooftops of Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Sicily, New York, and Berlin sketchbooks.

The bucolic scenes of Lisbon are described in written word by Gonzalo Tavares. Moireau always has a 2 page spread showing the colors of the city he has drawn.  It is interesting that Lisbon is the most colorful of those cities, something that I wasn't expecting. As an artist myself, I view his books frequently as I learn alot from them concerning perspective and how to draw details in architecture. Moireau is the most detailed watercolor artist I am aware of. Britain's Graham Byfield and Malaysia's Chen Voon Fee and Chin Kon Yit as well as Singapore's Gretchen Liu all have looser watercolor styles. Moireau's detailed sketching style is perfect for drawing his native France with all of the intricate features of its buildings.

Lisbon Sketchbook is a wonderful book to display on a coffee table. I have several of them on my coffee table and visitors always love flipping through them. I highly recommend this book for artists and art lovers. 5 out of 5 stars.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting

Allison Aller is one of the top crazy quilters in the world today. Her 2011 book is chock full of eye candy as well as how-to information on crazy quilting.  I read her blog for years and have read every book on this subject.  I can honestly say that Aller's book is the mother of all books on crazy quilting. Much of what she wrote in her blog is in this book.  It is a physical book that cannot be deleted online, making it a great reference guide.  In addition, this book has more eye candy than other crazy quilting books that I have seen.

As with all other crazy quilting instructional books there is the usual section for beginners where materials, fabrics and tools are discussed. Ideas for selecting fabrics and threads for embellishment are shown in color photos. Instructions on how to print images from your computer onto a special fabric that you can print from a printer are also included.  Several traditional embroidery stitches are shown too.  The photos of her work are where the reader gathers ideas on seam treatments.  Aller normally combines 5 or 6 embroidery stitches into one seam treatment.

What I liked most about the book is Aller's methods for piecing the squares that she later embellishes with embroidery.  For many years I made my squares too big.  Her squares are just 6 inches square while mine were 12 inches or more.  The reason that her embellishments cover the square entirely is because those squares are small.  The heavy embellishment is what makes her crazy quilts  look exquisite.

Another interesting feature of Aller's work is that she does not always attach her squares in a traditional shape.  Included in the book are designs that the reader can follow to make a landscape quilt out of crazy quilt squares.  Another design attaches several squares into a larger square for the middle of a piece and then attaches borders that are later embellished.  Sometimes the borders are embellished to continue looking like a border.  Sometimes they are not.

Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting is the best book on the subject that I have seen.  If you are interested in learning about this craft I highly recommend her book over others that are out there.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Botanical Drawing in Color

Wendy Hollander's instructional guidebook on drawing botanicals in colored pencil is a beginner's guide to mastering the realistic form of plants.  As colored pencil artists know, in every colored pencil book there are the usual chapters on art supplies, how to use colored pencils, and color theory.  This book is no different.  What is different are the instructions on mastering this particular subject matter. These may include how to depict elements that overlap, understanding the form of plants, determining what parts of a plant to include and ignore in your drawings, measuring your subject matter in perspective, and how to plan a composition.

The book is filled with exercises for readers to practice.  The author recommends that the reader practice each exercise even if they already know how to do the exercise.  While many of the author's own drawings are shown, she prefers that readers not use them as a guide for exercises.  It is best to use your own plants and learn your own style of drawing.  The exercises fill about 75% of the book and cover topics such as how to draw a cup and a ribbon that twists and turns, taking a flower apart and drawing each part of it separately before drawing the entire flower, and drawing under magnification.

If the reader follows the author's advice and uses their own plants in the exercises, they will come away with knowledge on how to create their own drawing designs in the future.  In this regard the book helps an artist become creative on their own.  Personally, I have been taking my time with the exercises and am considering a thirty to sixty day plan for working on them daily.  I then should be able to create a final design.  Right?  We shall see.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

2020 Creativity Reading Challenge

I am joining this challenge next year.  I read five books for the 2019 challenge and am curious what books I will find to meet the challenge next year.  I am interested in weaving, spinning fiber, colored pencil drawing, tapestry, cooking and crochet.  I am fairly new to weaving so I expect that I will be looking at a few books on that subject.