Stitch Draw E-Book

Rosie James

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 111

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A guide to figurative stitching with the sewing machine – using the thread and needle almost as a pencil. A look that is growing in popularity, figurative stitch work needs some guidance and a leading exponent of the style reveals the basics but also how to expand your repertoire to really showcase your creativity. The book covers: How to set up your machine; How to tackle drawing (with exercises that will help even those who are afraid to put pen to paper); Transferring drawing to cloth, working with transparency, different surfaces and adding fabrics and colour; Photography, with details on using photographs in textiles; Putting it all together with layering images, playing with scale, repetition and composition. Stunning work by Rosie James and other textile artists who work with figurative stitch are featured throughout the book.

Leseprobe

Stitch Draw

Rosie James

Contents

Introduction

Drawing

Pencil and paper

Drawing figures

Drawing day

Recording special events

Stitching basics

Sewing machine

Getting started

Inspiration from art history

From drawings to stitch drawings

Transferring a drawing

Your first stitch drawing

A stitched figure drawing

Draw your clothes

Surfaces

Stitching without a surface

Working with scale

Photography for stitch

Photo journeys

Sequential photography

Using photographs as a surface

Adding colour

Coloured background

Different coloured threads

Blocks of colour

Appliqué

Printed sections

Basic screen-printing

Subjects and presentation

Subject matter

Presenting your work

Conclusion

Featured artists

Further reading

Suppliers

Index

Introduction

Stitch drawing is the act of using a needle and thread to draw with, just as you might use a pencil or pen. In this book we are going to focus on using a sewing machine to ‘draw’, rather than stitching by hand.

Artists have been using thread to draw with for years. A good example of this is the Bayeux Tapestry, which dates from the eleventh century. It is interesting that stitch was used to make drawings of actual events and to tell a story, rather than paint on canvas or pencil on paper. Wall hangings were common at that time, but The Bayeux Tapestry seems to be the only surviving example of medieval narrative embroidery that we know of.

Since then embroidery as an art form has gone in and out of fashion. Today artists use all sorts of materials to create their work, and threads and fabrics are almost as common as paint or sculptors’ materials.

When you draw with a pen or pencil, the instrument becomes an extension of your hand and you can respond to what you are seeing immediately. The sewing machine is a totally different beast, in that you cannot respond quite so immediately to what’s in front of you, yet with a bit of practice, you can move the cloth and hoop fluidly and draw directly from life. However, most of the stitched drawings we will look at in this book will be drawn with pencil first and then transferred to the stitching surface.

Photography also plays a big part. I use it as a way of getting ideas and also for capturing moving images. We will be looking at how to draw from photographs as well as manipulating photographs on the computer.

Stitching made with a sewing machine lends itself to a certain kind of fluid line. As Paul Klee put it, ‘Drawing is taking a line for a walk.’ A sewing machine will follow a line continually for as long as you have your foot on the pedal. All you need to do is to guide that line in a particular direction to create a drawing in stitch. And you do not have to be an expert on a sewing machine in order to make drawings with it, as you will see.

Detail of a life-size figure from Crowd Cloud. Notice how the stitching takes ‘a line for a walk’, in a continuous, flowing movement.

Lets begin by drawing with a pen or pencil on paper. This will get you started and give you exciting drawings that can be developed into stitch.

Pencil and paper

In order to get really good at stitch drawing with a sewing machine, you need to start with the basics – drawing with pencil on paper – which allows you to draw more directly from what you see than you would if you attempted to stitch-draw straight off. These drawings can form the basis of your later stitched drawings. So let’s start drawing.

Drawing is essentially all about looking. In order to create a good drawing, you need to look carefully at the object you are drawing. Spend more time looking at the object than at the paper you are drawing on.

So get yourself a piece of paper and something to lean on, or open a page in your sketchbook. Use a soft pencil that creates a nice dark line which doesn’t smudge too easily – something like a 2B.

Flex your drawing muscles

Here are some exercises to try: just enjoy them and see what comes out. You can go on to interpret some of the results in stitch, as we shall see later.

Exercise 1: looking

Find an object you are really familiar with, such as a favourite shoe, old coat or a bag, as in this example. Put the object in front of you, then close your eyes and imagine the object in your mind’s eye. Try to see its colour, its form, its texture and its scale. Then open your eyes. How does the object look? Try to spend two minutes (or longer) examining the object in great detail. This might seem like a long time, but don’t cheat. Then close your eyes and imagine the object in your mind’s eye again, this time in much greater detail.

Study a familiar object then close your eyes. How much detail can you remember?

Exercise 2: outline drawing

Once you have spent two minutes looking, start drawing. Practise gradually slowing down the speed at which your eyes travel over the object until it is painstakingly slow. Then pick up a pencil and start drawing at exactly the same speed, moving the pencil across the paper at the same speed as your eyes move over the object. Draw only the outline of the object; as your eyes move along an edge, so the pencil moves on the paper. Glance down at your drawing occasionally and then look back at the object. Now add some detail inside the outline, but not too much; keep the drawing simple and uncluttered. Outline drawing is also known as contour drawing.

Clothes make a great subject and translate well into stitched drawings, as shown in these sketches by Mags and Rosie James.

Exercise 3: negative space

For this exercise, you are going to focus upon the space around an object rather than the object itself. This is called negative space. For instance if you were drawing the legs of a chair, you would focus on the space between the legs and draw that rather than drawing the chair legs, as shown here.

Once you have become used to seeing things in two ways (as solid objects, and as objects bound by negative space), make a drawing in which you draw the negative space around an object. Because the shapes of a negative space are less recognizable, you really have to look carefully to see them – you can’t guess and draw what you think is there.

Use this technique whenever you are struggling with drawing an object. Switch your mind to seeing the negative space, and try drawing that instead.

Above right is a drawing of a folding chair. Above left is the same subject but only the negative spaces are drawn.

Another way to identify negative spaces is to imagine that the object is surrounded by black space and draw the black shapes created by the object.

TIP: To help understand a negative space, make a viewfinder (a piece of card with a window cut into it of the same proportions as the drawing paper). Hold the viewfinder in front of your eyes to frame the object you are drawing. Use the frame of the viewfinder to create a boundary for the negative space.

Exercise 4: isolating the essence

Draw the same object you drew before but only use ten lines. Then do another drawing using only eight, then six and then four lines. Is it still possible to tell what the object is?

Draw your subject then draw it again using only ten lines. Can you draw it with even fewer lines?

Exercise 5: time limit

Give yourself a strict time limit. Start with five minutes, and then make the time limit shorter and shorter until you are down to ten seconds. You will have to work very quickly and it will stop you worrying too much about what the drawing looks like. Set a timer for this exercise so you don’t waste time checking the clock every few seconds.

Exercise 6: eyes shut

Draw an object with your eyes open, then repeat the process with your eyes shut (don’t look at the paper at all). If you need to stop and start elsewhere, you have to guess where to start again. This will give a quite lively but distorted drawing. Now compare the results.

Then move on to something more complicated, such as a self-portrait. Stare at your face in a mirror for a good two minutes and then attempt to draw it with your eyes closed. Doing this ‘blind’ frees you up from having to make a drawing that looks like you and you may create something much more interesting.

Draw with your eyes open first, as it allows you to really look at the object.

Then draw the same thing with your eyes shut.

Drawing figures

Figure drawing is a fascinating yet daunting proposition. We know what a person looks like and we want our drawing to look exactly like him or her: we want realism. Well, some of the best drawings of people are those that are less ‘real’. So forget about trying to achieve a realistic representation and just have fun. Draw your best friend and make her look hideous – it’s much more interesting!

Here are three methods to employ when drawing people: drawing from observation, drawing from imagination, and drawing from photographs. Try them all and then use the method that suits you best, or mix them all up and use together in one piece.

Drawing from observation

This is where you can use some of the things you learned in the drawing exercises earlier, but this time focused on people.

Posed models

This is the easiest place to start, because a model’s brief is to keep still, which makes him or her much easier to draw. Ask a friend or family member to pose for you. She could sit, stand, lie down or adopt a fashion pose, for example. Look at paintings of people and also fashion magazines for ideas.

Make sure that the model can sustain a pose long enough for you to draw her. Start with quick poses of five minutes to get your drawing skills warmed up, and then ask her to pose for 30 minutes. Have a break and then get the model to adopt a one-hour pose.

Try contour drawing (just drawing outlines) to start with, and then bring in some shading, but remember that this a drawing that you are going to stitch, so focus mainly on line.

Mags James made this quick drawing in her sketchbook, focusing on a simple line and working quickly so she didn’t have time to worry too much about perfect proportions.

Make a simple drawing of a face and add bits from your imagination – for example buildings or a rabbit.

Unposed models

Once you have tried drawing a posed model, move on to drawing from everyday life as it goes on around you. It might be a good idea to draw people who are not moving about too much to start with – a group of people sitting around reading or chatting, perhaps. For example, look at the pages from my sketchbook below. I have drawn with a very scribbly line, as I found that I had to keep changing my lines as the subjects moved slightly.

Use a pen so you can’t rub anything out! Keep the pen on the page and just move it around while looking at the subject; if he or she moves an arm or a leg, change direction. This kind of line is already looking like a stitched line with some loose threads (tap here for the stitched version of the sketch below).

Carolyn at the Beach Hut (top) and Rob at the Beach Hut (bottom) are examples of drawing from everyday life.

Setting

Consider the surroundings of your posed model and draw this instead of the person. Leave a blank shape where the person is. This is the same technique as negative space drawing (tap here) and will give you a lovely silhouette surrounded by a detailed, interesting background. This lends itself to stitch and appliqué (Appliqué).

Clothes

For me, this is the fun bit! Dress your posed model in something striking and dramatic, which has an interesting detail or shape. For example she could wear a large hat, a belted coat with lots of pockets, huge boots, or a voluminous skirt. If a garment involves lots of fabric and draping, it will be visually stimulating.

Drawing from imagination

Here are a few things you can try in order to draw a figure from your imagination. Have fun with this, as there is no real version you are trying to copy: the drawing can be whatever you want it to be.

Exercise 1: doodling

Start off by doodling and see what happens. You could maybe invent some weird creatures coming out of the shapes of your doodles.

Brushes Up The Teeth by Mags James, from her sketchbook.

Agitated by Mags James, from her sketchbook. Drawings that begin as doodles often include words or geometric shapes. This is fine. Allow the drawing to be what it wants to be.

Exercise 2: imaginary situations

Imagine yourself in a situation and make a drawing of it without looking in a mirror or posing or looking at photographs. You could be swimming, standing on your head, climbing a tree or reading a book.