Today I was looking at Fearless Design for Every Quilter by Lorraine Torrence and Jean B. Mills. This is a book that you’ll want to read cover to cover. This book teaches you how to improve your work by sharing insights in critique groups. Critiquing can be difficult both for the person critiquing and for the person receiving the feedback. The way the authors teach you about creativity and critiquing makes interesting reading. The authors set up 10 exercises or assignments that 8 real students have participated in. The students share their thoughts on their own pieces as well as on the other students’ work.
One of the lessons that I plan to use for my own work is about design sources and inspiration. The authors suggest that you start several inspiration sketch books:
- shape sketch book: start with simple thumbnail shapes – circle, square, triangle – and change them minutely each time you draw them.
- line library: straight, curvy, broken, zigzag, parallel
- visual record: patterns, color combinations that you like
- journal of quotes, words, phrases, poems, and headlines that inspire you
I like the idea of organizing your inspirations in different notebooks. How cool would that be to open a sketch book filled entirely with all kinds of different lines or shapes.
Related posts:
