new (image) on the block

I'm in love again.

Visions of new work have been dancing in my brain, and I am captivated anew by the human form. As I mark with circle and line the landmarks of the figure, and then try to disengage my linear self, I come up with a sketch.

And at this point, an artist would go on, articulate her fully-formed, nuanced muscle, flesh and bone, a highlight here, a shadow there. Two things -- one, I am not very good at that articulation stuff. In fact, I'm not a very good draw-er.

But two, I find the sketches somehow fulfilling in and of themselves, spontaneous, a place where I can follow the evolution of lines. They also look a bit chaotic to me, which for some reason, I like. So, I guess I'm in love with sketching.

My ultimate goal is to stitch this image on fabric and then paint the fabric. I photographed my sketch, and as shown in the image above, I digitally added the beginnings of color. I changed this image to grayscale:

I'll print this on cotton, and use dark threads to stitch these lines, so the image will "read" as thread and not printed line. I'd like to be able to achieve with the sewing machine the freedom of line that comes with a #6B pencil -- and sketch with the machine itself. Maybe some day.