Wednesday's Expressive Drawing Class~Charcoal and Gesso on Mylar

Charcoal and White Gesso on Mylar

I didn't want to do it.  I refused to do it.  I wavered.  I did it.

I had used Mylar previously with coloured pencil and although it looks lovely, was not my favourite "paper" to work on.  In fact I didn't want to try it again.  As it turns out though, it's lovely to use with charcoal and gesso.  I'm not happy with the undersized head in the top drawing so the nice thing about mylar is I can erase, wash off or scrap what is there and start off that bit again.....and I think I will!

This was another good bridge into my painting class that will start at the end of April.  I've never used oils before, but it's the same instructor and is another "expressive figure" class so I'm  looking forward to it.  Okay.....actually I'm scared silly, but it's now or never.  Also, they work on very large canvas' which is right up my alley.  Go big or go home baby!

I've sent a couple of more invites out to other bloggers to request that they do guest posts and I think one of them may be ready to post!  That being said, I would also welcome another guest post from Kurt should he be willing, when he has the time.  I'm having Kurt post withdrawl!

I'm not sure if it's the Spring or that bloggers are expanding their interests and returning to normal life in the other world, but posting is at a minimum of late on many sites.

BTW, I'm extremely excited that the weather has taken a turn and we are heading up into the mid 20's, perhaps as high as 26 degrees later this week! (yes, yes, that's in celcius.  That's 78.8 Fahrenheit.)  Oh yes, and sunny!  I imagine I may be remiss in my blogging duties as well.

More On Rats!

Peanut

Cookie Monster

In my last post Serena commented, "... I've heard rats are very clever...but they seriously know their names?? That's so cool!"  And although I was a wee bit on the grumpy side today, thinking of this lifted my spirits a bit and I thought I'd talk a bit more about rats.

The set of sisters we had previously were Cookie and Peanut.  Each knew their own names respectively and would only come out if you called for them specifically.  One of Four would take them out each evening to watch t.v. or read with her in our big leather chair in the livingroom.  Cookie was the more curious and friendly of the two, anxious to meet any new person to visit the house.  Particularily if they didn't like rats.  This made them both even more eager to visit with the newcomer.

Cookie would stand watch on the arm of the chair.  That was her job.  Peanut was (and still is) the cuddler who just likes so soak up the love and loves to sleep curled up beside you.

Our two new rats, Squeekers and Sugar, learned their names within the first week or so of moving in.  Sugar seemed to learn hers slightly quicker than the other.  Our other two ladies were refined, friendly and quiet from day one.  Our two new rats are silly, hyper, friendly and mischievious!

These two new rats like to play games.  They love to wrestle with your hand, play tag and hide and seek.  First you grab at them while they run away, then you pull back and make scratching sounds on the surface they are on.  Kind of like you'd play with a cat if you like getting scratched up.  They run and hide then turn and pounce on your hand.  You chase again....etc....  They realize it's play and not a threat to them so they don't scratch or bite.

Rats do make a good pet if you can keep them from figuring out how to escape their cages, and they're much better company than many of the people I know.  Probably smarter too;-)

Oh Rats!

If you ever should decide that rats are a good pet for your child then remember to make sure the ones you purchase are stupid.

The ones we bought recently are two very smart rats. They are hyper, friendly and indeed very smart. Yesterday I noticed when I got home from art class that they were not in either of their cages. I'm not sure how they managed to escape, but I found purple nail polish pooled on the floor and splattered up the wall. I'm not sure what other damage may have been done as of yet other than the general disarray they caused.  . Hopefully nothing more than a scattering of rat "nuggets" around the desk on which I found them lounging. I called them each by name and they came out to greet me. Yes, they do know their own names. Thankfully One of Fours bedroom door where they are kept was closed or they may have become doggie treats or even worse, the dog may have become a rattie treat!

Expressive Figure Drawing~Watercolour Nightmare

I am not a happy painter when I am instructed to work in water colours.  They are a medium I find irritating to say the least.  I tolerated them for only one part of the picture.  I switched to Gesso and charcoal and struggled with that for the second. 

I always have a readjustment period when I've had any kind of break from art.  I didn't do much drawing during the March break.  There were no formal classes last week and I went to class with a short fuse today.  (So unlike me;-)   That being said, I will force myself to do "sketches" with them in the coming weeks at home to "brush up" on my water colour skills.  I've never taken water colour classes and have not done much studying on my own with regards to them.  I didn't even have the correct brushes to work with.  Yuck!

Pretty much done.  I'll pick away at this one as I see little things I want to change.

I finally did it.  I signed up for the "Expressive Figure Painting" class for the Spring semester.  I'm sure there will be lots of frustrating posts coming on this in the future, but if I didn't do it now I probably never would.  I have been told multiple times, including today, that I draw like I'm working with oil paint.  Today she said I worked the water colours as if they were oils.  That's a good thing though, it means it will be a more natural transition for me I suppose.  Each session will be 3 classes of 3 hours so that's 9 hours per painting.  I'm much more comfortable with that than trying to complete a drawing in anywhere from 2 minutes to an hour, which is what  is currently required.  The downside is I will lose the speed I've gained and purposely took these classes for.  C'est la vie!

Things I'm Waiting For To Come In The Mail

*The  9 "Deco Pink" Prismacolor pencils that I ordered that have been discontinued but were available in limited supply from one website.  They have "Deco Yellow" too, but that didn't excite me.

*My cheque from the magazine for the cartoon they published.

*Mail.

*The next issue of Artist magazine.

*The next issue of the OPE zine when Kurt finishes it.  I can't wait.  I'm getting bored of re-reading shampoo ingredients on the bottles in the bathroom;-)

It's Monday.  Just thought you'd like to know.

The Dog Park

While I was walking Mr. Hunter at the dog park this morning I was trying to think of the human equivalent to this glorious place.  All the dogs happily romping through the fields, sniffing and peeing.  Excitement visible all around.  Where can humans feel such joy.  Walking up to a stranger sniffing their butts, drinking pee water from a puddle, eating poo.  Okay, maybe it's a good thing there isn't a human equivalent after all.

Goodbye Grandma Cool~1913-2010

If they have Bingo in Heaven, I suspect you'll clean up!

Still a bit more to go, but almost done.

Happy March Break!  I look forward to a break with the kids and to not having to deal with school politics for a week at least.  When they start back the sh**s going to hit the fan.  I'm going to be the one throwing it;-)

Wednesday's Expressive Drawing Class~Charcoal and Gesso

This was something new to me.  We had to use charcoal and gesso.  Gesso is a chalky white acrylic paint often used for priming canvas.  I hate chalky, sandpapery, and scratchy textures, so as you can imagine I spent much of the class looking like I had sucked on a lemon.

This was a good introduction to the painting class I would like to take next.  It started off being a lot of fun but quickly got confusing and difficult.  The things I thought I was doing correctly turned out to be wrong and what I thought was wrong was occassionally correct.  Apparently I was getting it in the last hour of the two hour session.  I would have needed another hour or two to actually finish the piece.

The model told me she thought it was a good likeness of her.  We aren't supposed to put as much into the face as I always tend to.  The purpose isn't to make it look like the person, but I can't help but feel I've failed if I don't capture the face accurately.  My instructor actually was telling us all not to put the detail of the face in.  Oooops.

I think I'll work into this a little more at home and see if I can make it more pleasing to me, albeit probably not artistically correct according to what the exercise is supposed to accomplish.

Oh, and I also put too much emphasis on nipples.  How can I not!  They are so noticable;-)

Next week is the same medium but with a male model.

WooHoo! I've Been Published!

I'm so excited I could pee myself....again!


I just received two copies of "Aquarium Fish International" magazine in the mail. I stopped subscribing to this a few years ago and was puzzled. When I started flipping through I found a cartoon I had sent them a couple of years ago in hopes of getting it published. They sent me a contract to sign then I heard nothing from them and assumed they'd forgotten about me. As my moto is "If at first you don't succeed, then never try again," I only submitted the one just to test the waters.

Anyhow, it's in the April 2010 edition and it's about a clown loach in a little clown hat and that's all I'll say so I don't get sued.

I'm still waiting for the cheque.  Wonder if they forgot.

Many artists teach to hold your work up to a mirror to help you see mistakes and oddities.  I don't find this works so well for me.  If I look at it on my computer I can usually see the things I want to change that don't look quite right.  I've noticed a couple in just this very painting.  There is still much to go, but I may be putting it aside to work on a commission.  I won't be following the progression of the piece on this blog so aside from Wednesdays nekked people, this may be an art free site for a while.

With reference to yesterday's post.  I apologize, but Kurt is not figuratively dead.  He assured me the word demise was not in the post discussed, even though it originally was, and he's still around.  Well, for now.  As far as I know he hasn't flown back home yet and you never know.  So for the time being OPE is alive and well.

Kurt's Dead

I have sad news for all followers of the Other People Exist blog....Kurt is dead.  Figuratively speaking of course. 

While reading another blog on which he occasionally contributes he used the phrase, "with the demise of OPE blog...."  There it is in his own words.  He had once assured us that OPE had just changed focus, but with this statement I feel it is necessary for all follower of Kurt's blog to take a brief moment to mourn his loss and then move on.

[Insert brief moment here.]

Don't get me wrong....OPE still exists, just in an ole' fashioned kinda way like our Grandparents used to use. Paper.  If you want to subscribe contact him through his "blog" and he can instruct you on how you can subscribe in time to get the zine he is currently working on.



Okay, now that Kurts gone who out there can we get to replace him?  Blog superstars don't come along just any old day!  Are there any suggestions out there?  Male or female, preferably human, and someone we know little about so we can let our imagination ruminate over the possibilities.  Someone I can name "Pseudo ???" and label my life drawings after so we can picture what they may possibly look like....naked of course.  If you have any nominations for the new superstar blogger, let me know and I'll put it up for a vote in the side bar.

Should Kurt re-emerge from oblivion then perhaps he can be put back up on his pedestal, but I wouldn't hold my hopes up.  It is a dark day in blogging history.

March Rant

I haven't ranted since January 24th.  I double checked.  Yesterday I was planning on bragging how good I've been in not ranting of late but thought I'd save that for today.  That was my original plan.  Notice...I said was.....

Yesterday was a bi-election for the Provincial government in my riding.  Mr. P. and I went to vote even though all of the candidates suck lemons.  We chose the lesser of 4 evils.

We got a call in the evening reminding us to vote from one of the major three parties.  Mr. P. stopped them mid speech to assure them we had already voted.  When reps for the same party showed up at the door with a reminder, he was polite and assured them we had already voted. 
Well guess what, the same two reps showed up a second time and when Mr. P. told them they had already come by and I had voted their response was,

"....but our records show that "Perpetual Chocoholic" hasn't voted and she needs to."

Mr. P. firmly but politely assured them that they were wrong and I had voted.  He's nicer than I would have been had I answered the door.  They shouldn't know whether or not I have voted and even if they do, they shouldn't be at my door insisting that I do.  At 8:30 pm no less!

Today I'm going to the reps house.  I'm going to assure him myself that I did indeed vote.  I'm going to go back later and let him know a second time that I voted.  Then  since I don't know his phone number, but only know where he lives, I'm going back a third time to assure him politely that I did indeed vote, even though it's none of his business and his party should probably wish I hadn't voted, just to make sure he understands.

I'm pleased to announce that they really, really lost as they always do!

P.S.  Someone was telling me today that they thought when they first saw postings from Kurt that they thought I was running two blogs.  Other People Exist and Perpetual Chocoholic.  I assure you that's not the case.  That sounds like a whole lot of work that I'm frankly not up to doing.  Also,  I like grape jelly in little packages and don't think bacon is the best way to increase my readership and don't live in a Famous American city.

Wednesday's Expressive Drawing Class~Contour Exercises

Here are the exercises from yesterday's Expressive Figure Drawing class.  I didn't post them yesterday as I wanted to give everyone a chance to enjoy what might possibly be Kurt's last post depending on whether or not he makes it safely to his destination and back.  I think though, he's at a greater risk from getting a sunburn, or getting beat up by a Stewardess he's annoyed than from a airline disaster.

Yesterday was a number of exercises and not an actual drawing session, so please keep that in mind when you wonder what the heck I was drinking while drawing.

We were working on pure contour, cross-contour and blind contour drawing with both hands.  I automatically reverted to the left hand again for some reason.

Also, we weren't instructed to work blindly but I found myself getting so lost in the lines that I didn't bother to look at the paper.  The instructor told me this was great and to continue on with it.

In this drawing we had to draw different parts of the body with both our left and right hands at the same time.  Yikes!  I actually didn't find this that difficult.  (That might explain a few things about my twisted, sick brain;-)  I also did most of this drawing "blindly" without looking at the paper to check the progression of the drawing.

During the morning I found out about a series of  professional workshops open to whom ever wanted to come.  They were free (my favourite type) So I spent the afternoon learning from an expert how to ship artwork worth millions of dollars and ancient mummies and artifacts.  I was able to learn though also how to float a framed piece saftely in the crate for shipping in a way that will reduce the likelihood of it becoming damaged.  It makes me want to run out and start shipping art;-)  Anybody got any mummies they need shipped?

Guest Post #5 by Kurt of Other People Exist

Today I will be traveling via jet airplane from the large and famous American city where I live to a different city in another place.

Lately, whenever I fly, at some point I become convinced that the plane is crashing. The last time I flew, the plane descended rapidly from 35,000 feet to 8,000 feet while we were still an hour away from our destination city, which I've forgotten. I knew death was imminent, and if "Sully" Sullenberger has taught us anything, it's that, in a crash-type situation, there isn't an announcement until right before you die ("Brace for impact," he announced, a few seconds before he landed in a river). As it turned out, I didn't die; the captain was presumably just crazy and/or high.

Whenever I become convinced that the plane is crashing, I look to the flight attendants, and if they appear calm, I conclude that perhaps I am wrong, and perhaps we are not falling from the sky. Once, over the Pacific, our plane flew through a bad storm. We were tossed about, and water started dripping from the ceiling. The captain instructed the flight attendants to take their seats, and I noticed that one flight attendant had a look of pure terror on his face. That worried me.

Unexpectedly, I lived, and so did the flight attendant. They say you are more likely to die while horsing around with a loaded gun than while traveling by plane. While, intellectually, I understand that, I love horseplay too much to stop.

Gummy Bear

This is the one I've started while I'm waiting for pictures for the latest commissions that have been requested.  I've been working slowly and am afraid if I stop I'll just peter out completely so I try to always have a few things on the go.  When I'm not working on a commission or still life I go into my stash of photos and find something to keep me busy.


I've been drawing for about an hour every day outside the house somewhere.  At this time of the year it's in cafes until the weather improves.  Also, the caffeine keeps me going through the day.


My neighbour across the way suggested saving money by brewing a pot at home.  "D'Uh" I told him, "the ambience at home isn't right for sketching!"  Plus, we only have decaf at home.  That doesn't work as well at keeping me alert.


I went to a different cafe this morning a bit farther from home and was alarmed to see large hair on many of the patrons.  Please tell me the "beehive" isn't coming back into style.  These were all patrons in their 20's and 30's.  All seemed to be dressed in short skirts with tall boots and friggin' big hair.  Oddly enough I haven't noticed this trend in the cafe closer to home.  It's in "Hot Chocolate" and "Adventurers" hoods.  The men's hair was shorter and their boots weren't as big, but their skirts were just as short;-)

Who Do You Think Kurt Is?

I went looking for two things in my art pile in the other corner of our livingroom this morning.  One was "White Mocha's" Christmas cards.  I borrowed the ones I hand drew for her the last couple of years to use as a basis for this years card.  I still haven't delivered the old or the new ones.  I found it.  The second was one of the two issues of the OPE zine I have.  I didn't find the first issue I was looking for.  It's in another art pile.  One I'm not willing to tackle today.

I have been asked many times how I know Kurt from OPE.  I don't.   

It's funny because often people assume I must know him since I mention him on my blog.  He is after all "weird" I've been told by a couple of friends.  Let me ask you...if you only knew me by my blog would I seem normal to you?  Am I really who I say I am?  For a couple of years I was a twenty something man named "Tim Hotmale" on the internet.  I had all of the young girls after me. 

Before Kurt archived all of his posts for the last five years and started off fresh with a new focus this is what I learned:

*He was LMAO funny (and still is.)

*Travels a couple times a year to interesting places and makes sure to photograph his food to show us all what we're missing

*Was a teacher

*Posted photos of himself (if it was him) frequently

*Mails out a paper copy of his humour zine bi-wheneverly

*Is not a fan of grape jelly in restaurants or anywhere else

*Believes the answer to increasing readership for a blog is bacon

*Lives in a famous American city

*Is well read and well educated

*Unemployed

*Had a staff of make believe workers that worked on his blog and zine, the most memorable of which was an intern named Todd.  He killed him off and burried him in the backyard of the OPE offices when he archived his older posts.  I miss Todd.

*Never mentions his significant other and he is without children

*Finally, he has stated on numerous occasions that he is not really who he is portraying on his blog.

Who do I think Kurt really is I've been asked.  My opinion has changed frequently through the time I  have read his blog.  At one point I was sure he was a woman, then a gay man in denial (or not), possibly a teen.  I've had others though make various suggestions to me.  So tell me, from what you know of Kurt....who do you think he is?

Thanks to Kurt for being a guest blogger this past couple of weeks.  He's welcome to continue to post, and I know there are those following this blog in hopes that he does just that.

My thanks to Kurt.  BTW....there's a little something for you in one of the pictures to show that although I am a procrastinator I'm not a complete slacker.