Endings and Beginnings

I’ve recently closed my virtual doors on andresueknits.com and said goodbye to Needles Up events.  There were lots of reasons why but it really boils down to that I didn’t want to do them anymore.  (Turning a hobby into a business is a surefire recipe for burnout.)

Andre Sue Knits (the business) was a lot of fun and it was a great run until it wasn’t.  I truly appreciate all the support and wonderful people I met.  We all know when it’s time to move onto other things and it was time.  This humble blog is where I found my first home on the inter webs and it feels right to reenter my tiny digital homestead to keep a log of my projects.  With the number of followers AndreSueKnits has gathered on Instagram,  it feels overwhelming to share my thoughts and projects there.  This abandoned blog feels like the right place to begin again.

So what am I up to now?  Well, I’m not knitting anymore.  (The burnout is real!)  It wasn’t until my business started to take off that I became solely knitting focused.  Really, I’m an equal opportunity hobbyist.  Mixing crafting and art together with free-form embroidery, self-designed rugs, hand-painted sock blanks or anything else that enters my mind is my very favorite.  Knitting filled that spot for a while with pattern design and hand-painting yarns.  I’m sure that knitting will work itself back into my hobby-rotation in the future after I’ve had some time away.

Underlying all my crafting endeavors has been a semi-solid base of art fundamentals.  I’ve drawn and painted off and on again for years but haven’t given the effort my undivided attention required for a solid base.

My daughter (Rachael, aged 14) has expressed an interest in fine art which has reignited my interest.  We’ve purchased some water-mixable oil paints and have been trying our hand at portraits.  Underlying most fine arts is a solid drawing ability- and we’ve been adding some pencil sketching mixed in with our painting.

Our goal is to either paint or draw a little every day.  And I’ll attempt to remember to post pics of my efforts.   I don’t know why we immediately started out with portraits since they are notoriously difficult.  You can get away with a lot of inaccuracy in paintings of landscapes or even animals but with the portrait, our eyes are very sensitive.

With a moderate amount of cringing, here’s today’s painted sketch of my husband, Cory:

There are all sorts of technical problems with this painting but I’m just happy it resembles him!  With faces, it’s very difficult for me to paint what I see and not what my brain thinks it sees.

For those who are interested in the details, I used a 12″x16″ canvas board and a limited palette (white, cad red, yellow ochre, viridian green, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson.)

If Rachael agrees, I’ll post some pics of her sketches in the future.

As always, thanks for reading.  Until next time….