Grandma's Last Stitch

Grandma's Last Stitch

This drawing, titled Grandma's Last Stitch, is definitely my favorite piece I've done so far! It is also the most challenging commission I have accepted to date!  

I I was approached by someone from my childhood church who wanted to capture this beautiful moment of her and her grandmother--who is 98--crocheting together. 

The client had posted a video to FaceBook telling the story of how she has to help her grandmother finish up the last stitches of this blanket because her grandmother couldn't see well enough to finish it herself. She had done the rest of the blanket by feeling and memory, but needed fresh eyes for the rest. After she posted the video, a friend commented that it would make a lovely drawing--this is where I come in!

The client immediately reached out to me to see if it was possible. I can't lie, I was so scared! The wisdom lines (wrinkles lol) tell a story of years of hard work, love, and creativity, and I wanted to be respectful of that and make it look as realistic as I could.

I consulted with my client to see what medium she wanted, if she had a preference for color or black and white, and what size she was looking for. Normally, these are things that I worry about because often times I have my own vision for a piece. This client was a dream! She told me a basic size and then said she trusted me to decide on the rest.

I decided to use charcoal because I can get a lot of detail and it creates an elegant, timeless piece that can be a family heirloom. I was still terrified as I began drawing, but quickly fell into a good groove. Okay, that's not totally true. After I spilled something on the first one and felt like I had messed up too much with the drawing to save it, I threw it away and started with a fresh sheet of charcoal paper. BUT THEN I fell into a good groove and had such a fun time!! I think the trick to charcoal, and really any detailed artwork, is to layer. With the wrinkles, I started with a soft layer of black, blocking out where the lines would be, then added white over it. I came back in with black in the darker areas and just alternated between black and white until it was blended and had the desired contrast.

Surprisingly enough, I think the most challenging part of the piece for me was the yarn. Since I was drawing from a video still, it wasn't super easy to see where all the stitches were and which direction the yarn went in all the places. I've learned that part of art is just confidently making something up and blending it into a piece to pretend it was always supposed to be that way. So, that's exactly what I did--if you're a crochet expert, please don't look too closely:)

The more I worked on this piece, the more excited I became. It was just so fun. As I got close to being done, I had to decide whether to keep the background the plain gray of the paper I was working on, make it a solid black, or draw the actual background from the video. This is where I have to use my artistic eye to make an executive decision. Since the hands were fairly light and I wanted to make sure they were the focal point of the piece, I opted to go with the solid black background. As I blended it all together and added the final touches, I stepped back and was ecstatic. I had been so nervous to take on this project, but at the end I am so glad I took on the challenge and grew as an artist! I feel more confident to take on more complex pieces now and can't wait to see where this journey leads me!

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