Monthly Archive for July, 2010

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to take on some kind of exercise to get me sketching on a more regular basis. I thought about things like Illustration Friday or just doing a daily sketch… but everything I thought of was either too infrequent or too much pressure to maintain for too long. I wanted something that would stretch me and force me to exercise the sketching “muscles” on a regular basis… without becoming a stress of something that would fall by the wayside for lack of time.

Around the same time, two different things came up that got me thinking in a new direction. first off, I started wearing my February Lady Sweater (my first sweater knit for myself) in the evenings… and dreaming about what my next sweater should be. while browsing around Ravelry at sweater designs, I was wishing that there were a way to picture them modeled on someone closer to my own body type. this lead me to look into fashion design bodies, otherwise known as Croquis. I quickly realized that I would seriously benefit from making some croquis from photographs of myself to use to “try on” different styles and see how they would look on me. this lead me to think about offering to make croquis for some of the less popular (in magazine and book models) body shapes to offer to others to use on Ravelry. I’m still considering this for the near future…

But, in the mean time, another thing came along to distract me and get me thinking. several years ago, I created an illustration of 3 Haute Men for t-shirts for the CraftLit podcast. Heather, who hosts the podcast, is working on a book of patterns by various designers based on characters from classic literature called WWMDfK? (What Would Madame Defarge Knit?). Heather wondered if I would be interested in participating. Well, of course I would! so, this means I will have plenty of reason to focus on my drawing and sketching skills.

But then we come back to the original question… what kind of regular exercise could I take up that would stretch me and inspire me without becoming more of a burden than a help. this is where my mind drifted back to the idea of croquis! they are quick sketches… hopefully less than 5 minutes… and are not focused on finished designs. they have many specific advantages. they help practice proportion and form. they help envision poses that can be used later in more detailed sketching or drawing. they are quick but still interesting. the collection of finished croquis make a great inspiration file for future illustrations. because they are meant to be built upon later, they are purposely left with very sketchy details… which lowers the pressure to produce something finished and allows me to keep my focus on getting the body shapes right.

so, I decided to set myself the task of a Daily Croquis. since I don’t have a handy live model, I  started off working from magazine models and the tv paused. I’m planning to work up some from photos of family and friends that I tend to knit for, so that I can use them for project planning… and eventually offering to make some over at Ravelry… but in the meantime, I’ve been keeping an eye out for ideas and poses that would be helpful for the WWMDfK? book.

here’s a sneak peak of some of my first Daily Croquis up on my “Inspiration Wall” (aka, closet door in the studio)