Drawing Class III

I am thinking that I need an editor - I caught the beginning, 'So...' on this one but man, it was hard to do without...

I went back to the Frick and bought the book, "The Spanish Manner - Drawings from Ribera to Goya" because it is FILLED with all the drawings in the exhibition and they are fabulous. I'm going to just empty off this little desk of mine that looks out my large, one and only window to the building across the street (with the constant street traffic noise below) and copy them, one by one. It'll reinforce what I am learning in my drawing class, it will be excellent practice and it will keep me occupied instead of wandering the streets of this tempting shop-laden town.

I will include some drawings from last weeks' class because I went through my sketches before class last night and took photos. They are all very loose and flowy and last night, the teacher said he is trying to get us to look at our surroundings tactily instead of literally because it is the emotion of a drawing that draws people in - not the outline of it. (Great examples in this Spanish drawers book.) I am struggling but slowly catching on to the idea that no 2 points are ever on the same plane and if they look like they are - move them. Is it coming toward you or away from you? This variety of points in space will create a tension that pushes and pulls and creates the movement and the emotion instead of it being stagnant and flat.

I think I am doing it on my sketches but the teacher comes and says, 'no'. Finally, he said, 'you are getting it'. I about jumped in the air. Wait, I think I did - at least pumped my fist and cried, "YES!". I love this man. He is so calm and quiet and learned and you KNOW we are just scratching the surface of what this man understands so completely. He is trying to get us to see differently - to see things in space, in volume, on planes or plains, and recognize the tension created from the lines pushing in and pulling out of the model. We had to go back to drawing the figure, making sure we had the points on different planes before we could go on to the lines around the figure. We are all slow. I may never get it but I am getting closer.


Yesterday, in all my running around, I stopped for a salad. They are really yummy around here and everyone does it the same way. You choose your bowl of greens (my favorite is spinach) which they dump into a big stainless steel bowl. Then you tell them what to throw in it - tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, peas, mozzarella cheese - then they toss it all with your choice of dressing (basalmic and oil) and stick it back in the greens container they started out with. About $7.50 later - your favorite salad! Add a toasted cinnamon raisson (ah, come on - how do you spell raison?) bagel with walnut raison cream cheese and a large cup of freshly squeezed orange juice (for another $7.50) and you've got the perfect meal! Yum!