I've joined facebook to see the artwork of one artist.  Facebook gives me a headache.  What did I do!!??? 

Fridays Drawing Group

2 minute gesture drawings

Blogger hates me today and refuses to post this one upright no matter what I do.  Just tilt your head to the right or flip your monitor;-)

Well, I don't think this one needs explanation.

Okay, now it puts it the right way round.  Hope you didn't listen to me about the sideways monitor thing;-)

From Chocolate to Art

This Blog started off almost 6 years ago as a chocolate/humour blog.  Now it's art, art and more art.  Where did I go wrong?  Where did I lose my focus on what's really important in life?   Chocolate!

Anyhow, I went into Wednesdays session telling my friend how much I hate painting.  I really do.  I want so bad to work the painting like I do a coloured pencil or graphite work but can't.  I find myself painting with a cloth and my fingers much of the time to gain some control over what's happening.  Fingers in toxic substances probably aren't the smartest way to create art.  I don't like paint brushes.

My instructor very kindly came over during the class and told me I have the makings of a great painter.  I'm improving all of the time and I've got great potential.  She must have heard me complaining.  She's such an encouraging woman, God bless her, but I still hate painting.

That being said, I want to do it all the more for just that reason.  I won't let it beat me. I will continue to paint.  The one good thing is that the colour theory involved in the painting process has spilled over onto my coloured pencil works and improved them in the process.

Maybe next I'll paint with chocolate.  Goodness knows some of my coloured pencil works are done partially in blood.  I usually get paper cuts or stab myself with my pencils and bleed somewhere on the work.  Don't worry though....they're sealed with a finish, put behind glass and I have no diseases. 

I wonder how many works of art out there today actually contain the DNA of their creators?  You think the Mona Lisa has a little of Leonardo in her somewhere?

Maybe someday when I'm long gone someone can take my DNA from one of the works and clone me and bring me back again. But then, why would they want to;-)  Once around is enough for most of us.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

I knew I was part Scottish and French.  That remains the same.  I also believed that the other side of my family, the Fletcher's, were of British origins.  Well, God help me, it looks like they were actually Irish.  After years of razzing Mr. P. on the horrible fact that he is Irish, turns out I'm at least half that too.  I don't even like beer or potatos.  But then I don't like haggis either.  Actually, haggis has to be the most putrid thing I've ever let pass my lips in both taste and smell.  Up to date at least.  (That even includes the taste of vomit by the way.)

Anyhow, Happy Saint Patrick's Day. If you try to kiss me though, I'll probably slug you, but at least I won't spit like some Irish do. (See previous post for this to make sense.)

Despite how he looks, he really enjoyed this.  When he offered him a treat his bow fell off and he picked it up to bring it with him.

He's a British Lab by the way.

A Shaker Of An Ending

So today, having teenaged girls, we watched a Robert Pattinson movie, "Remember Me" on the movie channel.  At the end of the movie (I'm gonna tell you the ending so close your eyes when you read this if you don't want to know;-) they show his character standing in an office in one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center just before it gets hit on 911.  Right then I was so engrossed in the movie I felt the rumbling and commented that that was the best ending ever!  I actually felt tragedy physically.

Wrong.  The dog also felt it as well and turns out there was an earthquake in Quebec right at the very time the plane was to hit the towers.  It resonated through from Montreal (the epicentre) to Ottawa.

Now that all being said, I realize the insignificance of the quake here  compared to what's going on now in Japan.  I can't even imagine living through what the survivors are dealing with right now.  Makes the little shakers, which are far less than even the aftershocks which Japan is having,  that much less threatening when they happen. 
Anyhow, timing is everything and maybe that movie wouldn't have seemed as good without the added special effects provided by nature.

Drama Queen

This morning I drove Mr. P to work as is the usual routine.  Well actually, he drove.  When I drive he turns into a drama queen and life is just more simple when I turn the wheel over to him.  Upon arriving at his place of business, the routine is that he says goodbye and gives me a kiss once I've scootched over to the drivers side and get set up behind the wheel.

This morning however, after kissing me goodbye, he looks up horrified in the realization that he has just kissed me on the lips.  I have a cold. 

Mr. P. did not handle this realization well.  He backed away from the car, wipes his mouth multiple times as he staggers down the street glancing back with that horrified look still etched on his face and then finally turns and spits on the street.  Twice.

Okay, I didn't slip him the tongue or anything.  What's with the spitting? 

You know what I think Mr. P......maybe tonight, just because I care and don't want you to get sick, you should sleep in the tool shed.  That way we can make sure you don't catch anything.

New painting started.  March Break is next week so no class;-(

This is the afternoon model.  I don't know if this fellow is new at modelling, but he couldn't stay still.  He twisted and jiggled and moved so much the other artists kept asking him to fix his pose.  They'd just get him settled back to where he was and he'd do a big shift again.  Oh well.....there is a drawing session next week. 

These were the morning models.  I actually forgot my sketch books;-(  All I had on me is a very small sketch book (6"x6") that I carry in my knapsack and use for my daily clandestine coffee shop sketches.  The smaller the book the less uncomfortable the customers your staring at seem to be.  The other paper I had was large newsprint that's great for large one minute scribbles but not much else.  I think it turned out to be a good thing though as I worked on details for a change.

This sketch is of the afternoon model.  I just wasn't enjoying his poses and props.  He had a very large bow time and arm thingys and fur coats, etc....  So instead of him I drew......

 ..... the other artists.  The one on the left is a pretty exact representation of the fellow. 

Scorpiosis

I awoke yesterday morning aware of the knowledge that Mr. P. had contracted a very contagious case of "Scorpiosis."  Mr. P awoke to a very angry wife and a nasty punch in the shoulder.

Now don't go and google scorpiosis because you won't find it.  It's a rare disease spread by cats that have been deceased for at least seven years or by walking on British carpets in England.  Or at least that's what Mr. P would have me believe:-)  It presents itself as a nasty pinkish rash all over the torso.  There is no cure. 

Now when I explained to Mr. P. why I had assaulted him in his sleep, he just rolled his eyes and put it out of his head.  He knows that there is nothing he can do to deplete my anger and that it just has to run it's course through the day until it sinks in that it was only a dream and that scorpiosis is nothing more than a figment of my over active night time imagination. 

Well, it's now the next day and my anger has faded.  We can laugh about it now.  Unfortunately though, I haven't had time to work through my feelings towards my second childs vampire teacher that keeps sucking the graphite sticks out of her mechanical pencils.  And I'm still annoyed that Scott Baio popped over for a visit last night.  I wasn't fond of him when he was famous and am even less so now.

Usually when I post something new I'm working on I start posting the progress with the completed line drawing.  Well, here's what it looks like a step before that.  A very rough scribbly draft of the picture, helping me to determine the composition of the work.  I already see some potential problems and can work on fixing them before figuring out which lines I will actually use in the line drawing.  Believe it or not, the toughest part of this one was doing the math.  The sketch is 1.5 times the size of the 8x10" photo which means everything I draw has to be 1.5 times the size of my reference.  It made my brain hurt.

Adjusting her turbin, complete.  Sorta, kinda, I may still pick at it.  I'm definately not loving painting but I figure it's something I've gotta know so.....  I think what bugs me is the unfinished look of the work.  As it's an "expressive figure" work this is one of the way to make it more expressive.  I suppose I just find it hard to switch between Hyper-realism and a more expressive type of work.