quick art attack

Pin It now!

When I started this blog, it was meant to be about a lot of things around the home – both creative and practical. But very soon it lost it’s way becoming almost exclusively a tatting blog. Well, let’s take a break from that T word that seems to dominate my life!

Change of seasons means switching clothes and reorganizing the closets. And this time I found 2 of my art books (yes, even my clothes almirah has a huge shelf filled with books and also that T stuff – see the T invasion there?!!!) and was pleasantly surprised at some of the ‘artwork’ I found within. Totally forgotten and neglected all these years – that is the power of T! Aaargh, see there it is again! Before it manages to squeeze in further, let me quickly upload these scans.

First off, it was tough to get a good impression despite setting the scanner to highest contrast, lowest brightness and a higher resolution. I do have a tendency to sketch and colour lightly, yet it is a tad better than what shows up in these scans. I added the black 'frames' with MS Paint.

Colour pencils, June 2010

This scene is partially from some story published in a newspaper or magazine.

Sketch pens, April 2008 

This was a phase when I was watching Neil Buchanan’s show Art Attack 

and was inspired by his excellent command, creativity and quick artwork!

I made faint pencil outlines which were later erased.
Those squiggles in the base of the bowl add a cute little touch,  methinks. 

Water colours, March 2012

This is the kind of stuff I go for – freestyle. 

I’ve used the technique on greeting cards, sarees, home linen, etc.

The above 3 were done on fairly smooth A4 sheets from this art pad. 

They came loose while scanning.

The next 4 below I found within the pages of this smaller art pad 

(I’ve cut/paste the specifics in the image. click on image to enlarge).

The sheets held together during scanning.

Mixed media, April 2008

There is charcoal, chalk, crayons, & colour pencil. 

Bummer about all these light scans - 

those roiling clouds actually came out pretty good using blue chalk.

Pastels, April 2008

I’d bought a set of 24 pastels and was eager to give them a try.

Pencil, April 2008

Another of my favourite theme for sketching : bare trees (and roots)...

 with a bird (there are 2 in this sketch if you can spot them!) or solitary leaf (O Henry’s story is among my favourite) or some such to add a spot of 'life'. 

I absolutely love the way bare branches and twigs enmesh together, yet each has a distinct identity. Leaves I do like, but they mask the unspoken majesty of bare branches.

Water colours, March 2012

Trying the wash technique.

I realise they all look quite amateurish and need a lot more details/background. 

However, they were all accomplished in single sittings! 

So a nice breather from that domineering T (major oops again!!!) in blogging? 

Do you think I should organise more frequently? ;-P

hacking away imperfections

Pin It now!

My go-to tech gurus are Robin & Ninetta and they never fail me ! All my Inkscape learning is based off Robin's excellent tutorials, as you all already know. However, as I drew and practiced I discovered a few 'shortcuts'. But I could never share them coz I didn't know how to put up  those visuals. Now Robin has again come to my aid by finding me a superb tutorial on how to take screenshots on XP. Due to paucity of time, I have done the best I can for now (but it is such fun taking those shots ;-P). Will ask her to help me out some more ... so please bear with the under par quality of images.

Inkscape Hack #1

How to draw a Row of Chains 

Here's one of my most recent pattern diagram in which I used my quick shortcuts to draw the rows of chains, or connect rings with chains :

You may recall the pink edging that diversified into a crown, necklace, etc. This is the revised version where All 5 rows can be tatted in one pass. Once I receive the pdf link from Georgia, I will upload here & on my Patterns page. For latest new, reoriented one pass pattern (May 2017)  

Symmetric Chains in a Row

Imagine drawing one arch (chain) can copy-pasting it along the length one by one. No more ! One can make the chains of the entire row in one stroke ! Here's how .... 

A] This is the crucial step. Choose Grid from View , then select the bezier icon.

Now holding the bezier pen, start drawing a line, but clicking at intervals. When you reach the end, only then click on ENTER. As seen in image, at this stage it looks like a normal line, but we have clicked it at 3 places in between, using the grid squares to keep the spacing even (4 squares apart). 

In tatting, think of these points as the base of ring, or picots to which the chain will be joined. eg. Rows II, III, IV in pattern above. All these rows were made in this fashion...

 B] When we select Node icon, 5 nodes appear !

C] Choose the height at which we want the chains/arches. I have chosen 2 blocks on the grid. Using the node arrow (cursor), position it in the center of segment 1 and drag it upwards. It has a height of 1 square in center. If I pull further, it will rise to where the segment 2 arch is - 2 squares above. 

Repeat for 3rd & 4th segments.

I find this the fun part because the chains/arches can be manipulated to any shape, direction, angle, off-center, etc. 

The grid squares act as guides, keeping the arch symmetric.

D] Now all 4 segments have attained their shape and height.
And that's it !!!

E] We have a row of symmetric chains !

F] This is how it is after removing the grid.

This procedure is not limited to straight lines. As seen in Row V in pattern, one can go all around the scallop.

Incidentally, Row V was drawn only around one scallop. Then they were grouped together. This group was copy-pasted twice to produce 2 rows simultaneously.  

Asymmetric Chains
Play around with the node cursor/arrow and see all the different shapes that are possible ...

I have used this method to connect rings in a circle or a hexagon, too, such as are commonly found in snowflake patterns.

One cannot discount individual preferences and comfort zones. I have to work within my physical and visual limitations, hence absolute perfection is sometimes sacrificed. Yet, my experience over these past 2 years, drawing numerous diagrams, has shown that this hack works well for me and I think my diagrams have shown improvement. And for a relative newbie, it takes the fear and overwhelm out of Inkscape drawing, making it quite enjoyable and quick.

This is merely one of many methods. Learn how to use the pencil to draw symmetrical chains .

I hope to share a few more of my shortcuts in future, with hopefully better images.

Have a great day :-)