What about realistic drawing?

I tried.
I really tried.
I was even successful every so often.
However, I found myself not wanting to do the actual drawing. I knew I should practice, practice, practice. I read books and articles, I tidied my work table. I downloaded a lovely reference photo of a pair of old boots, graphed it up and intended to copy it that ways, square by square.
It went OK, but I wasn't happy doing it. 
I started to think back about projects that I enjoyed so much that I couldn't wait to get back to them and I realised, I am a designer rather than a fine artist.

I love design, I love using all kinds of pencils and pens,  I love working on paper. Why fight that? Why not combine my knowledge  and years of experience of design and my newly acquired knowledge of realistic drawing?

Here is the last quilt design I did. "Spice Stars" Please note: this is 2.50m x 2.60m and has some very intricate machine quilting.
I was very happy with that design.
Working with fabric and sewing, there are many more restrictions than there are with drawing.
As I have mentioned before, I am a member of the newly formed Somerset Art Scy Inc. Each Wednesday some of the members get together to work on their art. I decided to join them and also decided I was going to work on something enjoyable.
Got my pastel paper out and pencils, but found ordinary pencils didn't work well. Got my pastel pencils out and just drew some curvy shapes and then filled them in with further shapes.
I made them go over and under to provide some depth, I LOVE overs- and -unders
It is still a work in progress: initially I coloured in very tentatively.  RS suggested that I push down harder, to get more intensity. It stuffed up my work, because the pen outline is done AFTER the pastel pencil, having to go over it again meant I had to go over the black lines again.

You can see which parts have been redone.
I put the work where I can see it, and I know now I that the shadows I put in aren't correct. I should have put shadows where the shapes cross over, so I am not sure I want to continue with it as I can see so many ways I can improve on this now.
The main thing is: I enjoyed the process tremendously.
Deb is having a new course and I'll make that a separate post.