Report on Two Projects

D spent the weekend at a bonsai show so I had a lot of time to myself.  Despite some time spent with good books and a movie or two, I did accomplish a lot - though, as always, not as much as I would have liked.  The books and the movies might have compromised work, but for me they were needed breaks.  There are times when one needs a break - especially if something isn't working, or something happened that was unexpected, or if the creative thinking hadn't gone far enough.  Then a break can give one's brain time to come to grips with the issue or issues.  It helped a couple of times, but there are still some problems that need solving.

First, working on the quilt: I had my fabric chosen, but as always I had to pull out a few more when I either didn't have enough of a color or when what I had chosen didn't work.  That was also when I realized I had to be sure I knew where the light and the shadows were.  I thought this was rather clever - I took a blue highlighter (so I could see the drawn lines through the marker) and colored in the shadowed places in the sketch.  Then I used an orange highlighter (didn't have yellow) to color the lights.  That way I now know exactly where those areas are, and I can see them at a glance.  They leap out at me but do not obscure the original sketch.

Second, I was able to spend time working on the sketch of Venice.  It took more time than I thought it would because I decided I needed to re-work the background buildings behind the bridge.  There were a few lines I hadn't erased that drew my attention to that area, and once those were taken care of, I fussed over what I perceived as unfinished.  

Was I merely delaying working on the building in the right foreground?  Yes, probably.  But I did go back to that, also.  One of the problems was that this will be a watercolor and one that I want to be loose.  Nitty picky details aren't loose.  BUT I have to know what the building really looks like in order to know what can be left out or what can be simplified.  Does that make sense?

For comparison purposes, here is the first sketch:

And here is the result of this weekend's work:

The two sketches are difficult to compare because of the quality of the copied sketches.  Among other things, the second one has a shadow on it that almost seems like it belongs in the drawing.  But it is the best I could at short notice (just before I sat down to write this entry).

There are a couple of things I'm not happy about, but I am going to take it in on Tuesday and ask for Sharon's help.