Monsters

Drawing number 114

Drawing number 115

Drawing number 116

I seem to be on a bit of monster drawing kick. Everything is developing little feet. Perhaps to run away on...

The alarm clock is EVIL

Drawing number 113

This is my alarm clock. It is EVIL.

I hate getting out of bed (I was going to continue that with "in the morning", but the truth is I hate getting up full stop, any time of day). Once I'm up and moving, I'm fine, but the actual dragging myself from my cosy cocoon of blankets is hard, particularly now the weather is cooling down and the mornings are darker. Even more, I hate the alarm clock. I'm not fond of clocks in general - I haven't worn a watch for a couple of years now - but the horrible noise of the alarm shrilling, wrenching me from the blissful arms of slumber, is sheer torture.

Given my general aversion to clocks, I find it interesting that I'm drawn to the white rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland" - it pops up again and again in both my art and writing. I was rewatching "The Matrix" this afternoon and grinned at the white rabbit references. Mmmm, Keanu Reeves...even more mmmm, Keanu Reeves in that coat...

Birdies

Drawing number 112

Curvy models

Drawing number 110

Drawing number 111

Life drawing class yesterday was a good one for me - made one ten minute drawing that was rubbish, then (grimly) waded into three twenty minute poses and turned out some that I'm happy with. It helped that the model is a lovely large lady with wonderful curves :)
And that I like working with different surfaces. I seem to be seeing things differently, composition wise, this year - less awkward, editing the pose to work for me. I'm getting quite good at editing out hands/feet (draw big! Oops, look at those extremities end up off the page). They're hard! I really should practice them more...

The morning class was cancelled (the teacher was sick), but we were allowed into the computer lab to wrestle with photoshop despite the lack of supervision (or help, which was much needed).
I seem to understand one process in photoshop, think I've mastered it and ten minutes later can't remember for the life of me how to repeat the action I just performed. Frustrating. I much prefer Irfan view.

Getting over the funk

Drawing number 109

I think I have worked out some of the things that were preoccupying me, at last :)
When I'm worrying away at a problem (or set of problems) all my words desert me, as if they're absorbed by analyzing, disecting, gnawing, digesting the thing that is bothering me. I can't articulate it till it's done.

So, moving on. Ideas are flowing once more, now that the dam of words has been breached.

One of my themes this year is turning out to be found paper, or more particularly found surfaces because it's not all about paper all the time. Today I prepared some large A1 sheets of paper for drawing class tomorrow, pasting down some pages torn from an old Sydney UBD (street directory). I like using maps to work over, the lines form an interesting background. I plan to use more UBD pages in printing, in a smaller format. I also glued down some dressmaking pattern pieces (from an incomplete pattern, not one I could use or sell or pass on to someone)
- I drew over some of this last year and it makes a lovely, soft surface for charcoal. Not sure how it would work with pastel, but I'll try it tomorrow. The Bloke brought me a roll of wonderfully aged paper (not newsprint, might be butcher's paper), all speckled and brown and spotty, some sheets with holes or tears, and I'm taking a couple of those sheets, too.

This term we have life models for drawing, and boy, am I out of practice in just a few months (last time I did life drawing was last November). I just felt like I was beginning to get it after the terror of life drawing all last year, only to stop. Once this course is over, I may have to find a private life class to keep my hand in; it's hard, it's scary, but it's very good for my skills.

Dumb

Drawing number 107

Drawing number 108

Day off

Drawing number 103

Drawing number 104

Drawing number 105

Drawing number 106

Got to painting class this morning to find the day's classes cancelled - the teacher was sick. So, bonus day to myself. I managed to read the newspaper in one hit instead of a few minutes here, a few minutes there, accompanied by an early second cup of coffee. It was a cold and wet morning, a pleasant day for sitting at the dining room table with a hot drink, reading matter and two cold cats, glancing out at the raindrops.

I made two skirts to list on Ebay, made my drawing-a-day (the last one above, which I think, with adaptation, will be just the image I need to finish a print I'm working on, and would also be good printed multiple times on fabric), worked on the current drawing in my artist's book, finished reknitting the toes of the Bloke's socks (inferior yarn on one of the stripes which literally disintegrated with wear - I ripped it back to a good stripe and just reknitted as it wasn't worth darning. I hate darning, anyway, I'd rather reknit than mend!), and had a nap :)

In tomorrow's painting class we present our current project, Mechanical Reproduction. I'll need a computer to present mine: I made an animated .gif of one of my drawings. I'm so chuffed that I managed to navigate the program (with the Bloke's invaluable aid) and actually make the thing, I could burst...though it wasn't half as complicated as I feared. Now I know how, I may make more!