A Basset Hound in a Flame-stiched chair & The importance of Lists in the Studio for me.

Hello there, won't you please take a seat
Not this seat, of course, as I prefer my Master's flamestitch chair.

I was looking through more sketches of 'waiting to finish' pieces in my Animals in chair's series and I had forgot about the dear little Basset hound in a Flamestitched chair.

If you don't know what 'flamestitching' is it's something like this

It's also called Bargello as this type of needlepoint was found on old sets of chairs in the Bargello Palace in Florence, but I digress. Our little chum does not reach to such heights as Italian palaces...

I have a flamestitch chair myself. It's a small slipper chair, meant for a bedroom surely, but it's my little reading chair by the sitting room fire. It's just the perfect size to slide close to the fire.

Why I chose to make our Basset's flamestitch in blues is simply to play with complimentary color of Orange and Blue

Our little fellow here is rather loosely scribbled. This was the second and third layers after the pencil sketches of shapes and lines and perspective angles.
For some reason I chose to use a rough marker digital pen when outlining him
I'm not sure why, I always like to play with the different variety of pens available to the digital are pack, but I'm not sure I like this one.

Some quick dabs of watercolor give the warm glow to our puppy

Marker watercolor brush was used to play with the flamestitch fabric
Keeping it rough and loose at this point. I think I wanted, in the final piece yet to do, that it would be fun to consider how I would approach the flame stitching itself. It might end up being a solid fabric (Artist's prerogative after all)

Loose swipes of watercolor and dabs of dry water color droplets gave a bit of depth

I then did a dark wash of sea blue/green over it all to play with shadow.
Now that I've moved it to my 'continue with this piece' pile I might reconsider it completely, but I did want to share it as is.

Often an artist's sketch book can inspire oneself, or others, to new pieces or to look at old pieces in a new way. I know I love to go through my sketchbooks, both physical as well as digital, almost daily just to get into the groove for the next day.

Usually the last thing I do in the studio before I call the day done, is go through sketchbooks (real or digital) to get the juices flowing for the next day. It helps me then write out my Studio's to do list for the next morning.

Having a definitive To-D0 List in the studio first thing really helps me focus the day's work
And honestly, I've always been a lover of lists. The feeling (or perhaps the illusion) that one has got a handle on the day somewhat in marks on paper makes the tasks before one more manageable.
The feeling of checking off lists does give me a lift
even when that item on the list might be as vague as
3.) sketch idea for chair for pair of labs
It's an open prompt , but one which, when I've done just that, sketched random chairs (which really isn't work for me but pleasure) I can tick off that item and feel good to have a tea break.

Do you use Lists in creative endeavours?
or does it seem to constrictive? I know some love order and some chaos, I'm a bit in between. I've sure said the old adage
There is order in this chaos when pointing spilling piles of papers and artwork on tables in my studio, but I also know that little neat rows of 3 ring binders of past lists and sketches and ideas DO make it an organized chaos

Well, I've prattled on long enough and I hope you enjoyed my little study of A basset hound in a Flame-stitched chair
We shall see if he shows up again in different colors and tones.

I hope you found a moment to indulge in your creative passions and as always, remember, stay creative!

---

If you'd like to follow my Work Here are some Links:
NFTshowroom
MAKERSPLACE
My Website
Instagram
Twitter
My 3Speak Channel