DOMESTIKA COURSE - HEBREW CALLIGRAPHY - BEGINNING THE FINAL PROJECT This course is taking me longer than anticipated. This is partly due to having a lot of other things to think about recently, and also waiting for supplies to arrive. I have also struggled more than I expected with the letter forms. I…
NEW DOMESTIKA COURSE - HEBREW CALLIGRAPHY Background The teacher of the course is the first female Soferet (Hebrew scribe, feminine) for 250 years. In the introductory session of the course, she shares her background which is extremely interesting, and it's so positive that Orthodox rabbis were prepared to take on her training and…
MARK MAKING ON THE ABSTRACT WATERCOLOUR MINI-ALBUM Shoshi's gone marking mad! I had soooo much fun with this latest project. It wasn't a lengthy project - I could do a page or two per session and just bung stuff down and see what happened. Quite different from my recent highly disciplined projects. Nice…
ABSTRACT WATERCOLOUR AND MINI ORIGAMI ALBUMS Shoshi the Loose Woman! After doing so much highly detailed work recently, I have felt the urge to go loose and splash a bit of paint around. One's gotta loosen up a bit once in a while! This is by way of an interlude before I begin…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - COMPLETING THE PROJECT This particular Arabesque motif is called a shamsa. Etymology I am fascinated by the origins and relationships of words, and looked up the etymology of shamsa. This immediately rang a bell with me, because of its similarity to the Hebrew word shemesh, meaning "sun." …
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - WORKING ON THE FINAL DRAWING Inking over the transfer After I had transferred the tracing of the drawing onto the watercolour paper, it all looked rather messy. It was hard to see the detail which was quite confusing. To tidy things up, I decided to go over…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - TRANSFERRING THE DESIGN Following yesterday's session in the studio where I created the first version of some design tracings, I had time to think about how it was working out. I realised I wasn't happy with it, and decided to start the tracings again with a different…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - TRACING AND BIOMORPHS I have skipped the final task in the previous unit because of time constraints. I've had a busy week, and I want to take advantage of the afternoon daylight in the studio for drawing, and not waste it sitting at the laptop in the…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - BIOMORPHICS AND GRIDS Looking for botanical patterns Continuing with the preparation stages of this course, Esra, our teacher, instructed us to find patterns featuring organic motifs, and to sketch a single motif. She suggested going to a museum to find things to sketch, but this wasn't possible…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - CONTINUING WITH INK PRACTICE Esra, our teacher, suggests we practise daily with the brush and ink. It's a question of training one's hand and eye and brain to get used to this unfamiliar technique until one perfects it. It is difficult! However, several days in, I think…
