I've done this the wrong way round in that drawing with icing made me think of my mum who is a cook and a skilled cake decorator. She also enjoys sewing and gardening so it was a small step to objects that give a sense of her as a person.
I had a little doodle with my sewing machine and put some test spots of my red cabbage "ink" on a scrap of fabric.
I enlarged the small drawing on some rough paper to confirm that the layout would work on a larger scale.
Then drew the outlines lightly with charcoal and machined them in on a piece of old white sheet.
The image is very simplistic and stylised, my mum is a very straightforward person. To complement the plain lines I added colour with my red cabbage "ink" because my mum loves blue and is fond of experimenting with recipes. I did some tests on the computer with Photoshop to confirm I wanted colour.
Initially it looked awful, too much colour and too purple so I did add some water on the bigger patches of colour and it mellowed as everything dried.
So now, a couple of days later this is what it looks like.
Although you can't see it on the scanned and coloured image the charcoal didn't wash out completely so I tried drawing the lines directly on the sheet in red cabbage ink.
Then threw colour at my drawing
Initially it looked awful, too much colour and too purple so I did add some water on the bigger patches of colour and it mellowed as everything dried.
Them machined over the top
and added some more splurged and flicked colour
Given a couple of days to set/fade this is the result
The colours are bolder, I liked the deep effect with the spots of colour in my experiments
but I guess that won't happen when applying colour to fabric rather than paper.
I'm not sure that the sewn drawing and the "ink" drawing work together. To me the strongest piece (apart from the original thumbnail) is this brush drawing.
but the medium doesn't tell you as much about my mum, the sewn line is much more relevant and I know she despises loose drawings and prefers lifelike detail. The original sketch was enlivened by my multiple lines as I searched for the correct one.
and this is something missing in the sewing machine drawings as I have aimed for a continuous line so I repeated the exercise using multiple sewn lines.
It still looks rather premeditated but I think it is a slightly stronger drawing. I hesitated to add colour to this one yet as I'm not sure that it is working so I tried some photoshop mock ups.
It's a bit dull without colour so here goes....
I think this is a better image for the more restrained addition of colour. I love monochrome drawings but they are read as more hesitant than something that has added colour.
Reflection
The medium which is used to create a drawing can be important depending on how it is applied. Oil paint is not drawing but tends to be used in such a subtle manner that you forget what it is, the Dutch Masters painted their still lives in such a realistic fashion that the paint isn't obvious. The medium selected for a picture can complement it, a sketchy pencil drawing for a fleeting moment like these reportage drawings by Louis Netter. Or Veronica Lawlor's pen, ink and mixed media drawings which beautifully convey the urgency of the moment. Michael Craig Martin uses sterile flat lines and curves to depict dull everyday objects but manages to elevate them to something that people stop and look at instead of taking them for granted. If you are going to draw in a contrasting or clashing media there is a danger that the media will overwhelm the message of the drawing, the example of the oil and steel drawing of a baby would depend on the manner in which it was executed, the imagery would have to be strong to adequately convey the message.
Marcus Harvey did this successfully with his painting Myra which shocked the media by using a childs handprints. It encourages the viewer to consider what is ethical and appropriate not just to view the picture and move on.
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