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Naiads, revisited
Late last year, Lisa Chipetine from the Studio Art Quilt Associates, invited me to participate in an online Quilt Critique session with Sandra Sider. Never having been through a real critique session, I was nervous, but was so pleased to have been asked that I rustled up some courage and said yes, thank you! Boy am I glad I did! Since I didn’t have much in the way of new work (my time the past 24 months has been taken up with writing my manuscript and family crises, all now resolved). So I offered up Koi and Naiads. Since there is more going on in Naiads, Lisa suggested I use that one for the critique. I will state up front that I was quite happy with this quilt as it was, and it had already won a Judges’ Choice (Lisa Erlandson) award at Maine Quilts last year and an Honorable Mention at the Lowell Quilt Festival show last summer, also. Guess what: it COULD be made better!
Here is the before,
Naiads, Original "complete" version, notice the ripple over the swimming figure
Here are the before and after, side by side:
Naiads, Revised full version
Naiads, Original "complete" version
Sandra spotted three things that could stand improvement, one of which I had already noticed. What she mentioned first, however, is something that totally escaped me: the seated figure on the left–her leg, the one in the water, was disproportionately long! Even though I thought I had drawn carefully, Sandra was absolutely right. So the water was rendered opaque, covering up the extra length since re-doing the figure would have been a horrid amount of work:
Naiads, original version, too-long leg
And after:
Naiads, Revised, leg "shortened" and center figure improved
Sandra also noted that I had done a very good job (thank you!) of making the water LOOK like water, which she said is hard to do in cloth. Because of that she suggested that I shorten the willow branches on the right so that the feeling of rushing river water would be enhanced. I didn’t want to cut them as short as she suggested (above the river bank), but I did shorten them so that only the longest branches reach the top of the river. I agree… it looks better and more “flow-y”.
Finally, the naiad swimming in the middle. I had not quilted over her center, because quilting on painted cloth (the figure) looks weird sometimes, and the other figures weren’t quilted, plus I wanted to preserve the illusion of transparent water washing over her body. Alas, that meant a somewhat unsightly bubble. Sandra (using a blur/cloning tool I think) showed in her doctored jpeg during the critique (more on the how of the online session in a minute) how the focal point of the three figures is enhance by covering the lower half to 2/3 of the swimming Naiad’s body.
I wanted to retain the illusion of water, where you can see the body through the water, but agreed this section dearly needed help, so I split the difference. I covered her hip and middle with more of the same fabrics used for the river, but left her feet and a bit more of her torso revealed. I think the overall effect is VASTLY improved! as shown in the “Revised” detail photo.
OK…so how does an online critique work? Lisa’s description of the “webinar”, here, is the best, plus there is a YouTube type “video” here, but in a nutshell you need a phone (toll call), an internet connection, and to show up at the designated time. The four or five participants in the one-hour session send jpegs to Sandra about 2 weeks ahead of time, giving her thinking and “Photoshopping” time. The critiques occur in sequence, and “silent participants” can call in and listen but not engage in the conversation (it costs less to listen than be an active participant, a mere $5 per one-hour session for the silent one, and a modest $20 for active participant).
Sandra will show the before, ask the artist (unnamed) their goals, concerns, etc., then offer suggestions. At this point, other critique participants may also chime in. I can tell you that I learned as much from looking and listening and commenting on the other art quilts as from the review of my own. I have a major project/commission coming up, and once I get detailed cartoons/sketches done and maybe some initial work on the first of six panels, will go back for a good critical eye before I get too far into construction.
The bottom line? A very worthwhile and educational experience!
April 18th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Thanks for sharing this, Sarah. I loved hearing about the critique and seeing your solves! I belong to two crit groups and it has been very helpful to me.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
[…] time ago (that great whooooshing and sucking sound is time roaring past us), I blogged about having my Naiads quilt critiqued at QuiltCritique.com. A joint venture with Lisa Chipetine and Sandra Sider (who also happen to be […]