Kiersten finished another piece on the loom this weekend, and Iggly decided to model it for us:

Slow going, but steady progress.  The pattern in the sheet is going to drive my bonkers, but I feel the angles and lines it makes really add to the movement of the composition.  I think I'm happiest with how the hand turned out - I was worried about the foreshortened hand being front and center, but that part went actually surprisingly easily.  The lower right hand portion of the picture still has the least amount of work done, just with blocking and a few glazes of jade green to color correct.  You can see the pattern of wrinkles in the sheets starting to form.

I've been working steadily on the piece that I prepared the swatches for in one of my previous posts.  The finished piece will be a panoramic 26" w x 12" H on Aubergine Colourfix paper.  If it turns out well, it will be one of my submissions for this year's CPSA show.  I love to draw twists, turns, and folds in fabric, and this piece has plenty of it!  Most of my work so far has been on the figure, and with different stages of blocking in for the fabric. On the flat portion of the sheet on the right there's just basic geometric shapes right now where the wrinkles and shadows are, but the crumpled comforter is fully blocked in and has some initial refinements, and I've started adding details closest to the figure.

After completing a few hand woven Christmas presents for family, Kiersten finished a dish towel for us.  I love that we have custom designed, hand woven towels!  It's also fun to be working side by side in the studio, with me scribbling away on a new piece and Kiersten on her loom.  I think she's contemplating a rug next.  Here's a few shots of the towel, and the loom:

I'm just getting underway on a new piece.  It has an interesting panoramic crop, which is somewhat different for me, with a final planned size of 26" W x 12" H.  I'll be working on my favorite paper, Colourfix, in a color that I haven't used much: Aubergine (usually I work on Storm Blue or Fresh Gray). The first step is always to pick my palette, and I like to do this by laying down swatches of color on scraps of the actual paper I'll be using.  I'll then keep this beside the picture throughout the process for reference.  Once I have the swatches, I'll whittle them down to a dozen or so colors and place those colored pencils into a working tray.  Sometimes I use an empty Prismacolor tin as my pencil caddy.

Here's a scan of my swatches for this piece.  They're organized by color groups, and within each color group by values.  It's also nice to see all of the colors together to get a feeling of the overall color harmony.  I'll post more work in progress pics as the piece moves along.