Homework

We're still doing perspective in my drawing class and I seem to be struggling with it. Not because I find it hard - I get the concept, I can see how it's supposed to look - I just find it hard to get into that space, you know, the one where everything flows and time stops and there is nothing but your subject, your medium and you...that zen place. And it's no one's fault but my own - there's no lack of inspiration, no lack of creativity, plenty of paper & ink, charcoal & erasers - I've just been feeling...rushed. There seems to be so much going on that I'm taking no time to practice at home. How sad is that? And I know that when Christmas is over, I'll have more time than I'll know what to do with...but you know, after tonight, I only have 3 more classes! Not that I need the classes to be able to draw, there's nothing stopping me from drawing once classes are done - it's just that they've been such a motivation. I guess I just need to motivate myself once they're done, because I'm really seeing an improvement in myself. Check this out:

This is my homework from the very first week of class,

and this is what I did on Sunday, after hours of procrastinating (seriously, I did housework and made brownies because I just couldn't find my zen to draw) and then WHAM! I hit that zone and it just came together!

This is what I've been trying to do in class, but haven't. I think it's the time constraint and having to share my work space with someone else - I feel like I can't spread out. And of course, the teacher stops us to point things out and talk, like she's supposed to...but it's just enough to not allow me to slip into that focus that I need to create. And I know that this is why practice at home is so important, to allow me to slide in and out of that groove with such ease.

Now I'm itching to draw! Too bad I'm at work and they'd frown at me doodling when I'm supposed to be working on constituent stuff!

Ah, until tomorrow and the new adventures in drawing that I'll get to share!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury

original artwork for his story of the same title

"Twas the night of All Hallow's and all through the room

Not a creature was stirring not even a broom"

~ 'Twas All Hallows Eve by Thomas James Martin

I love Halloween (almost as much as Christmas)! I love everything about it - the tricks, the treats, the decorations, carving pumpkins, scaring yourself silly (despite not being a big horror fan). It's a moment in time when you can walk into public wearing the most outlandish things and it's completely normal! Watching Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree.

Every Halloween, my mother makes a big beef stew with chunks of potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and apple pie. The house just overflows with the scents of comfort food! My family comes over, neighbors and friends stop in to visit for a while - their halloween bedecked kids in tow. And where my house is so centrally located, we easily get over 100 kids every year!

But this year, I've felt very un-Halloweenie. My parents weren't going to come up because it's a Tuesday and Dad has to work tomorrow. I have drawing class tonight, so I wasn't going to be home. My niece was going to a friend's house, while my nephew was heading out to make mischief with his friends, so my sister decided to stay home this year. So I didn't buy candy, I didn't carve pumpkins...I didn't even decorate!

Now...well, Mum and Dad are up, Mum's baking as you read this. Both my sister and my brother (who's birthday was yesterday - happy 36th, Derek!) are coming over...and I still have a class...and there's still no candy...or jack-o-lanterns...and the house is still undecorated. And I'm sad, because I wish I had known - I wish I had decorated and bought candy and got into the Halloweenie groove!

Okay, I'm done whining; I'm over it...well not really, but I will get over it.

And by Lord and Lady, my house is going to be so decked out for Christmas, it'll look like the spirit of Christmas *heaved* her Christmas cheer up on it!

bat confetti that I found on my desk this morning - a present from my co-worker Deb!

Oh, and since I didn't post my "What I learned Wednesday" last week, I never told you that we learned about Negative Space and framing:

This is the negative space between chair legs that I did in class. And here is my homework for tonight - the negative space around my sewing machine (and of course, I couldn't get the digital the same as how I viewed it while I drew, but you get the idea):

and I caught myself putting in too much detail - I'll probably hear about it tonight! I'm not sure that I like negative space, but I understand how important it is.

Anyhoo, Happy Tricks & Treats, everyone!

week 3 homework

"wine by candlelight"

soft charcoal, vine charcoal and china marker

I really don't feel that I took my time with this. Funny how you can tell just by the finished product. I know I didn't focus as much as I should have and the depth is all off! At least I can recognize this and work on it for next time.

home

so my home is the house i grew up in. i've lived there for almost 30 years (save the few years when i went to university and lived in different dorms or apartments and even then i still had a lot of stuff at the house), but my parents moved out and let me rent it. me and my furry roommates. eventually i want to buy this house that is somewhere in the vicinity of 150 to 200 years old.

i love this house. it's a 2 story cape with an "L" on the back. it does need a lot of tlc but it's home. the archways and many windows, the scary stone and dirt basement, the equally creepy tiny attic with it's threat of spiders and wasps, the creaks and moans of the floors and stairs, they are all so familiar, they lull me to sleep at night (well, not thoughts of the cellar or the attic and the bugs). the floors (which are covered in carpet downstairs) are maple, the upstairs - pumpkin pine, all need to be sanded and refinished. the place needs insulation in many walls and under the downstairs floor, the wallpaper needs stripping, the whole place should be rewired. the whole backroom and garage need to be insulated and sheet rocked. lot of work, i know, but i still love it!

i started on the kitchen, but need to finish painting the lower cabinets, put down the flooring and nail the base boards back in. then it's done. the downstairs hallway is something that called to me, so i've started painting it. it's green, like grass, with odd striations from the way i painted it and i've been wondering if i really like it. i made curtains for the stained glass window and door, they're very kitschey, flowery and donna dewberry-ish, normally not my motif, but they really seem to work in that area. we'll see.

my parents are still moving their stuff out of the house and into their house on damariscotta lake. mum just cleaned out her closet and soon their bed at my house will go, opening up their room for me to rip out plaster walls, re-sheetrock, paint and put down carpet (love the hardwood floors but they are so cold that carpet is needed in that house). then that will become my room. my room right now is the old master bedroom at the front of the house. my parents put a wall in the center of the room to create 2 bedrooms for my sister and myself (we shared a room until i was almost 3 - she was 11). i took the wall down and opened the master bedroom back up, but i want a craft room/office - a place where the sewing machine and the ironing board can stay up all the time, where i have wall space to put the quilt wall, where i can just roll across the floor in my chair to my desk to print out a design for a quilt or doll or whatever. i have the space for this! i have a 3 bedroom house all to myself, no husband, no boyfriend, no children, no human roommates, just me, the cat and the dog. but some of this space is still cluttered with my parents stuff. they downsized to a 2 bedroom ranch with not enough space for all of their stuff, which means it remains in my house until they can decide what to throw or keep.

i'm a patient person (sometimes) and i love this house, so i can wait for the parentals to get rid of their stuff and let me do my thing to that house to really make it mine!